Head of Search

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Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you’ve got big plans - so do we Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people’s lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us.

United As One for Patients, our purpose in Healthcare is to help create, improve and prolong lives. We develop medicines, intelligent devices and innovative technologies in therapeutic areas such as Oncology, Neurology and Fertility. Our teams work together across 6 continents with passion and relentless curiosity in order to help patients at every stage of life. Joining our Healthcare team is becoming part of a diverse, inclusive and flexible working culture, presenting great opportunities for personal development and career advancement across the globe.

This role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

The Head of Search & Evalutation (S&E), Technologies will be responsible for proactively shaping the technologies (R&D enabling) S&E strategy. The new incumbent will be tasked with identifying suitable technology partners, building & nurturing the external network and supporting inorganic strategy building and initial assessment. In more detail the Head of Search & Evaluation, Technologies will be responsible for:

- Becoming a trusted partner to internal stakeholders in Research and Drug Discovery Technologies Units, in order to identify technology needs and elaborate a Technologies partnering strategy.
- Defining the search scope and partnering needs through market-specific insights.
- Driving proactive search to identify technologies and potential partners.
- Translating organisational and technological needs to partner search profiles and guide partner selection.
- Developing and keeping an overview of the external landscape within investment priorities along R&D Technologies strategy; maintaining and monitoring a longlist of potential opportunities.
- Extracting key transferable learnings on the maturity of certain technologies and any key developments to the next inflection point guiding search scope and investment decisions.
- Maintaining an overview of search and evaluation activities in the technologies area to form the basis of management reporting and discussions.
- Overseeing and guiding the filtering of potential opportunities (e.g., unsolicited, VC portfolios, conferences); executing CDAs and providing feedback to stakeholders.
- Selecting and prioritizing opportunities for further evaluation in close collaboration with Business Development counterparts.
- Benchmarking of potential partners based on specific criteria to elucidate differentiation.
- Building and maintaining an external network (e.g., biotech/pharma/VC) and representing/positioning Merck externally towards potential partners.
- Working with Business Development colleagues to develop business models for partnering discussions that assess viability / feasibility of potential partnerships.
- Elaborating the added value of potential partnership working closely with R&D controlling and other R&D stakeholders.
- Driving the identification of Big Rocks and the consolidation of EGIB decision-making document to make go/no-go decisions.
- Advising on due diligence activities and consulting on the assessment of risks and mitigations.
- Supporting outbound partnering/externalization efforts, including but not limted to pitch deck generation, assessment of attractiveness of outlicensing, utilising network to pitch opportunities.
- Advising and coaching S&E Leads on workplan development.

Minumum Requirements
- University degree (Master, preferably PhD) in pharmaceutical science or an equivalent qualification with high expertise, strong network, and substantial R&D experience in respective investment priority field.
- 12+ years experience with 6+ years in BD&L in a positions with global responsibility.
- Expertise in Search & Evaluation, Due Diligence or BD&L activities relating to the acquistion of R&D focused Enabling Technologies
- Thorough understanding of the pharmaceutical drug discovery/development process.
- Scientific profile with substantial R&D experience.

Preferred Requirements:

- Experience leading cross functional matrix teams.
- Experience working as a sole contributor.
- Excellent analytical, problem solving skills and time management.
- Excellent English skills, oral and written communications.

**What we offer**:We are curious minds that come from a broad range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences. We celebrate all dimensions of diversity and believe that it drives excellence and innovation, s