Job Description

Associate Director, Animal Health IT – Data Enablement Lead

Our company Animal Health IT delivers competitive advantage by aligning IT priorities with business modernization and productivity initiatives offering the greatest potential value. We employ diverse, talented teams of motivated, collaborative tech professionals in the rapid, high-quality delivery of transformative results. Join us to be part of an industry-recognized destination for the most capable technology professionals motivated by a culture in which diversity and inclusion are celebrated.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the Data Enablement strategy for assigned data domains, aligned with Value Teams, Animal Health Data Platform, and One Data Program objectives.
• Establish and enforce data enablement standards, guardrails, and design principles covering data quality, metadata, lineage, access, privacy, and AI readiness.
• Act as the AIDE liaison to Value Teams, co-designing domain data products while maintaining clear separation between enablement and ownership.
• Enable self-service data capabilities with guardrails, in collaboration with platforms, engineering, and security teams.
• Own and evolve data enablement roadmaps, prioritizing capabilities based on domain needs, adoption, and business value.
• Ensure data products are discoverable, trusted, reusable, and fit for advanced analytics and GenAI use cases.
• Partner with analytics, AI, and data science teams to ensure data enablement supports current and future AI needs.
• Define and track product-style metrics (adoption, data quality, time-to-delivery, consumer satisfaction).
• Support domain governance councils, escalation paths, and cross-domain alignment.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related discipline.
• 7+ years of experience in data enablement, data governance, data management, analytics, or related data domains.
• Proven experience working in domain-centric or product-oriented data models.
• Strong background in data governance, data quality, metadata management, lineage, access control, and compliance.
• 2-3 years of proficiency in using Collibra Data Catalog for data governance activities.
• Expertise in metadata management and implementing metadata cataloging processes.
• Proven experience in supporting the design and implementation of data governance frameworks, policies, and procedures.
• Experience partnering with business/value teams without owning data assets.
• Demonstrated ability to define and operate data products or enablement capabilities using product management principles.
• Exposure to advanced analytics, AI, or GenAI use cases, with understanding of what makes data AI-ready.
• Experience working in complex, global, matrixed organizations.

Preferred

• Experience working with Commercial and Sales data domains, such as Customer & Customer Master Data, Sales performance, territory management, incentives, and market intelligence.
• Familiarity with commercial business processes (e.g., CRM, customer engagement, sales operations) and how data enables decision-making in these areas.
• Experience with Data Quality and EDAC solutions like Collibra Data Quality and Immuta.
• Experience partnering with Commercial or Sales Value Teams to enable data products while maintaining clear separation between data ownership and enablement.
• Strong product mindset: roadmapping, prioritization, consumer focus, outcome measurement.
• Agile delivery experience (Product Owner, Scrum, or equivalent).
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable guidance.
• Proven self-starter with high standards of excellence and continuous improvement mindset.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage at all organizational levels.
• Ability to navigate cross-domain and cross-functional dependencies.
• Team-oriented leader who values collaboration, inclusion, and collective success.

What we offer

• Exciting work in a great team, global projects, international environment
• Opportunity to learn and grow professionally within the company globally
• Hybrid working model, flexible role pattern
• Competitive salary & incentive pay
• Pension and health insurance contributions
• Internal reward system and referral scheme
• 5 weeks annual leave, 5 sick days, 15 days of certified sick leave paid above statutory requirements annually, 40 paid hours annually for volunteering activities, 12 weeks of parental contribution
• Cafeteria for tax-free benefits according to your choice (meal vouchers, sport, culture, health, travel, etc.), Multisport Card
• Vodafone, Raiffeisen Bank, Foodora, and discount programmes
• Up-to-date laptop and iPhone
• Parking in the garage, showers, refreshments, massage chairs, library, music corner

Ready to take up the challenge? Apply now! Know anybody who might be interested? Refer this job!

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Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

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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. 

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