Senior Specialist, Data Quality Stewardship

Job Description

The Opportunity

• Based in Hyderabad, join a global healthcare biopharma company and be part of a 130- year legacy of success backed by ethical integrity, forward momentum, and an inspiring mission to achieve new milestones in global healthcare.
• Be part of an organisation driven by digital technology and data-backed approaches that support a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines, and animal health products.
• Drive innovation and execution excellence. Be a part of a team with passion for using data, analytics, and insights to drive decision-making, and which creates custom software, allowing us to tackle some of the world's greatest health threats. Our Technology Centers focus on creating a space where teams can come together to deliver business solutions that save and improve lives. An integral part of our companys’ IT operating model, Tech Centers are globally distributed locations where each IT division has employees to enable our digital transformation journey and drive business outcomes. These locations, in addition to the other sites, are essential to supporting our business and strategy. A focused group of leaders in each Tech Center helps to ensure we can manage and improve each location, from investing in growth, success, and well-being of our people, to making sure colleagues from each IT division feel a sense of belonging to managing critical emergencies. And together, we must leverage the strength of our team to collaborate globally to optimize connections and share best practices across the Tech Centers.

Role Overview The Sr. Specialist, Data Quality Stewardship is part of the EDQ&DSC (Enterprise Data Quality and Data Stewardship) team within the CDAO (Chief Data and Analytics Office). This role plays a pivotal part in ensuring the data quality across multiple domains and divisions, directly supporting business outcomes and ultimately impacting patients who rely on life-saving products. This is a global role supporting data domains and divisions across the pharma value chain. The Sr. Specialist works closely with business, data owners, data enablement teams, and IT stakeholders to define data quality standards, monitor data issues, drive root-cause analysis, and support remediation activities. The role also identifies opportunities for automation and innovation to improve data quality monitoring, controls, and issue resolution processes.

What Will You Do In This Role Data Quality Platform Onboarding, Adoption and Enablement

• Work with divisional partners to onboard their data to the enterprise data quality platform.
• Support adoption of the platform within business teams and promote consistent usage.
• Understand divisional requirements and configure and implement them within the data quality platform.
• Serve as a liaison between business data owners, IT, and the CDAO to ensure alignment on data quality priorities.
• Train users on the data quality platform and encourage consistent, effective usage.
• Contribute to the development and documentation of platform standards, operating procedures, and best practices.
• Maintain accurate and high-quality documentation of processes, rules, and controls.

Data Quality Rule Development and Management

• Create, maintain, and enhance data quality rules and checks.
• Develop and execute data quality routines, validations, and monitoring controls.
• Partner within CDAO teams to align data quality rules with enterprise data policies and standards.

Data Quality Metrics, Reporting & KPIs

• Define, measure, and report on data quality KPIs (e.g., completeness, accuracy, timeliness, consistency etc.) across domains.
• Develop and maintain data quality dashboards and scorecards for leadership visibility.
• Track trends and provide insights to drive prioritization of data quality improvement initiatives.

Data Quality Monitoring and Issue Management

• Review data quality reports and identify issues, trends, anomalies and opportunities for improvement.
• Investigate data quality issues, perform root-cause analysis, and coordinate remediation with relevant stakeholders.
• Communicate findings clearly with divisional stakeholders and support remediation efforts.
• Facilitate data quality issue resolution discussions with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Maintain a data quality issue log, track resolution progress, and ensure timely closure.
• Define and follow escalation paths for critical data quality issues impacting downstream processes.
• Support adherence to SLAs for data quality issue resolution.
• Ensure data quality practices align with regulatory requirements and documentation (e.g., GxP, FDA, EMA) where applicable.
• Support audit readiness by maintaining traceability of data quality rules, controls, and remediation actions.

Automation, Innovation and Continuous Improvement

• Contribute innovative ideas to improve data quality management processes, controls, and user experience.
• Develop automation utilities to improve monitoring, reporting, and operational efficiency.
• Apply analytical thinking and problem-solving to resolve complex data issues.
• Promote a culture of data quality, accountability, and continuous improvement.

What Should You Have

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Data Management, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience in data quality, or related technology roles.
• Strong SQL skills are essential.
• Experience with data profiling, issue management, and root-cause analysis.
• Familiarity with master data management, reference data, and metadata concepts.
• Experience with data transformation routines, including ETL/ELT processes.
• Familiarity with medallion architecture and cloud data platforms (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks).
• Experience and knowledge on API integration and Airflow.
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies and working within sprint-based delivery.
• Excellent communication skills with a collaborative, team-oriented approach and the ability to build strong stakeholder relationships.
• Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving, documentation habits, and attention to detail.
• Innovative mindset and willingness to learn and adapt to change.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Collibra Data Quality, data visualization tools (e.g. PowerBI) and data observability tools (e.g., Great Expectations, Acceldata).
• Familiarity with data governance, stewardship operating models, DAMA-DMBOK framework, or CDMP certification will be advantageous.
• Familiarity with regulated industries such as healthcare, life sciences, finance, or manufacturing.
• Experience working in a global or matrixed organization.
• Exposure to AI/ML data quality considerations (e.g., ensuring training data quality).

Primary Skills

• Data Quality Stewardship
• SQL
• Collibra Data Quality
• Data Governance
• Documentation
• Automation and Innovation
• Stakeholder Communication & Customer Focus
• Problem Solving
• Collaboration and customer focus

Secondary Skills

• Data Visualization Tools (e.g. PowerBI)
• Python and GitHub
• Data Observability Tools (e.g. Acceldata)
• Cloud Platforms (Azure/AWS/Snowflake)
• Product Engineering
• Training and User Enablement
• Pharma / Life Sciences Domain Knowledge
• Knowledge of API integrations
• Knowledge on Airflow
• CDMP Certification

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 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. #HYDIT2025

Required Skills Automation Technology, Collibra Data Quality & Observability, Customer Collaborations, Data Governance, Data Stewardship, Structured Query Language (SQL)

Preferred Skills 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 Domestic

VISA Sponsorship No

Travel Requirements No Travel Required

Flexible Work Arrangements Hybrid

Shift Not Indicated

Valid Driving License No

Hazardous Material(s) n/a

Job Posting End Date 07/20/2026

• 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 R406678