Job Description
The Senior Specialist, Digital Process & Data Analysis (DPDA) serves as a strategic partner in advancing data-driven decision-making and digital capability adoption across the organization. Working closely with stakeholders, this role leads requirements gathering, alignment, and implementation of reporting solutions that integrate purpose-built applications, user-generated analytics, and NLP-based bots. In addition to ensuring compliance and business value, the Senior Specialist drives user engagement, training, communications, and data literacy initiatives, helping teams successfully adopt and maximize the impact of digital tools and insights.
Responsibilities:
Solution delivery and product / data support:
- Support the delivery, including requirements gathering and documentation, data readiness, development, & testing, of high-value technical solutions that meet business needs and achieve broad organizational adoption.
- Investigate trends and outliers to identify drivers; form and test hypotheses appropriate to business questions.
- Support the development, implementation, and maintenance related to stakeholder engagement, training (including tool use, technical/ data literacy), and support.
- Support the collection of internal data for use in external benchmarking surveys.
- Maintain a deep understanding of systems, processes, and data flows relevant to reporting (clinical/operational).
- Engage with business stakeholders to understand and document their needs and help translate them into clear requirements and technical deliverables
Process, compliance, & capability building:
- Maintain clear data dictionaries, metric definitions, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), and change logs; ensure consistency across related domains.
- Engage in learning new technologies and reporting methods.
Technical skills:
- Business intelligence (BI) reporting and visualization: Advanced proficiency in one or more platforms (e.g., Qlik Sense, Power BI, ThoughtSpot, Tableau), with ability to design audience-appropriate dashboards and reports
- Data literacy: Understanding data literacy best practices, including defining storytelling guidelines, executive readout formats, and review cadences.
- Ability to apply governed sharing practices and basic security concepts (e.g., awareness of row‑level security) within established standards
- Data preparation and quality
- Ability to perform light‑to‑moderate wrangling across BI tools/spreadsheets
- Proficient in defining and applying readiness/quality checks
- Expert level spreadsheet and tabular proficiency through use of pivots, lookups, conditional logic, data validation, and error checks to reconcile data and support Quality Assurance (QA)
- Documentation and metadata management: proficient in versioning, naming, and access control standards; understanding of best practices related to team governance norms
- Tool administration: Conceptual-level understanding of workspace organization, permission models, data connections, and refresh schedules
- Working knowledge of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
- Solid knowledge of Good Clinical Practice (GCP) and ability to apply GCP to operational decision-making
- Working knowledge of database concepts, data quality, and governance
- Ability to connect business outcomes to technical deliverables
- Foundation in statistics and deep experience in data visualization best practices applied to operational analytics
Soft skills:
- Ability to communicate effectively with technical and business partners with consistent ability to tell a clear, compelling story using data to inform decisions and translate technical concepts into plain language
- Ability to elicit and document business needs and translate them into requirements, user stories, or solution concepts
- Ability to work independently with minimal guidance, take initiative to anticipate needs, proactively identify risks, propose options with tradeoffs and recommendations, escalate appropriately and early when needed, surface opportunities, and drive outcomes, seeking input at appropriate checkpoints
- Strong teaming skills, with ability to collaborate smoothly across functions, facilitate effective working sessions, build alignment and follow through on action items to closure
- Strong project and time management skills, with ability to manage multiple tasks, prioritize workload based on urgency, impact, and critical path dependencies, and deliver on time
- Ability to seek feedback, iterate quickly to improve deliverables, and integrate lessons learned to raise quality
- Ability to build trust through reliability, transparency, and concise updates; maintain high standards of quality and accuracy
Enterprise Leadership Skills:
- Decision Making | Identify and understand problems and opportunities by gathering, analyzing, and interpreting quantitative and qualitative information; solve complex problems and apply knowledge of business challenges; able to weigh multiple options and implications
- Motivation & Inspiration | Communicate effectively, promote teamwork and open discussion, effectively communicate and engage / motivate teammates; inspire others toward higher levels of performance aligned with organization's Purpose and Strategic Framework
- Coaching & Development | Build self-insight, demonstrate awareness of own strengths and development needs as well as impact of own behavior on others; modify behavior based on self-awareness to improve impact, serve as a resource for colleagues; coach and guide others
Qualifications & experience:
- Non-Degree AND 8+ years of experience working in relevant field for associated job description (see below) -OR-
- Associate's degree in computer science, Statistics, Pharmacy, Nursing, Biological Sciences, or a health care–related discipline AND 7+ years of experience working in relevant field for associated job description (see below) -OR-
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, Statistics, Pharmacy, Nursing, Biological Sciences, or a health care-related discipline AND 5+ years of experience working in relevant field for associated job description (see below) -OR-
- Advanced Degree (Masters or Doctorate) in Computer Science, Statistics, Pharmacy, Nursing, Biological Sciences, or a health care–related discipline AND 2+ years of experience working in relevant field for associated job description (see below)
Example relevant experience:
- Substantial, hands-on experience in one or more clinical operations domains (e.g., study start-up, site management, monitoring, data management, quality/compliance) preferred; strong candidates from healthcare/analytics/operations or training/enablement backgrounds will be considered
- Experience designing and delivering training, enablement materials, or workshops; able to upskill stakeholders on processes, tools, and data use
- Demonstrated cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management; facilitates small working sessions and drives follow-through
- Experience in applying clinical operations knowledge and/or technical analytics expertise to identify business needs and support the delivery of data, reporting, or digital solutions
clinicaltrialjobs
Required Skills:
Agile Methodology, Back-End Development, Clinical Operations, Dashboard Development, Data Analysis, Good Clinical Practice (GCP), Microsoft Excel, New Technology Evaluation, Quality Management, Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
Preferred Skills:
Data Management, Data Quality
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:
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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.
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The primary location for this posting is:
USA - New Jersey - Rahway
Where required by law, the compensation range for this role is provided below.
The salary range for the primary location of this role is:
$117,000.00 - $184,200.00
This range reflects the Company's reasonable expectation of the base salary applicable to this role at the time of 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.
Additional location(s): Please note the salary range above applies to the Primary Location of the position. Where a role has other listed locations, different compensation guidelines may apply. You may find the salary ranges for additional locations below. If the salary range is not listed for the location you are applying to, our Talent Acquisition team will provide further information to you relevant to your location.
Additional location(s) Compensation Information:
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:
No relocation
VISA Sponsorship:
No
Travel Requirements:
10%
Flexible Work Arrangements:
Not Applicable
Shift:
1st - Day
Valid Driving License:
No
Hazardous Material(s):
N/A
Job Posting End Date:
11/5/2026
*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.
