- Join us as an Innovation Fund Lead in this high-visibility, ambitious, business-critical role. If you are experienced in external innovation ecosystems to accelerate business opportunities & local partnerships, driving additional sales, profitability, and sustainable market share, then this is your role.
- This is an excellent opportunity to be a people manager, run a team like an internal start-up, and support regional markets by enabling external partnerships and identifying business-synergic opportunity spaces.
- Great opportunity to work with a best-in-class cross-functional team of seasoned professionals in a vibrant, fast-moving, and agile environment powered by leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world
Role Overview:
We seek a skilled and experienced individual to join our team as the Head of Innovation Fund (Corporate Venture Capital) Center of Excellence (CoE). As Associate Director, you will manage Open-Innovation-Lab activities, identifying problem statements, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to translate market and regional ideas into clear opportunity statements aligned with our business pillars. You will map required capabilities to external companies and facilitate their introduction to our business development function and project owners. Additionally, you will be responsible for expanding awareness and branding of our Corporate VC Fund internally and externally. The Innovation Fund CoE reports under the Innovation and Data-Enablement, Asia-Pacific (IDEA) structure. IDEA enables Commercial Operations, Marketing, Digital, Data & Analytics (DnA), and partnerships across the care continuum in Asia Pacific markets.
In this high visibility, newly created strategic role, you will provide our regional and country/cluster leadership with access to external innovation ecosystems to accelerate our business and exceed our 5-year aspirations with the required business opportunity spaces & local partnerships to drive differentiation, resulting in additional sales, profitability, and sustainable market share.
Reporting to the regional Head of IDEA, you will run your team like an internal start-up and support our markets towards developing patient-first innovative and transformative initiatives by enabling external partnerships and identifying business-synergic opportunity spaces.
What will you do:
Stakeholder Management:
- You will act as the point of contact for the Global Health Innovation Fund, Social Business Innovation Fund, Market Leadership Teams (including MDs, BUDs, CODs, etc.), and Regional Franchise & BD teams.
- You will share best practices & market capability gaps with Data Engineering & Excellence CoE.
- Communicate market requirements with Decision Science CoE.
Running Open-Innovation-Labs & problem statement identification:
- You will closely collaborate with cross-functional teams (CFTs) to translate market and regional ideas into clear opportunity statements aligned with our business pillars.
- Map required capabilities to external companies in our portfolio and facilitate their introduction to our business development function and project owners.
- Create materials to expand awareness and branding of our Corporate VC Fund internally and externally.
- Generate and implement practical ideas to improve our end-to-end process, aligned with the IDEA Fund scope.
- Work with the Global Health Innovation Fund and business unit teams to formalize and share best practices.
Fund Liaison, Monitoring & Process Compliance:
- Track project progress and metrics aligned with project milestones, including pilot structure and design.
- Manage activities related to accelerator programs, including the application and selection process, liaising with start-up companies, and communicating internally regarding accelerator progress.
- Prepare progress reports and potential opportunities from conversations within Enterprise Coverage or accelerator activity.
- Act as a liaison between the Global Health Innovation Fund, AP Regional team, and business functions to facilitate meetings, presentations, and decision-making workshops.
- Own and drive reporting with the company's board on compliance, contracting, problem statements, fund disbursement, pilot KPIs, and scale-up opportunities.
What should you have:
We are seeking a collaborative, innovative, and adaptable leader capable of getting things done, influencing peers and leaders, and accustomed to working in a dynamic region and within a matrix structure.
Required Skills:
- Minimum of 5-7 years of relevant experience, preferably in a similar role. Strong understanding of the start-up ecosystem, innovation, and investment evaluation.
- Deep understanding of systemic innovation models, analytical methods, and hypothesis building. Proficient in financial analysis and reporting.
- Capability to communicate and collaborate across business and technical teams, with empathy and sensitivity for data maturity differences, and able to rally teams to action and outcomes
- Strong project and people management skills to execute complex initiatives in a matrix structure and the capability to get things done in an ethical and compliant way
- Deep understanding of Asia Pacific markets. Fluency in English, both spoken and written.
- Achieve results through influencing, energizing, and motivating a team to follow their direction.
- Strong problem-solving and collaboration abilities. Experience in awareness building and relationship management.
- Ability to track metrics and monitor progress effectively. Knowledge of the healthcare industry is advantageous.
- Previous experience in venture capital is highly desirable—familiarity with market analysis and compliance.
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 among the intellectually curious, join us—and start making your impact today.
