As a pharmacist, physician, biologist, physicist, chemist or biochemist, ideally with a doctorate, you’ll have already worked in laboratories or production areas. At Merck you can expand your theoretical and practical skills, specialize in new areas or deepen your existing specialist knowledge. You’ll also enjoy an innovative, collaborative working environment as well as state-of-the art research facilities.
You can make the most of your pioneering spirit in one of the following areas.
Applications technology
As a physicist, you’ll apply your extensive experimental and theoretical skills while focusing on how our customers use our products. Since the behavior of a chemical can seldom be deduced simply from its physical and chemical properties (for instance levels of impurities or particle size) it will be your job to determine processability in experiments.
Automation engineering
Physicists here realize investment projects aimed at automating process engineering systems in technical service units. This includes the entire process chain – from acquisition and defining the specifications and detail engineering right up to commissioning the system. Skills in areas such as steering and control technology are an advantage.
Clinical research
You’ll carry out Phase I-IV clinical trials. That means designing development and study plans for new active pharmaceutical ingredients and drugs, documenting research results and evaluating projects and licenses. The work involves close collaboration with clinical study physicians, research scientists and medical institutes – at an international as well as a domestic level.
Drug registration
As a Regulatory Affairs Manager, you’ll be involved from the development phase right up to the coordination of the registration process; and from contact with the regulatory authorities and information management up to country-specific issues.
Drug safety
Here pharmacists act as Drug Safety Officers. As such, you’ll report and assess adverse drug reactions in Germany and abroad, run training courses, prepare safety reports and support research projects.
Laboratory
Work here and you’ll mainly deal with development and quality control work. The tasks range from synthesizing new active ingredients and investigating their pharmacological and toxicological properties, through to post-marketing work that supports and optimizes our products. A typical entry position here is laboratory manager. Supported by a team of several laboratory technicians, you’ll focus on the design and synthesis of new, pharmacologically relevant chemical structures.
Other opportunities exist in our central chemical research and process engineering departments, as well as in highly application-driven areas of research like liquid crystals and effect pigments.
In addition, there’s our Central Analytical Laboratory which tests the quality of all incoming and outgoing products. Analysis is also central to in-process quality control. Both these areas call for analysis specialists with superb scientific expertise. A first-class university education is essential for the application-oriented research and to develop practice-relevant products.
Medical-scientific consultation
Here your work will relate to a wide variety of indications. You will therefore prepare expert knowledge for your target groups, answer scientific queries, evaluate licensing offers, clarify safety issues concerning our pharmaceutical products and initiate clinical trials.
Patent department
Work here and you’ll protect our discoveries and other intellectual property against unauthorized use by third parties. The patent department transforms discovery announcements into patent applications, which it then submits to the Patent Office, managing developments until the patent is granted. As a chemist and a member of the patent department, you’ll also clarify the patent situation regarding third-party rights which our own products or processes may impinge upon.
Pharmaceutical research
This is the center of creativity in Merck. New products and therapeutic approaches are discovered and tested here for their marketability and then further developed. A continual flow of innovative and efficacious products is critical to our ability to compete in the global marketplace.
Preclinical research
Here we focus on basic biomedical research. Your work, aimed at satisfying the criteria that tomorrow's products must meet, will involve close interdisciplinary cooperation with other departments within the company.
Production
Making rapid, pharmaceutically sound decisions daily will be crucial in order to support the production manager and promote smooth production operations. Drug safety is a top priority, along with occupational health & safety and environmental protection.
Product management, pharmaceutical marketing, medical information management
Scientists with strong communication skills excel in this highly diverse area. Involved in the scientific detailing of our products to physicians, pharmacists and hospitals, you’ll plan seminars, symposia and similar events for this purpose. Or you could market new or existing products, serving as the interface between customers and the different departments at Merck.
Marketing & sales
If you have business as well as technical qualifications, you could develop customer-focused solutions to position our products in the global market. That means analyzing markets, developing marketing concepts and creating promotional campaigns and training programs. As well as generating creative offers for customers, you’ll provide them with a wide range of product support services.
