Job Description

Director – Product & Platform Strategy
Role Overview

The Director – Product & Platform Strategy will establish and lead a dedicated product and platform strategy function across enterprise data and digital capabilities. The role is responsible for ensuring that platforms are designed, governed, and scaled as enterprise assets that power multiple enabling products, rather than as isolated or point solutions.

This leader will work in close partnership with enterprise platform teams, Enterprise Architecture (EA), product leadership, and engineering teams to drive alignment between business strategy, platform design, and execution.

The role is both foundational and connective — defining how platforms are built, managed, and consumed across the organization, while enabling consistent, scalable, and reusable capability development.

Key ResponsibilitiesEstablish Product & Platform Strategy Function

• Define and stand up a formal product and platform strategy capability across the organization

  
  
  

• Develop and institutionalize reusable processes, patterns, and governance models for:

  
  
  

  • Platform definition and lifecycle management

    
    
    

  • Platform consumption across multiple products

    
    
    

  • Cross-product capability reuse

    
    
    

• Drive consistency in how platforms are designed, positioned, and scaled as enterprise capabilities

  
  
  

Cross-Capability Strategy & Alignment

• Define and lead cross-capability strategy across multiple products and domains

  
  
  

• Ensure platforms are structured to:

  
  
  

  • Support multiple enabling products and use cases

    
    
    

  • Minimize duplication and fragmentation across teams

    
    
    

• Identify overlaps and drive rationalization and consolidation across capabilities

  
  
  

Engagement with Enterprise Platform Teams

• Partner closely with enterprise platform teams to:

  
  
  

  • Align platform strategy with enterprise infrastructure and shared services

    
    
    

  • Ensure consistency between enterprise-level platforms and product-level capabilities

    
    
    

• Act as a bridge between enterprise platform investments and product consumption needs

  
  
  

Partnership with Enterprise Architecture

• Work closely with Enterprise Architecture (EA) to:

  
  
  

  • Translate strategy into scalable architecture patterns

    
    
    

  • Align platform design with enterprise standards and long-term roadmaps

    
    
    

  • Ensure modular, extensible, and reusable platform design principles

    
    
    

Platform Operating Model & Reuse

• Define how platforms are:

  
  
  

  • Managed (ownership, lifecycle, governance)

    
    
    

  • Consumed (APIs, services, reusable capabilities)

    
    
    

• Establish patterns that enable:

  
  
  

  • Faster product development

    
    
    

  • Consistent platform adoption across teams

    
    
    

• Drive the transition from project-based delivery models to platform-based enablement

  
  
  

Strategic Leadership & Relationship Management

• Support leadership in managing technology partners and key strategic relationships

  
  
  

• Provide clarity on:

  
  
  

  • Platform strategy and direction

    
    
    

  • Investment priorities

    
    
    

  • Capability and roadmap alignment

    
    
    

• Act as a trusted advisor to leadership on cross-platform strategy, trade-offs, and decisions

  
  
  

Expected Outcomes

• Establishment of a scalable and sustainable product and platform strategy function

  
  
  

• Clear alignment between enterprise platforms and the product ecosystem

  
  
  

• Platforms designed and operated as reusable, multi-product capabilities

  
  
  

• Reduced fragmentation and duplication across teams and capabilities

  
  
  

• Consistent and disciplined approach to how platforms are built, governed, and consumed

  
  
  

Experience & ProfileRequired Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in platform strategy, product strategy, or enterprise data platforms

  
  
  

• Proven track record of working across product, engineering, and enterprise platform teams

  
  
  

• Strong understanding of:

  
  
  

  • Platform-based product models

    
    
    

  • Enterprise architecture principles

    
    
    

  • Cross-team operating models and governance

    
    
    

• Technology exposure

  
  
  

  • Databricks, Starburst Trino

    
    
    

  • Immuta (nice to have) , collibra or similar

    
    
    

  • Dataiku, ThoughtSpot, AWS data eco system

    
    
    

  • Matillion, DBT, informatica or similar

    
    
    

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience establishing platform governance and operating models

  
  
  

• Exposure to data platforms, APIs, and shared services ecosystems

  
  
  

• Experience working in global delivery environments

  
  
  

Leadership Characteristics

• Systems thinker with the ability to view platforms as enterprise capability layers

  
  
  

• Builder mindset with experience establishing new functions and operating models

  
  
  

• Strong influencer capable of aligning stakeholders across product, engineering, and architecture

  
  
  

• Execution-oriented leader focused on adoption, scale, and measurable outcomes

  
  
  

Required Skills:

Asset Management, Benefits Management, Capability Development, Enterprise Architecture (EA), Enterprise Data, Fashion Modeling, Global Delivery, Management System Development, Platform Management, Platform Strategy, Product Lifecycle, Product Management, Product Management Leadership, Product Strategies, Requirements Management, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Management, Strategic Planning, System Designs, ThoughtSpot (Software)

Preferred Skills:

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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. 

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

VISA Sponsorship:

Travel Requirements:

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

Job Posting End Date:

06/30/2026

*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.