Job Description
- *Role Overview**
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The Senior Specialist / Associate Director – UX Strategy \& Experience Design is responsible for **defining, scaling, and directly shaping user experiences across E2E product lines**, ensuring solutions are intuitive, consistent, and aligned to enterprise user needs.
This role operates at the **capability and ecosystem level**, combining **UX strategy, governance, and hands\-on experience design for prioritized product needs**. The Senior UX Designer does not sit within a single product team but instead partners across Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Adoption, and Agile teams to ensure **user\-centered design is both defined at an enterprise level and applied to critical product experiences**.
The role serves as the **single point of accountability for UX standards and cross\-product experience quality**, while also **contributing directly to high\-impact design solutions that address complex product challenges**.
- *Key Responsibilities**
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### **UX Strategy, Governance \& Standards**
- Define and own **enterprise UX strategy, principles, and design standards** across E2E product lines
- Establish and govern **design frameworks, interaction patterns, and reusable components** to ensure consistency and scalability
- Serve as the **accountable owner of UX standards and best practices**, ensuring adoption across product teams
- Align with enterprise design systems and contribute to **UX governance and decision frameworks**
### **UX Design for Product Needs (Critical Addition)**
- Lead and contribute to **UX design for high\-priority product initiatives**, translating business and user needs into intuitive experiences
- Create **wireframes, interaction models, prototypes, and experience flows** to support product discovery and solution design
- Facilitate **problem discovery sessions and design workshops** to define user problems and co\-create solutions with product and engineering teams
- Ensure designs reflect **enterprise UX standards while addressing product\-specific requirements and constraints**
- Provide **design guidance and direction to product teams**, reviewing and refining UX outputs for quality and consistency
### **Cross\-Product Experience Design \& Alignment**
- Drive **end\-to\-end experience consistency across product lines**, minimizing fragmented or duplicative designs
- Identify and resolve **systemic UX gaps, inconsistencies, and friction points across products**
- Define **cross\-product journeys, shared workflows, and experience blueprints**
- Partner with product teams to align on **shared interaction patterns and user journeys**
### **User\-Centered Experience Strategy**
- Participate in **problem discovery sessions with Activation teams, lead journey mapping, and research approaches**
- Ensure user insights are translated into **scalable experience strategies and actionable product decisions**
- Champion **user\-first thinking across the product lifecycle**, from discovery through adoption
### **Design Enablement \& Capability Scaling**
- Build and scale **UX capability across the organization**, including tools, playbooks, and reusable assets
- Define expectations for **design artifacts (wireframes, prototypes, design specifications)** and ensure consistent quality
- Enable Product, Engineering, and Adoption teams with **UX frameworks, templates, and best practices**
- Help establish and evolve a **UX community of practice**
### **Feedback Integration \& Continuous Improvement**
- Establish mechanisms to **capture, synthesize, and operationalize user feedback across products**
- Define and monitor **experience success metrics** (usability, friction, adoption signals, satisfaction trends)
- Ensure insights are systematically integrated into **roadmaps, design decisions, and experience improvements**
### **Cross\-Functional Leadership \& Influence**
- Partner with Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Adoption \& Activation, and Agile teams to embed UX into **product and delivery decisions**
- Influence roadmap prioritization by representing the **enterprise voice of the user**
- Facilitate **cross\-team workshops and alignment sessions** (discovery, ideation, experience alignment)
- Provide **executive\-level visibility** into UX maturity, risks, and opportunities
- *Qualifications \& Experience**
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### **Education**
- Bachelor’s degree in Human\-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, Product Design, or related field required
- Advanced degree preferred
### **Experience**
- 10\+ years of experience in UX, product design, or experience strategy roles in **complex, cross\-functional environments**
- Proven experience both:
+ Designing **high\-quality UX solutions for product needs**, and
+ Defining **scalable UX frameworks across multiple teams/products**
- Demonstrated ability to operate at **enterprise/platform level while contributing to hands\-on design outcomes**
- Experience in **data, analytics, or platform\-based environments strongly preferred**
### **Skills \& Capabilities**
- Deep expertise in **user\-centered design, design thinking, and experience strategy**
- Strong ability to translate **user insights into both design outputs and enterprise\-level frameworks**
- Advanced proficiency in design tools (e.g., Figma, Adobe XD, etc.)
- Strong facilitation skills for **workshops and co\-creation sessions**
- Excellent stakeholder management and executive communication skills
- Ability to **influence without authority and operate across distributed teams.**
Client Counseling, Content Writing, Data Visualization, Measurement Analysis, Strategic Planning, User Experience (UX) Design, User Experience Analysis, User Experience Evaluation, User Research**Preferred Skills:**
Current Employees apply HERE
Current Contingent Workers apply HERE
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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.
Regular**Relocation:**
- *Flexible Work Arrangements:**
Hybrid**Shift:**
- *Valid Driving License:**
- *Hazardous Material(s):**
06/18/2026* **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.**
- *Requisition ID:**R401677