Job Description

Associate Director, EIT Testing COE Lead

The Opportunity

• Based in Hyderabad, join a global healthcare biopharma company and be part of a 130- year legacy of success backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare.

• Be part of an organization driven by digital technology and data-backed approaches that support a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines, and animal health products.

• Drive innovation and execution excellence. Be a part of a team with passion for using data, analytics, and insights to drive decision-making, and which creates custom software, allowing us to tackle some of the world's greatest health threats.

Our Technology centers focus on creating a space where teams can come together to deliver business solutions that save and improve lives. An integral part of the company IT operating model, Tech centers are globally distributed locations where each IT division has employees to enable our digital transformation journey and drive business outcomes. These locations, in addition to the other sites, are essential to supporting our business and strategy.

A focused group of leaders in each tech center helps to ensure we can manage and improve each location, from investing in growth, success, and well-being of our people, to making sure colleagues from each IT division feel a sense of belonging to managing critical emergencies. And together, we must leverage the strength of our team to collaborate globally to optimize connections and share best practices across the Tech Centers. 

Role Overview:

The Testing CoE Lead will be responsible for establishing and managing a Centre of Excellence focused on testing methodologies, processes, and quality assurance for our pharmaceutical products, driving standardization and best practices. This role requires a strategic thinker with extensive experience in testing and quality assurance, particularly within the pharmaceutical sector. The incumbent will collaborate with various departments to ensure that all testing activities comply with industry standards and regulatory requirements, while driving best practices across the organization.

What will you do in this role:

• Lead the development and execution of a strategic vision for the Enterprise IT Testing Center of Excellence (CoE), ensuring alignment with organization objectives to standardize and optimize testing practices, and drive continuous improvement.

• Establish standardized testing methodologies, tools, and best practices suitable for SAP products and enterprise technologies, ensuring consistency and efficiency across teams.

• Leading and mentoring cross-functional testing teams, promoting collaboration among functional, technical, and business stakeholders, whilst creating a positive environment and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and innovation.

• Establish and promote best practices in testing framework across the organization, including selected methodologies, tools, and technologies.

• Ensure the development and maintenance of testing standards and procedures.

• Collaborate cross-functionally across Enterprise IT and other divisional Value Teams in the company, including Manufacturing, Research, Commercial Markets, to identify testing needs and implement effective solutions, fit for use and purpose.

• Identify and assess testing risks related to various implementations and upgrades and developing mitigation plans.

• Communicate effectively with stakeholders at all levels to provide updates on testing strategy, progress, challenges, and outcomes.

• Ensure all testing activities meet system development lifecycle (SDLC) requirements in the pharmaceutical industry.

• Manage audits and inspections related to testing processes, addressing any findings promptly.

• Develop and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of testing processes.

• Prepare reports and presentations for senior management on testing outcomes and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Stay abreast of emerging testing technologies and methodologies, evaluating their applicability to the organization.

• Drive the adoption of automation and digital tools to enhance testing efficiency and accuracy.

• Develop training programs for testing staff to ensure they are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge.

• Promote a culture of learning and professional development within the Testing CoE, whilst fostering collaboration, encouraging trust, and promoting a sense of unity among team members.

 What Should you have:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Life Sciences, Pharmacy, Chemistry, or a related field.

• Master’s degree preferred.

• 11+ years of experience in testing and quality assurance within the pharmaceutical or biotechnology industry.

• Extensive experience in software testing, strong leadership and project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities, and relevant certifications that validate their expertise in testing methodologies.

• Proven experience in establishing and leading a Testing Centre of Excellence.

• Proven people management experience, leading high performing teams and being a strong leader of leaders.

• Strong knowledge of SDLC in the pharmaceutical industry required.

• SAP Knowledge desired: In-depth understanding of SAP functionalities, modules, and integrations, as well as specific products like Concur, Ariba, Fieldglass, and MDG.

• Excellent communication, and interpersonal skills.

• Ability to analyze complex data and make informed decisions.

• Experience with testing tools and related applications is required: Jira X-RAY, Jira, Confluence, Solman, HP ALM, TOSCA, LiveCompare, Load runner, ServiceNow.

• Experience in implementing service virtualization techniques to simulate service dependencies for efficient testing in complex environments, enhancing the reliability of development and testing processes.

• Experience in designing and executing always-on testing strategies, ensuring continuous integration and delivery practices are maintained, and enabling real-time feedback on application performance and quality.

• Certifications in quality assurance, application management, project management and testing are preferred, such as: ITSQB (such as Certified Tester or Advanced Test Manager), Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Agile Tester Certification (CAT), Certified Software Tester (CSTE) or Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT), PMP, or other relevant certifications.

Our technology teams operate as business partners, proposing ideas and innovative solutions that enable new organizational capabilities. We collaborate internationally to deliver services and solutions that help everyone be more productive and enable innovation. 

Who we are: 

 We are known as Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, New Jersey, USA in the United States and Canada and MSD everywhere else. For more than a century, we have been inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases.

Today, our company continues to be at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions and advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and animals around the world.

 What we look for:

Imagine getting up in the morning for a job as important as helping to save and improve lives around the world. Here, you have that opportunity. You can put your empathy, creativity, digital mastery, or scientific genius to work in collaboration with a diverse group of colleagues who pursue and bring hope to countless people who are battling some of the most challenging diseases of our time. Our team is constantly evolving, so if you are among the intellectually curious, join us—and start making your impact today.

#HYDIT2025

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

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:

VISA Sponsorship:

Travel Requirements:

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

Required Skills:

Data Engineering, Data Visualization, Design Applications, Software Configurations, Software Development, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), Solution Architecture, System Designs, Systems Integration, Testing

Preferred Skills:

Job Posting End Date:

04/14/2025

*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.