Director, Customer Care

The Director of Customer Care is a key position in our company transforming our Customer Care organization. This role is responsible for elevating customer experience by evaluating and evolving our customer care model, which has been scaled alongside business growth and acquisitions. The incumbent will ensure internal and external customer journeys are seamlessenabled through a single point of entry and a customer-centric team delivering personalized, high-value interactions aligned to customer attributes. This leader will ensure that people, processes, systems, and third-party resources are harmonized and simplified to deliver end-to-end transparency, aligned KPIs, and consistently high customer satisfaction. In parallel, the role will oversee vendor partnerships supporting Customer Care, including contract employees and outsourced services, ensuring efficiency, compliance, and cost optimization.

The role will define, create, and lead the implementation and execution of innovative strategies that deliver a consistent, trusted service experience for our company's Animal Health customers. To create competitive advantage and drive revenue growth through engaged customers, this role will champion the customer experience.

This role will report to the Executive Director, Channel Operations and Engagement and is accountable for ensuring the Customer Care team and all supporting channel groups meet customer service needs. This position oversees the operations and leaders for Direct Vet and Monitoring, Channel Partners, Large Direct Customers, Key Customer Accounts, ID Tags and Pet Owners.

As we continue to evolve our operating model to support future growth, this role will also optimize the mix of internal and external resources, ensuring vendor performance, contract compliance, and budget discipline. The leader will develop and inspire a team of leaders, bring unity to new and existing teams, drive upskilling and reskilling, and promote best-practice sharing to deliver a seamless, unified customer experience.

This role partners closely with Marketing, Finance, Business Service Center (BSC), Procurement, Legal, IT, Compliance and other functions to ensure operational excellence, fiscal accountability, and scalable service delivery.

Primary Responsibilities

• Shape the long-term strategy and operating model of the Customer Care organization, including make/buy workforce decisions and vendor utilization strategy
• Define and execute policies and procedures that enable an enthusiastic, holistic, and effective customer service experience
• Identify and lead initiatives to improve technology, systems, policies, and partner models to enhance both customer experience and employee/contractor retention
• Collaborate cross-functionally to design and implement scalable solutions that balance service quality, cost, and operational risk

Operational

• Leverage extensive SAP experience to navigate systems, particularly in support of customer service operations, vendor management, and financial tracking
• Make recommendations on practical project solutions related to SAP and operational efficiency
• Provide data-driven insights on KPIs and standardized business metrics, taking corrective action as needed
• Manage dashboards and executive-level reporting
• Develop and implement methods to capture, assess, and analyze customer feedback across the full customer journey
• Manage vendor relationships supporting Customer Care, including third-party service providers and contract labor partners
• Oversee annual contractor spend forecasting, budget planning, and ongoing cost management in partnership with Finance
• Review, negotiate (in partnership with Procurement and Legal), and maintain contracts and annual purchase orders for third-party vendors
• Ensure vendor performance, service-level adherence, compliance with contractual terms, and alignment with business objectives
• Identify opportunities to optimize vendor spend, drive efficiency, and reduce operational risk

Leadership

• Oversee multiple management layers across Omaha, NE and Dallas, TX develop direct and indirect team members to build talent, diversity, and capabilities while driving strong performance
• Participate in the recruitment of industry-leading talent, including decisions related to internal hiring versus contract resources
• Proactively evolve culture through ongoing feedback, coaching, and performance monitoring
• Serve as a member of the Livestock Leadership Team; partner with peers and senior stakeholders to champion a shared strategy, mission, and purpose
• Partner across functions to ensure objectives, tactics, and long-term strategies are aligned and executed to achieve business goals
• Ensure plans, actions, and decisions do not negatively impact our company's species or business units
• Own and manage the Customer Care operating budget, including headcount, contractor spend, and vendor costs
• Inspire and mentor direct reports to drive accountability and results
• Support associate directors in systems, operations processes, customer relations, and issue resolution (as an escalation point)
• Assist in hiring, training, and deployment of Customer Care Representatives to meet performance and service requirements

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree required; master's degree or MBA preferred
• Extensive experience leading customer care operations within SAP or comparable enterprise systems
• Minimum of 7+ years of Customer Care / Service/ Operations experience
• Minimum of 6+ years of people management experience, including oversight of contract or outsourced resources

Location

• Omaha, NE or surrounding area

Required Skills and Experience

• Strong strategic leadership and organizational transformation capability
• Advanced financial acumen, including budget ownership, forecasting, and vendor spend management
• Demonstrated ability to manage complex vendor relationships and third-party contracts
• Proven track record of building and leading high-performing teams
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive enterprise-wide decisions
• Strong relationship and account management skills
• Expertise in customer communication planning and service strategy
• Advanced written and verbal communication skills
• Strong computer proficiency, including MS Office (Excel emphasized) and web-based applications
• Approximately 25% travel required

Leadership Behaviors

• Demonstrate Ethics & Integrity
• Drive Results
• Focus on Customers
• Making Rapid, Disciplined Decisions
• Act with Courage & Candor
• Foster Collaboration

Professional Competencies

• Business & Financial Acumen
• Working Across Boundaries
• Strategic Thinking
• Project Management
• Strong Executive Presence
• Problem Solving

Core Commercial Functional Competencies

• Customer and Market Insights
• Strategic Business Management
• Product Knowledge & Portfolio Management
• Account Management
• Customer Engagement
• Market Access

Required Skills:

Animal Health Care, Animal Health Sales, Customer Care, Customer Experience (CX), Customer Management, Customer Order Fulfillment, Customer Success Strategies, Leadership, People Management, Pharmaceutical Industry, Problem Solving, Salesforce (Software), SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), SAP Systems, Strategic Leadership, Team Management

Preferred Skills:

Accountability, Customer Engagement, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), Operational Excellence, Strategic Business Units

Salary Range for this role is $156,900.00 - $247,000.00

The successful candidate will be eligible for annual bonus and long-term incentive, if applicable.

We offer a comprehensive package of benefits. Available benefits include medical, dental, vision healthcare and other insurance benefits (for employee and family), retirement benefits, including 401(k), paid holidays, vacation, and compassionate and sick days. More information about benefits is available at https://jobs.merck.com/us/en/compensation-and-benefits.

You can apply for this role through https://jobs.merck.com/us/en (or via the Workday Jobs Hub if you are a current employee). The application deadline for this position is stated on this posting.

San Francisco Residents Only: We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records for employment in compliance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Los Angeles Residents Only: We will consider for employment all qualified applicants, including those with criminal histories, in a manner consistent with