Associate Director – Packaging Commercialization Job – Merck – West Point, PA, USA
Packaging Commercialization (PC) within Global Pharmaceutical Commercialization (GPC) has a position available for the development of packaging solutions for sterile/liquid products to improve human health. The candidate will have responsibility for designing and choosing components that maintain the product integrity over the desired shelf-life while meeting customers’ use requirements. The candidate will oversee the proper design and selection of primary, secondary, and tertiary packaging components and systems. The candidate will fulfill these responsibilities through the design and execution of collaborative studies at the cross-functional Working Group level with formulation and analytical scientists, process development engineers, and packaging site operations engineers, while reporting into Integrated Development and Supply Teams (IDSTs). The candidate will work closely with marketing functions and the Lines of Business in the development of packaging for Vaccines, Biologics, and Small Drug Molecules. The candidate will have responsibility for packaging development for new products from Phase I clinical trials through technology transfer for commercial launch, including the preparation of relevant filing sections and responses to support approval of submissions to regulatory agencies for marketing approval. The candidate will be able to take ownership of some packaging business processes, support continuous improvement in packaging, and contribute to community knowledge by keeping current with regulatory requirements and industry trends pertaining to packaging.
The ideal candidate for this position possesses all the following:
- Knowledge and understanding of parenteral dosage forms and delivery methods, including injection devices for self-administration, secondary packaging requirements, and cold chain distribution practices.
- An enthusiasm for collaboration with a diverse set of business partners within research, development, and supply, at a variety of locations within and external to Merck, with a demonstrated ability of being proactive for his/her projects as well as taking ownership for the department’s activities and being a champion and practitioner of inclusive behaviors and culture.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills as well as extensive experience in leading and facilitating diverse teams, both face-to-face and in a virtual setting.
- Strong interpersonal and skills to lead discussions with partners from other functional areas when conducting risk assessments, designing experimental test plans, and seeking to utilize materials and resources outside the control of PC.
- Strong time and project management skills to allow for the ability to successfully track multiple project assignments at a variety of different stages of development.
Qualifications
Education:
- The successful candidate will have a completed a B.S. in Packaging Engineering, Packaging Science, Chemical Engineering, or Pharmaceutical Science with six or more years of relevant experience or an M.S. in one of the same fields with three or more years of relevant experience
Required Experience:
- The position requires technical knowledge of packaging design, potential product/package interactions, formulation degradation routes, basic understanding of the use of Design of Experiments (DOE).
- Must possess strong interpersonal skills and a sharp customer focus to integrate group activities with partners, including Early Development, Supply, and potential external collaborators.
- Must also exhibit competency in all Merck leadership behaviors.
Preferred Experience:
- Overall packaging equipment project experience, working understanding of capital management, knowledge of form/filling equipment platforms.
- Relationships with industry OEM packaging equipment suppliers.
- Base knowledge of design for six sigma and other six sigma tools.
