Associate Director, Data and Analytics Strategy & Architecture

Job Description

Associate Director, Data and Analytics Strategy & Architecture – Enterprise Data Enablement   

THE OPPORTUNITY 

• Based in Hyderabad, join a global healthcare biopharma company and be part of a 130-year legacy of success backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare.
• Lead an Organization driven by digital technology and data-backed approaches that supports a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines, and animal health products.
• Drive innovation and execution excellence. Be the leaders who have a passion for using data, analytics, and insights to drive decision-making, which will allow us to tackle some of the world's greatest health threats.

Our Technology centers focus on creating a space where teams can come together to deliver business solutions that save and improve lives. AN integral part of our company IT operating model, Tech centers are globally distributed locations where each IT division has employees to enable our digital transformation journey and drive business outcomes. These locations, in addition to the other sites, are essential to supporting our business and strategy.

A focused group of leaders in each tech center helps to ensure we can manage and improve each location, from investing in growth, success, and well-being of our people, to making sure colleagues from each IT division feel a sense of belonging to managing critical emergencies. And together, we must leverage the strength of our team to collaborate globally to optimize connections and share best practices across the Tech Centers. 

  Role Overview:

As a Lead Technical Data and Analytics Architect with a primary focus on Enterprise Data Enablement and Data Governance, you will play a pivotal leadership role in shaping the future of our company enterprise data enablement and governance initiatives. This position combines strategic technology leadership with hands-on technical expertise. You will be supporting our Discover product line, which encompasses the Enterprise Data Marketplace, Data Catalog, and Enterprise Data Access Control products. This role is pivotal in understanding the current architecture, adoption patterns, and product strategy while helping to design the architecture for the next generation of Discover. You will create and implement strategic frameworks, ensure their adoption within product teams, and oversee the consistent management of technologies.

You will work closely with the product team to establish and govern the future architecture, ensuring it evolves beyond traditional data products to include AI models, visualizations, insights assets, and more. You will play a key role in driving innovation, modularity, and scalability within the Discover ecosystem, aligning with the organization's strategic vision.

What will you do in the role:

Strategic Leadership

• Develop and maintain a cohesive Data Enablement architecture vision, aligning with our company's business objectives and industry trends.
• Provide leadership to a team of product owners and engineers in our Discover Product line, mentoring and guiding them to achieve collective goals and deliverables.
• Foster a collaborative environment where innovation and best practices thrive.

Integration and Innovation:

• Design and implement architectural solutions to enable seamless integration between Enterprise Data Marketplace, Data Catalog, and Enterprise Data Access Control products.
• Enhance API usage and drive the transition to a microservice-based architecture for greater modularity and scalability.
• Support the integration of Collibra and Immuta platforms with compute engines like Glue, Trino Starburst, and Databricks to optimize Discover’s capabilities.

Technical Leadership and Collaboration:

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including engineering, product management, and other stakeholders, to align on architecture strategy and implementation.
  Partner with the product team to define roadmaps and ensure architectural alignment with the organization's goals.
  Act as a trusted advisor, providing technical leadership and driving best practices for architectural governance.

Governance and Security:

• Ensure all architectural designs adhere to organizational policies, data governance requirements, and security standards.
• Evolve data governance practices to accommodate diverse assets, including AI models and visualizations, alongside traditional data products.

Optimization and Future-Readiness:

• Identify opportunities for system optimization, modernization, and cost-efficiency.
• Lead initiatives to future-proof the architecture, supporting scalability for increasing demands across data products and advanced analytics.

Framework Development and Governance

• Create capability and technology maps for Data Enablement and Governance, reference architectures, innovation trend maps, and architecture blueprints and patterns.
• Ensure the consistent application of frameworks across product teams.

Hands-on Contribution

• Actively participate in technical problem-solving, proof-of-concept development, and implementation activities.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership to support your team and deliver high-value outcomes.

Cross-functional Collaboration

• Partner with enterprise and product architects to ensure alignment and synergy across the organization.
• Engage with stakeholders to align architectural decisions with broader business goals.
• Collaborate with internal Strategy and Architecture team Architecture lead and Architects to ensure the smooth integration of Data Enablement Technologies with other Data and Analytics eco system products

  What Should you have: 

• Hands-on experience with platforms like Collibra, Immuta, and Databricks, and deep knowledge of data governance and access control frameworks.
• Strong understanding of architectural principles, API integration strategies, and microservice-based design
• Proficiency in designing modular, scalable architectures that align with data product and data mesh principles.
• Expertise in supporting diverse asset types, including AI models, visualizations, and insights assets, within enterprise ecosystems.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS preferred) and containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Proven ability to align technical solutions with business objectives and strategic goals.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to engage and influence technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Exceptional problem-solving and analytical skills, with a focus on practical, future-ready solutions.
  Self-driven and adaptable, capable of managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.

 Our technology teams operate as business partners, proposing ideas and innovative solutions that enable new organizational capabilities. We collaborate internationally to deliver services and solutions that help everyone be more productive and enable innovation

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 inventing for life, bringing forward medicines and vaccines for many of the world's most challenging diseases. Today, our company continues to be at the forefront of research to deliver innovative health solutions and advance the prevention and treatment of diseases that threaten people and animals around the world. 

What we look for: 

Imagine getting up in the morning for a job as important as helping to save and improve lives around the world. Here, you have that opportunity. You can put your empathy, creativity, digital mastery, or scientific genius to work in collaboration with a diverse group of colleagues who pursue and bring hope to countless people who are battling some of the most challenging diseases of our time. Our team is constantly evolving, so if you are intellectually curious, join us—and start making your impact today.

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

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. 

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