Assoc. Dir , Infrastructure Engineering

Merck is a leading pharmaceutical company, and they are seeking an Associate Director of Infrastructure Engineering to lead the execution of Migration Services Factory operations. This role involves overseeing end-to-end migration services across various platforms and driving innovations in automation and AI to enhance service offerings.

Responsibilities:

• Own end‑to‑end delivery of Migration Services execution events, from demand intake through migration completion, stabilization, and handoff
• Function as the single process execution authority for complex, high‑risk, or large‑scale migration waves
• Define and govern execution standards, runbooks, and success criteria for rehosting, modernization, and in‑place OS upgrade scenarios
• Coordinate execution across infrastructure, application, security, compliance, and vendor teams to ensure seamless delivery
• Proactively identify execution risks, dependencies, and constraints, and drive mitigation strategies before service impact occurs
• Own and evolve SDLC documentation, execution playbooks, and operational procedures
• Establish governance models ensuring security, compliance, quality, and auditability across migration execution
• Ensure configuration management and version control across heterogeneous environments
• Seek new Migration Services product capabilities
• Partner with Product Management to translate enterprise migration demand into scalable service offerings
• Assess emerging migration technologies, platforms, and industry trends to expand service coverage and capability
• Define platform enhancement requirements to improve speed, reliability, scalability, and customer experience
• Promote best practices through communities of practice, learning sessions, and cross‑team knowledge sharing
• Drive AI‑enabled innovations across Migration Services, including:
• Intelligent migration planning and wave optimization
• Automated risk detection and readiness assessment
• Predictive execution analytics and outcome forecasting
• AI‑assisted troubleshooting and remediation
• Champion adoption of automation, orchestration, and self‑service capabilities to reduce manual effort and execution risk
• Collaborate with engineering and data teams to operationalize AI solutions within the migration platform
• Plan and coordinate activities with third‑party vendors supporting migration services offerings
• Influence vendor roadmaps and service delivery models to align with enterprise migration strategy
• Communicate effectively with senior stakeholders, providing clear execution status, risk insights, and outcome reporting

Requirements:

• Deep technical expertise in migration services, rehosting, and modernization initiatives
• Extensive experience executing complex migrations across public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid platforms
• Strong background in operating system upgrades and enterprise infrastructure platforms
• Demonstrated ability to lead large-scale execution efforts with minimal supervision
• Proven experience influencing product direction, platform evolution, or service design
• Strong written, diagramming, and oral communication skills, with the ability to translate complex technical topics for audiences
• Experience operating within regulated environments, including pharmaceutical or similarly regulated industries
• Technical knowledge of migration tool sets including VMware (vMotion, SRM, HCX), RiverMeadow, AWS MGN, Azure Migrate, and emerging platforms
• B.S. in IT, Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience
• 10+ years of progressive experience in enterprise IT or infrastructure engineering
• 5+ years leading or owning migration services execution and/or migration platforms
• Accountability
• Applied Engineering
• Asset Management
• Azure Migrate
• Benefits Management
• Computer Science
• Configuration Management (CM)
• Governance Model Design
• Infrastructure Engineering
• Management Process
• Management System Development
• Product Lifecycle
• Product Management
• Requirements Management
• Stakeholder Communications
• Stakeholder Relationship Management
• Standards Compliance
• Strategic Planning
• System Designs
• Technical Management
• Time Management
• Vendor Risk Management
• Version Control