Head of Global Health & Health Equity in Darmstadt bei Merck KGaA

Work Your Magic with us!

Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you’ve got big plans – so do we! Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people’s lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.

United As One for Patients, our purpose in Healthcare is to help create, improve and prolong lives. We develop medicines, intelligent devices and innovative technologies in therapeutic areas such as Oncology, Neurology and Fertility. Our teams work together across 6 continents with passion and relentless curiosity in order to help patients at every stage of life. Joining our Healthcare team is becoming part of a diverse, inclusive and flexible working culture, presenting great opportunities for personal development and career advancement across the globe.

Your role: In this newly created role you will report to the Head of China & International and will be a member of the International Leadership Team. You will specifically oversee our efforts contributing to the elimination of Schistosomiasis, all activities related to Malaria and tropical diseases in general as well as enhancing access to our Healthcare Portfolio in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). You’ll be responsible for leading and driving our global health and health equity strategy in alignment with the Healthcare and Sustainability strategy.

This position requires a strong understanding of global health challenges, health disparities, and the social determinants of health. The Head of Global Health & Health Equity will develop and implement strategies, initiatives, and partnerships to advance our commitment to improving healthcare outcomes around the world.

Main responsibilities

• Develop & implement an effective Global Health & Health Equity strategy with programs that maximize the impact to address global challenges in line with our Healthcare and Sustainability strategy.
• Identify and prioritize key areas of intervention to improve access to healthcare, healthcare systems stregthening and health outcomes for patients in LMICs.
• Ensure strategic alignment with Global Franchise Strategy and enable implementation of LMIC Access Strategy to meet Healthcare Sustainability Strategy 2030 commitments.
• Catalyzing innovative health system strengthening approaches complementary to business priorities in LMICs.
• Build our reputation and thought leadership in Global Health through communication channels and comprehensive reporting mechanisms such as to the Access to Medicine Index, European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), and other relevant ESG ratings.
• Ensure strategic alignment with the Research and Development Unit Heads to develop a mid-to long-term innovation strategy for our R&D activities in the area of tropical diseases including external innovation and partnering activities.
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders, including R&D, Government Affairs, Communications, Investor Relations, and Commercial teams, to integrate global health and health equity considerations into business strategies and operations.
• Partner with key external stakeholders including international partners, governments, non-governmental organizations, and communities to shape a sustainable healthcare system supporting innovation and health equity.
• Steer individual streams & give expert guidance for the teams to generate synergies across the Global Health & Health Equity portfolio leveraging a broad variety of capabilities & knowledge areas.
• Lead the team of dedicated heads with training, mentoring, capability building & feedback to ensure motivation, productivity, & high performance.
• Manage budget and allocate resources appropriately with target-oriented impact in mind for prioritization.
Ensure ethical and compliance-driven decision-making standards throughout all related activities & governance.

Who you are

• Inspirational leader with the ability to align internal and external stakeholders under one common purpose.
• 10+ years of experience in pharmaceutical industry.
• Experience in LMICs including managing healthcare challenges and increasing patient access to medicine through health equity and health system strengthening initiatives preferred.
• Passion & understanding for Global Health, epidemiology & policy advocacy: Knowledge of major diseases, public health issues, healthcare systems, social determinants of health, and global health policies.
• Global Health expert/leader with deep understanding of pharma value chai