[Hiring] Director Regional Alliance Management @MSD

Role Description

We are looking for a senior regional leader accountable for defining, shaping, and maximising the value of the company’s alliance portfolio across Asia Pacific. The role sets the strategic direction for alliance management, ensuring current and future partnerships are designed, governed, and has end-to-end accountability for performance, compliance, and strategic value.

• Enable strategic alliances across Asia Pacific: drive partnership value, governance, and performance.
• Shape APAC partnerships that deliver measurable business impact.
• Guide complex partnerships to strategic, financial, and operational success.
• Own end-to-end alliance outcomes, lead with clarity and accountability, and drive long-term value.
• Translate strategy into measurable value and trusted execution.

What will you do:

• Alliance Strategy, Leadership and Performance:
  • Define and evolve the regional alliance management strategy.
  • Provide strategic direction for alliance management and future partnership models.
  • Lead regional alliance center of excellence and ensure governance follows Asia Pacific best practice guidance.
  • Proactive engagement with Alliance partners to ensure value from current alliances.
  • Establish and manage Joint Steering Committees, Working Teams, and governance forums.
  • Monitor alliance performance against KPIs, financial targets, and strategic objectives.
  • Identify performance gaps, interdependencies, and emerging risks.
• Value Maximization and Performance Ownership:
  • Own end-to-end accountability for alliance value delivery.
  • Partner with Finance to oversee alliance financials.
  • Monitor forecast assumptions, variances, and financial risks.
  • Support budgeting, long-range planning, and forecast reviews.
  • Ensure appropriate financial controls, audit readiness, and compliance.
• Contract Management and Compliance:
  • Act as the primary business leader for the interface with Legal, Finance, and Business Development.
  • Ensure alliance execution remains compliant with contract terms.
  • Support contract renewals, extensions, and amendments.
  • Maintain a clear understanding of rights, obligations, governance authorities, and decision thresholds.
• Cross Functional & Partner Leadership:
  • Operate comfortably at senior executive levels.
  • Build and sustain strong, trust-based relationships with alliance partners.
  • Serve as the regional center of excellence for alliance management.
  • Single point of contact for APLT, Global and Markets.
  • Uplift capability of market alliance management community.
  • Represent the region in global or international alliance forums.
• Risk Management, Issue Resolution and Continuous Improvement:
  • Proactively identify, assess, and manage operational, financial, and strategic risks.
  • Lead structured issue resolution processes.
  • Escalate material risks and issues through appropriate governance channels.
• Stakeholder Leadership:
  • Apply and continuously strengthen regional alliance management frameworks.
  • Capture lessons learned and best practices.
  • Contribute to the evolution of regional alliance governance standards.
• Ways of working:
  • Lead with clarity, focus, and simplicity.
  • Work as a collaborative “conductor.”
  • Influence without authority through credibility and expertise.
  • Communicate with senior leaders with clarity and impact.
  • Stay focused on Alliance Management outcomes.

Qualifications

• 10+ years’ experience in alliance management, commercial operations, business development, or related roles within biopharmaceutical industry.
• 5+ years managing complex partnerships or alliances involving multiple stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience working with contracts, governance models, and cross-company decision-making structures.
• Commercial leadership with P&L experience and executive communication capabilities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working across Asia Pacific markets.
• Understanding of pharmaceutical industry and the regulatory/risk environment.
• Understanding of patient access / financial assistance programs.

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 bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world’s most challenging diseases.

What We Look For:

Imagine starting each day knowing your work helps save and improve lives. Here, you can bring your empathy, creativity, digital mastery, and scientific curiosity to collaborate with diverse colleagues united by a common purpose.

Required Skills:

• Acquisitions Divestitures
• Alliance Management
• Biopharmaceutical Industry
• Drug Discovery Development
• Environmental Scanning
• Intercultural Management
• Interpersonal Relationships
• Market Research
• Organizational Analysis
• Performance Metrics
• Resource Allocation
• Risk Management
• Strategic Alliances
• Strategic Licensing
• Strategic Thinking