Job Description

Strategic Hospital Partnership Lead (SHP Lead) is primarily responsible for partnering with customers to develop business solutions that will drive profitable growth for our company through “best in class” customer satisfaction by leveraging our entire portfolio of products, services, and solutions.

The SHP Lead will partner with Account Management Team, working in close collaboration with the 3 internal Business Units, Medical, GCTO, and other CFT to take a holistic, long-term view of partnerships as ONE approach to develop strategic partnership plans for key strategic accounts, building sustainable engagements and integrating customer insights. They lead value creation through the accomplishment of established key customer/our company strategic objectives and addressing previously unmet and/or evolving patient/customer needs.

The SHP Lead and partners with interdisciplinary teams to implement and maximize the strategic agreement with the account, ensuring one our company voice to the customers that will meet the healthcare/patient’s needs and enable the ongoing availability of company's medicines with the most effective partnership investments.

PRIMARY ACTIVITIES:

Market, Customer Understanding, Analysis and Segmentation

• Identifying emerging or accelerating market trends and relevant insights to drive growth opportunities with key customers.
• Understanding the mission and vision of the customer; its key interests, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges; and creating value propositions accordingly.
• Developing an in-depth understanding of the key account’s unmet and evolving needs and integrating the full our company portfolio.
• Completing a competitor analysis for the customer.
• Gathering detailed information about individual key accounts as the basis for account profile development. The profile can be developed utilizing internal sources (e.g., internal cross-functional customer-facing team members, CRM system and external databases) and through discussions with key accounts.
• Understanding the decision-making, logistical, tendering, and contracting processes within the account.
• Identifying key account stakeholders and understanding their perspectives on our company, our competitors, and the healthcare environment as well as their needs related to improving patient outcomes to create a competitive advantage.
• Take a medium to long term vision from market, accounts insights with company identifying different milestones to prioritize the right strategic accounts through targeting and segmentation for long road map of our partnership.

Strategic Hospital Partnership Plan Development

• Capturing short and long-term business opportunities based on in-depth market and customer understanding.
• Defining, presenting, and validating account partnership objectives and KPIs with relevant business stakeholders.
• Defining collaborative opportunities to address unmet and/or evolving business needs.
• Defining a tailored our company value proposition linked to customer needs using a cross-franchise approach.
• Developing long-term customer-centric strategies that will appropriately grow revenue, market share, and portfolio penetration while also building our reputation through professional engagement and partnerships with key decision-makers.
• Developing a strategic partnership plan that contains a thorough understanding of the customer(s)’ goals and needs as well as considers competitive and business challenges.
• Determining how to develop and appropriately implement comprehensive strategic offerings by leveraging cross-functional internal resources.
• Developing and implementing effective, purposeful, and concise communications linked to our company value proposition for the key account based on shared interests to drive customers’ engagement integrating value-based offers for the whole our company portfolio.

Partnership Plan Implementation and Tracking

• Developing and maintaining long-term engagements with prioritized customers/stakeholders within the key accounts that are responsible for the “business” side of the account (e.g., Hospital Board Directors, Head of Planning Department, Head of Pharmacy, senior procurement managers, business development managers, state and private tender managers, and hospital "C-Suite" customers (CEO, CFO, and COOs)).
• Partner with Account Management Team, collaborate with 3 BUs, Medical, GCTO and CFT teams to execute the partnership plan including advocate/educate account stakeholders to enhance the quality acknowledgment of company’s products and diseases.
• Coordinating the efforts of all other functions/divisions and resources across our company towards the account.
• Monitoring metrics and KPIs according to the tracking plan to make sure the development collaboration and partnership between company and the Accounts and reshaping hospital partnership strategy and operational activities based on learnings.
• Be aware of and complies with all Corporate Policies and Procedures, while conducting all job-related activities with integrity and adherence to high standards of business conduct.
• Deliver access goals including AMs objective but not limited to key account performance, facilitate business goals/patients access successfully.

Integrated Taskforce Team Management

• Gaining local leadership team sponsorship to ensure disproportionate local focus and investment for the key accounts.
• Determining account team membership, roles, and responsibilities based on customer(s)’ needs, objectives, and plans as well as based on our company business objectives.
• Setting a vision and strategy for the team and committing the team to compelling objectives.
• Holding regular account partnership planning and review meetings which act as a forum for information sharing, providing status updates, and initiating course corrections related to the key account.
• Ensuring excellence in execution related to the entire team.

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE & COMPETENCIES

Desired Experience/Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Pharmaceutical or Medical area, additional bachelor’s degree in Commercial is preferred
• Knowledge of the evolving healthcare environment, health policy
• Minimum 3-5 years of experience in high level of marketing such as Marketing Manager, Franchise Lead…
• Commercial, field force management experience is preferred
• Experiences to build valuable customer relationships.
• Experiences to influence and leverage cross-functional partnerships

Professional Competencies Required:

• Business & Financial Acumen: Understands and intelligently applies economic, financial, and industry data to make business decisions that drive value for company and our partners.
• Working Across Boundaries: Thinks and acts beyond one’s silo – bridges boundaries across teams, functions, divisions, geographies, external stakeholders and customers.
• Strategic Thinking: Visualizes the way forward, identifying opportunities that add value to the work, to the business and to our partners.
• Project Management: Organizes work efforts by prioritizing tasks, using resources optimally, establishing appropriate deadlines and ensuring on-time delivery
• Productive Communication: Plans and deliver ideas and information to others in an impactful manner.
• Problem Solving: Gathers and analyzes data, insights from market, customers, competition and effectively responds to new, complex or problematic situations; creates solutions that drive value for company and our partners, incorporating innovative approaches where relevant.
• Negotiation: The capability to effectively negotiate and manage agreements with company’s partners, grounded in deep, sustained insights and focused on value creation.

Functional Competencies Required:

• Data analytic: This technical capability is about applying Data Analysis to make smarter decisions that lead to higher productivity and more efficient operations. It provides opportunities & significant competitive advantages.
• Understanding mega trends, market dynamics and customer insights: Demonstrates expertise in ecosystem dynamics, anticipates future trends, predictive business questions raising makes connections within portfolio. The ability to understand customer needs, behaviors, and objectives; the ability to analyze competitors and provide direction to achieve overall business objectives.
• Company's portfolio understanding Exhibits understanding of the franchise’s objectives and the need for portfolios management to deliver tasks against Company, BU priorities.
• Customer segmentation: Demonstrates ability to segment accounts into homogenous groups and develop mutually sustainable strategies and implement to various prioritized segments
• Account management: The ability to strategically plan and effectively execute collaborative initiatives by deeply understanding hospital and patient needs, while ensuring alignment with the company and product strategy.
• Strategic planning: Demonstrates in depth knowledge of strategic planning process and how to conduct environmental scans, organizational positioning analyses and other studies to identify opportunities that are in line with evolving needs of company’s customers and long-range goals with the most effective partnership investments.
• Execution excellence management: Demonstrate expertise to coordinate with cross functional teams to implementation, regularly monitor progress against plan and define KPIs, conduct business review meetings across the portfolio/task force groups, provide feedback and next steps. Implement quality assurance processes and compliance measures to uphold high standards.
• Expense management ensuring resource allocation supports strategic priorities, implement monitoring expenses, ensuring adherence to the allocated budget. Proactively identify and implement opportunities for cost savings and efficiency improvements.
• Communication management: Demonstrates ability to translate commercial strategy into consistent and compelling internal communications, customer communications, especially how to effectively build relationships and communicate with both internal and external senior management.
• Customer engagement: The ability to establish, develop and maintain long-term, sustainable partnerships with individual customers, relevant stakeholders, and key influencers.
• People management: Demonstrate ability to hire quality people, provides coaching and motivation, recognition in daily work, and support, guidance staff in career development.

Required Skills:

Account Management, Account Management, Adaptability, Brand Management, Business Management, Collaborative Communications, Commercial Account Management, Content Creation, Creativity, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Cross-Functional Leadership, Customer Insights, Digital Consumer Engagement, Digital Marketing, Healthcare Service, Holistic Medicine, Marketing, Market Research, Market Segmentation, Omnichannel Marketing, Partnership Development, Partnership Strategy, Patient Care, Product Launches, Product Management {+ 2 more}

Preferred Skills:

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Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company. No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails.

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

VISA Sponsorship:

Travel Requirements:

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Not Applicable

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

Job Posting End Date:

05/31/2026

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