Senior Director, Senior Technical Architect

Job Description

Our Company’s Digital Strategy is founded on the need for efficient, reusable, and user-friendly technology solutions. The Enterprise Architecture (EA) team is helping to lead this transformation. Our vision is to provide strategic technology decisions that link investments and achieved business outcomes. Our goal is to offer strategic technology decision-making that connects investments and achieved business results. This focus allows the team to be a crucial supporting partner with the business to help them gain concrete business value through our company’s investments in digital.

The general remit of this role is to be the accountable global architect for major programs and projects across IT. As the Senior Technical Architect, you will be working across all domains within technical architecture to include:

• AI, Automation, Integration

• DevSecOps

• Collaboration & Content

• Risk & Security

• Cloud, Network, and Infrastructure

• Operations & Service Mangement

The position’s focus is to engage on IT’s largest programs to guide the development and identification of enterprise capabilities needed to support the delivery and advancement of both the products and enterprise supporting capabilities. Foundational enterprise capability is critical to support the delivery of these programs, it will be the responsibility of this role to facilitate the development of these integrated roadmaps, as well as identify overlapping enterprise capability and work to define when to use what through use cases and patterns.

This role will report to the Executive Director of Digital Backbone in EA but shares a dotted to the programs they are assigned. This position, in partnership with these teams will lead the overall EA function and EA services for the implementation of these programs.

This leader will have an opportunity to work on a truly enterprise team that engages with leaders across all divisions and will be directly involved in helping enable our CIO’s vision of a more top-down, agile, and business outcomes-focused IT organization. The position will work in tandem with other Technical, Systems and Solutions architects across the company.

A partial list of responsibilities includes the following:

• Use agile, value-centric, business outcomes-oriented, and total cost of ownership-based principles to guide EA decision making.

• Develop integrated strategies and roadmaps for enterprise programs around infrastructure, security, integration, cloud solutions, etc...

• Create current-state business/technology capability maps as well as future state planning roadmaps that will be relevant for all areas of the company as it pertains to these programs

• Facilitate and drive EA Governance for these special programs.

• Act as a Subject Matter Expert to the organization for these special programs related capabilities.

• Work closely with all the EA Technical Architects to ensure alignment our enterprise technology stacks.

• In close partnership with the program Solution Architects and SMEs, set and influence program’s strategic directions, maintains relationship with the ecosystem vendors and establishes process to maintain vendor roadmaps.

• Facilitates the evaluation and selection of software product standards.

• Define metrics for the measuring of technology maturity, health, and business value and plays an active role in delivering these measures.

• Drive investment decisions with a mindset to optimize total cost of ownership delivered business value.

• Drive the notion of reusable architecture assets & standards such as current-state business/technology capability maps as well as future state planning roadmaps across all of IT.

• Partner with architects and capability owners in the other business units to re-use the best available technologies and processes.

• Help define and own the management of the EA operating model across the enterprise.

• Support the creation of a common and managed set of EA practices, which includes architecture models, architecture governance processes, architecture methods and templates, architecture communities and training, and much more.

• Create EA deliverables and artifacts relevant for accountable architecture domain(s).

• Effectively work with both waterfall and agile project teams to evolve the technical landscape toward the desired end state.

• Apply risk-based decision making to complex problems and consult with relevant subject matter advisors as needed to inform the decision.

• Prepare and deliver executive level briefings and communicate complex topics effectively to a diverse executive audience.

Position Qualifications

Education Minimum Requirement:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, systems analysis, or a related study

Required Experience and Skills:

• 15+ years of experience spanning IT disciplines including broad technical architecture.

• 5+ years' experience in program architecture and delivery

• 7+ years in a management role

• Strong understanding of AI, DevSecOps, and modern cloud architecture patterns

• Skilled in functional integration and cross-solution issues

• Demonstrated ability to partner with business stakeholders and navigate across conflicting priorities to balance critical tactical and strategic needs.

• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills – able to effectively communicate complex concepts in simple ways.

• Demonstrated ability to effectively collaborate and communicate with a variety of audiences and stakeholders including executive management, business leaders, IT peers, and colleagues worldwide.

• Strategic thinker, with demonstrated ability to work in a broad and top-down manner with a fair amount of ambiguity at the center.

• Results-orientation with the proven ability and reputation for developing plans and implementing them successfully.

• Demonstrated leadership in achieving shared objectives in a matrix organization, managing cross-divisional initiatives, and cross-functional teams in an extremely dynamic environment.

• Self-directed, self-motivated, focused leader who with little direction can fill in the gaps as to what is needed, and drive expected results.

• Demonstrated ability to envision the future and rally the organization / people towards a common goal.

• Travel will be required (~10-20%).

Preferred Experience and Skills:

• Prior experience in the Pharmaceutical Industry

• Prior experience in Enterprise, Technical or Solution Architecture

• Knowledge/certification in TOGAF or other EA methodology frameworks

• Exposure to multiple, diverse technologies and processing environments

• Knowledge of business process re-engineering principles and processes

• Strong understanding of application development methodologies

• Experience with systems development lifecycle (SDLC) practices

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, or disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.  For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing diverse, talented, and committed people together. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when diverse ideas come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

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U.S. Hybrid Work Model

Effective September 5, 2023, employees in office-based positions in the U.S. will be working a Hybrid work consisting of three total days on-site per week, Monday - Thursday, although the specific days may vary by site or organization, with Friday designated as a remote-working day, unless business critical tasks require an on-site presence.This Hybrid work model does not apply to, and daily in-person attendance is required for, field-based positions; facility-based, manufacturing-based, or research-based positions where the work to be performed is located at a Company site; positions covered by a collective-bargaining agreement (unless the agreement provides for hybrid work); or any other position for which the Company has determined the job requirements cannot be reasonably met working remotely. Please note, this Hybrid work model guidance also does not apply to roles that have been designated as “remote”.

The Company is required to provide a reasonable estimate of the salary range for this job in certain states and cities within the United States. Final determinations with respect to salary will take into account a number of factors, which may include, but not be limited to the primary work location and the chosen candidate’s relevant skills, experience, and education.

Expected US salary range:

Available benefits include bonus eligibility, long term incentive if applicable, health care and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, paid holidays, vacation, and sick days. A summary of benefits is listed here.

San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

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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