Job Description

About Us

The Manufacturing Value Team is a strategic arm of the Digital Manufacturing Division, focused on delivering digital solutions that drive operational excellence, compliance, and innovation across global manufacturing sites. We combine deep business process knowledge with cutting-edge technology to support factory automation, data analytics, and system lifecycle management. Our mission is to enable smarter, faster, and more compliant manufacturing through digital transformation.

Position Summary

The Associate Director, Data Engineering, is part of the Launch Line Intelligence product line team. The incumbent provides technical leadership for manufacturing and process analytics data engineering capabilities. This role is accountable for delivering high-quality, reliable, and governed data products that enable Manufacturing Science & Technology and Commercialization customers to run Proactive Process Analytics (PPA), batch data investigations, and cross-site process robustness using a variety of in-house-built or COTS solutions.

The role operates at the enterprise level, partnering with Technical Product Managers, Tech Ops customers, and process data Subject Matter Experts, solution architects, data scientists, data analysts, and cross-divisional IT teams to translate data strategy into scalable, reusable, and compliant data engineering solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Understand the manufacturing process, process data generation, process data consumption, and analytics usage, and then lead the design, build, and operation of end-to-end data pipelines (ingest → transform → publish) using SQL, Python, and dbt, ensuring reliability, freshness, observability, and performance. Build a data strategy to ingest data from both structured and standardized data source systems (e.g., SAP, MES, LIMS) as well as from spreadsheets, paper documents, or other file-based systems. Build and own data integrity specifications, and incorporate controls into IT solutions to enforce data quality and integrity. Advice on data transformation, context of how data shall be stored, retrieved, and used.
Collaborate with internal site process SMEs across R&D, CMC, Internal and External manufacturing process SMEs, Digital Services data engineering and data lake teams, manufacturing application software development teams, Suppliers (e.g. Seeq)
Establish and enforce data engineering standards, reusable pipeline patterns, and data modeling conventions (star/snowflake) aligned with Manufacturing Process Intelligence solution governance.
Ensure compliance with SDLC, documentation, testing, deployment, and run book expectations, including GMP/GxP data usage considerations.
Define and monitor SLAs, data quality thresholds, and freshness metrics for prioritized data products.
Partner with Technical Product Managers and stakeholders to refine backlogs, prioritize investments, and balance speed, quality, and scalability.
Mentor, and develop data engineers, fostering strong engineering fundamentals, domain understanding, and consistent ways of working.
Champion data literacy through trainings, office hours, templates, and job aides to enable governed self-service analytics.

Required Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, Computer Science, or a related field. And a minimum 8-10 years of relevant experience in this field.
Strong expertise in SQL and data modeling with working knowledge of Python.
Experience designing and operating ETL/ELT pipelines, orchestration, and data quality monitoring. Understanding of data lakes, data marts, data ingestion patterns,
Hands on experience with relational schema design, data warehousing concepts, and performance optimization.
Knowledge of biopharmaceutical manufacturing processes, generated process data, discrete and time-series data, manufacturing systems (e.g. MES, LIMS, PI, SAP) that generate the data, and scientific TechOps processes that consume the data – e.g. deviation and batch discard investigations, continuous process verification, statistical process control charts, AI/ML workloads (e.g. random forests, PCA).

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with MANTIS Data lake (connections, catalog, governance) and DataLynx/MPI mapping standards; familiarity with dbt.
Experience with OSIsoft PI / PI AF and analytics tools such as JMP, Seeq, Dataiku, or Pipeline Pilot.
Background in manufacturing or process analytics, including cross-site or franchise-level analysis and GMP/GxP considerations.

Why Join Us?

This is a strategic role with long-term impact on our digital manufacturing platforms. You’ll be part of a high-performing team driving compliance, innovation, and operational excellence across global systems.

Required Skills:

Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Business Intelligence (BI), Computer Engineering, Database Administration, Data Engineering, Data Management, Data Modeling, Data Strategies, Data Visualization, Data Warehouse Development, Design Applications, Digital Manufacturing, Digital Transformation, Global Manufacturing, Information Management, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES), Manufacturing Processes, Operational Excellence, Process Manufacturing, Security Analytics, Software Development, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Solution Architecture, Statistical Process Control (SPC) Charts {+ 1 more}

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

EEOC Know Your Rights

EEOC GINA Supplement

We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

U.S. Hybrid Work Model

Effective September 5, 2023, employees in office-based positions in the U.S. will be working a Hybrid work consisting of three total days on-site per week, Monday - Thursday, although the specific days may vary by site or organization, with Friday designated as a remote-working day, unless business critical tasks require an on-site presence.This Hybrid work model does not apply to, and daily in-person attendance is required for, field-based positions; facility-based, manufacturing-based, or research-based positions where the work to be performed is located at a Company site; positions covered by a collective-bargaining agreement (unless the agreement provides for hybrid work); or any other position for which the Company has determined the job requirements cannot be reasonably met working remotely. Please note, this Hybrid work model guidance also does not apply to roles that have been designated as “remote”.

The salary range for this role is

$142,400.00 - $224,100.00

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.

You can apply for this role through https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.

San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully
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:

Domestic

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

03/26/2026

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.

Requisition ID:R386438

Assoc. Dir , Data Engineering

Benefits

Job Description