Associate Director - HR Technology Operations

Job Description

The Opportunity

Right now, over 70,000 of our employees are working to cure the world’s most complex diseases. We know that our people are the key to our success, which is why our Human Resources team works to attract, develop, retain and inspire our people so that they can learn, grow and make a true impact on the world. Together we collaborate to create a culturally rich, diverse organization ensuring we remain innovative, agile and flexible.

Based in Hyderabad, this role sits within HR Operations, operating at the intersection of HR, technology, and digital enablement. As part of our growing Regional Capability Center, you will help build and scale the HR technology capabilities that support our global workforce—spanning platforms, data, automation, and emerging AI‑enabled solutions.

Here, your work directly supports a diversified portfolio of prescription medicines, vaccines, and animal health products—while helping shape the future of how HR delivers value through data, automation, and intelligent systems. Your ideas matter, your expertise drives impact, and your contributions help multiply organisation's ability to deliver for patients, colleagues, and communities worldwide.

Role Summary

We are seeking an HR Technology Operations & Delivery Leader to lead our India-based HR Technology Hub, accountable for the end-to-end demand intake, prioritization, delivery governance, and operational excellence of global HR technology solutions. This role blends hands-on Workday and HR systems expertise with strong managerial, demand management, and execution leadership.

This role will serve as a primary point of coordination and execution between HR business stakeholders, HR Solutions & Strategy leadership, and delivery teams—ensuring demand prioritization, disciplined execution, regulatory compliance, and scalable operations across the HR technology landscape.

This leader will be responsible not only for what gets delivered (prioritization and demand governance), but how it gets delivered (intake rigor, backlog health, testing, release, and post-deployment stabilization).

Key Responsibilities

HR Technology Regional Capability Center Leadership & Operations

• Provide day-to-day leadership for the India RCC, overseeing operations, delivery, prioritization, and testing across Workday and related HR platforms.

• Lead a centralized team responsible for HR technology configuration, testing, release management, integrations, and Tier 3 support.

• Define and maintain operating models, service levels, SLAs, KPIs, and capacity plans to ensure predictable delivery and operational excellence.

• Establish clear role definitions, escalation paths, and accountability across the hub.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for HR OPS at the Hub site. Serve as the HR OPS escalation point for Hub-related challenges and support issue resolution within the team.

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of direct and indirect, as well as dotted line relationships, across Workday functional domains and HR technology operations.

• Establish performance expectations, career paths, succession plans, and continuous learning opportunities.

• Build demand management, delivery governance, and execution excellence capabilities within the team.

• Promote knowledge transfer, documentation discipline, and operational resiliency, including hybrid work environment supporting compliance and culture.

• Stakeholder Communication: Act as a primary point of contact for HR OPS for internal and external stakeholders to facilitate effective communication and collaboration.

• Leads overall site administration by representing HR Ops in site-based activities and ensuring coordination across key support functions, including Facilities, IT, EHS, and Legal. Ensure adequate resource planning, office logistics, and local onboarding of new employees.

• Drives culture, communication, diversity & inclusion, talent development, and employee engagement initiatives to foster a strong, values-driven workplace in alignment with co-locating functions

• Implement training programs to ensure that team members are informed of current standards and best practices. Also, identify training needs across the Hub and support implementation.

• This is a People Manager role with close to 20 reports (direct & indirect reports.)

Demand Intake, Prioritization & Governance

• Design and build a HR Technology / Workday configuration, testing, tier 3 case management, audit, data loads, and automation maintenance hub that will support the global HR function.

• Act as the primary point of coordination for HR technology demands, ensuring requests are well-defined, complete, and aligned to business priorities.

• Design and run a structured demand intake and triage process, balancing regulatory, operational, and strategic work.

• Facilitate prioritization decisions with HR Solutions & Strategy leaders, business process owners, and IT partners.

• Maintain transparency and health of the HR technology backlog, ensuring no orphaned or unmanaged work items.

• Monitor demand progress, dependencies, risks, and delivery timelines; proactively communicate changes to stakeholders.

Delivery Oversight & Execution Management

• Oversee a team that intakes design specifications, executes configuration, testing, documentation and other activities supporting all HR technology and Artificial Intelligence enabling the HR function.

• Lead release and testing governance, including cutover readiness and post-release stabilization.

• Escalate risks and issues decisively and drive root-cause remediation.

Compliance, Risk & Data Privacy

• Ensure HR systems and processes comply with internal controls, audit requirements, IT risk standards, and global data privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR and applicable local laws).

• Support internal and external audits related to HR systems and HR data.

• Partner with data privacy and legal stakeholders to ensure appropriate reviews and approvals are obtained.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree or MBA preferred.

• 8–12 years of progressive experience in HRIS / HR technology, with 3–5 years in people leadership roles.

• Deep functional experience with Workday HCM (Core HCM, Compensation, Absence, Benefits, Talent, Recruiting, Learning).

• Strong experience with demand intake, prioritization, backlog management, and delivery governance in a global, matrixed environment.

• Demonstrated ability to manage multi-stream delivery across configuration, testing, releases, and integrations.

• Experience managing tier 3 technology support functions

• Proven experience operating in audit-regulated and data privacy–sensitive environments.

• Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and influencing skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with ServiceNow or similar demand/delivery management tools.

• Experience working with AI-enabled HR tooling, automation, or analytics platforms.

• Prior experience managing or operating within India-based technology hubs.

Required Skills:

Asset Management, Automation, Benefits Management, Business Processes, Business Process Management (BPM), General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), HR Technology Strategy, IT Demand Management, Management System Development, Operating Models, Prioritization, Product Management, Project Prioritization, Release Management, Requirements Management, Stakeholder Communications, Stakeholder Relationship Management, Strategic Planning, System Designs

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:

06/5/2026

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