Job Description

Associate Director – Global Market Access – Sustainable Access Solutions

Private Market Access - Patient Navigation and Self-pay financing solutions

1. About the role

We are committed to ensuring that no patient is left behind. As Universal Health Coverage faces increasing pressures—such as MFN implications and growing reimbursement delays—the importance of innovative private market financing solutions is accelerating.

This role will be responsible for designing and implementing a patient financing navigator for prioritized assets in prioritized markets. This navigator will complement the traditional medical pathway and enable patients to understand, access, and utilize the financing solutions required to obtain their treatment in full. In addition, the role will lead the development of complementary self‑pay solutions that further support patient access and remove financial barriers to treatment.

2. Roles and Responsibilities

We are seeking an experienced, high‑talent professional to lead the development of the patient financing navigator and its external components, leveraging existing processes in place. This role plays a pivotal part in shaping how patients access and combine financing solutions in private markets.

Collaborating closely with the Associate Director for Execution Excellence, this role will analyze how private‑sector stakeholders within the patient journey can contribute to financing solutions, identify the most impactful partnerships, and determine how financing mechanisms can be optimally blended to support full treatment access. The role’s primary responsibilities include:

Build / Enhance Patient Financial Navigation

• Design or evolve a patient financing navigator to clearly guide patients through the optimal combination of financing options needed to access treatment in full.
• Ensure navigators are tailored at global, regional, and local levels for prioritized assets.

Drive external partnerships and develop financing schemes

• Act as a trailblazer in forming partnerships with third‑party organizations such as pharmacy chains/private clinics/direct-to-consumer platforms to design, implement, and scale mutually beneficial private market financing solutions.
• Identify, evaluate, and develop collaborations with private payers, fintechs, distributors, or other stakeholders within the private health‑care ecosystem.

  

3. Position qualifications
 

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Master’s degree preferred.

Skills

• Results-driven, proactive leader with a track record of delivery in matrixed organizations.
• Trusted advisor to senior business leaders; strong executive presence.
• Exceptional relationship-building and collaboration skills; able to establish trust and drive initiatives from concept to implementation.
• Clear, persuasive communicator with influence at all levels.
• Entrepreneurial mindset with resilience; capable of championing ideas internally and externally.

Experience

• 6+ years in the pharmaceutical industry, required.
• Minimum 2 years in market-facing roles and 2 years in above-market/global/regional roles, required.
• Commercial experience, required.

Required Skills:

Adaptability, Communication, Creativity, Data Analysis, Data Management, Developing Pricing Strategies, Digital Marketing Analytics, Healthcare Policies, Health Economics Research, Interpersonal Relationships, Leadership, Management Process, Market Access, Market Research, Outcomes Research, Pharmaceutical Market, Strategic Planning, Strategic Thinking

Preferred Skills:

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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:

No relocation

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:

04/17/2026

*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.