Job Description

Job title: Associate Director, Workplace Strategy
 

Our company is a global healthcare leader with a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines and animal health products. The difference between potential and achievement lies in the spark that fuels innovation; this is the space where our company has codified its 130-year legacy. Our success is backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare.

As we emerge from the post-COVID era, we have continued redefining our workplaces and recognizing the opportunity to develop a workplace strategy to transform where and how we work.

Global Real Estate Strategy (GRES) is a strategic corporate function that serves Our Company’s global business units, including Manufacturing, Commercial, Technical Operations, Research and Development, and Corporate Units, by identifying and executing creative and innovative real estate and workplace solutions aligned with corporate strategy.

Role Description

Do you have experience in workplace strategy, workspace design and occupancy planning? Are you a strategic thinker with a significant understanding of the workplace market, including current and future design trends?

Our Global Real Estate (GRES) Workplace Strategy team in JCAP is looking for a dedicated and motivated Workplace strategist with a strong design background to join and contribute to our mission of fostering a data-led culture.

Joining the Workplace Strategy team means playing a pivotal role in shaping our global vision for the future of workspaces and collaboration. Your contribution is essential in guiding our organization toward innovative and supportive ways of working. Your role is crucial in defining the future of our work environment and fostering connectivity among our teams.

This role will be based at our Singapore office.

Core Responsibilities

Be a subject matter expert for our Workplace Strategy team, combining headcount forecast data, design trends, space planning, and occupancy planning to support the organization's workplace strategy.Deliver workplace innovation projects, organize resources, meet with client leadership and other client representatives, conduct interviews, run workshops, conduct and analyze surveys, and gather, analyze, and summarize data in easy-to-understand presentations.Understand spatial advantages and constraints of a floor plan to oversee test fits for functional and inspiring workspaces that support diverse workstyles.Track trends in workplace furniture, finishes and technology.Think strategically and creatively, articulate challenges, and demonstrate how the workplace and portfolio strategy can address them.Monitor and track space and occupancy trends based on local headcount forecasting, business org changes and space requirements.Summarize data and create presentations for visible projects for a broad range audience (senior leadership – local teams)Liaise and build relationships with local/regional site business leads to ensure that business allocation, adjacency, and workplace plans meet our headcount forecasting and understand how our colleagues' work and space are used.Closely partner with colleagues from Facilities, HR, AV and IT to develop workplace strategy recommendations, workspace plans, and pilots specific to a region to support new ways of working.Keep current with emerging trends and insights about workplace strategy, design, and standard processes.

Required Skills and Experience
 

Bachelor's or master’s degree in architectural or interior design with work experience in workplace strategySolutions-focused experience of proactively influencing and engaging stakeholders, along with the ability to clearly communicate and explain design and space opportunities to non-technical individuals. A background in making and rationalizing workspace design and allocation decisions, moves with recognition of risks and opportunities of decisions, and a track record of recognizing risks.Excellent understanding of current best practices and trends in the workplace and strategic design consultancy.Experience in test fit planning, space management, including forecasting and planning future demand.Experience in reading spatial constraints and opportunities in floor plans for optimized workspace design.Good storytelling and graphic presentation skills (In-Design, PowerPoint, Photoshop, etc.)Excellent skills in interpreting and presenting data in PowerPoint, excel, word and social media.Excellent verbal and visual communication, presentation and writing skills.Strong data analytical skills and the ability to distinguish emerging themes from data and research material to present them innovatively, visually, and concisely.Excellent research, data analysis and report-writing capabilities.Proficient in Excel and working with numerical data.Ability to be effective while working independently and within a team environment.

Play your part in our team's success.

You will report directly to the Workplace Strategy Global Lead and join a highly dynamic, growing global team that delivers high-quality workplaces. In this role, you will lead projects in the JCAP regions and have the opportunity to contribute to projects on a global scale.

We know the best way to do that is by ensuring continuous learning while having fun. Therefore, you will get plenty of responsibility combined with excellent team spirit. You will have plenty of opportunities to apply and share your knowledge by engaging with various parts of the organization and quickly gaining a valuable company network.

Do you have what it takes?

The ideal candidate should have a relevant educational background in Architectural or Interior Design, , or similar fields. Additionally, they should have substantial work experience in Workplace Strategy and Design, collaborating across functions, working with businesses to provide data-based solutions, , user research, occupancy planning and strategy, and space programming.

As a person, you can build internal networks and work cross-functionally and in a fast-paced, team-based, deadline-driven, and collaborative environment. You show a high degree of flexibility and thrive in problem-solving and multitasking. Finally, you bring excellent interpersonal and communication skills, which are used to produce high-quality reports/documents in PowerPoint.

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. 

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

VISA Sponsorship:

Travel Requirements:

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Valid Driving License:

Hazardous Material(s):

Required Skills:

Active Listening, Active Listening, Animal Vaccination, Architectural Design, Business, Business Administration, Change Management, Commercial Property Management, Commercial Real Estate Acquisitions, Communication, Data Analysis, Disease Prevention, Financial Acumen, Global Team Collaboration, Graphic Presentations, Interior Design, Lease Administration, Management Process, Organizational Strategy, Real Estate Management, Real Estate Market, Security Strategy, Site Selection Analysis, Social Media, Space Management {+ 5 more}

 Preferred Skills:

Job Posting End Date:

09/1/2025

*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.

Requisition ID:R357705