Associate Director, Freight Payment and Auditing

Job Description

At our company, we are dedicated to advancing the prevention and treatment of diseases in people and animals through innovative health solutions.  We are seeking a detail-oriented and experienced Associate Director, Freight Payment and Auditing to join our team.

In conjunction with the other three operating regions, North America Manufacturing Logistics supports the execution of our Company’s manufacturing operations from inbound of raw materials to shipment of finished goods to customers and everything in-between. The team manages relationships with our transportation service providers; acts as transportation subject matter experts; and collaborates with departments and functions across our Company to bring life-saving medicines to the world.

Our team houses the freight bill payment and auditing function for our Manufacturing Division in North America, particularly focusing on air, ocean, road, parcel, and premium courier bills.  Along with our external freight bill payment & auditing vendor, this role is critical to maintaining our logistics services domestically and globally.

Responsibilities

• Collaborating with internal and external stakeholders across transportation, warehouse operations, supporting functions, and finance to ensure the timely payment of our Company’s freight invoices in accordance with contracts.
• Producing key financial reports and collaborating with regional and local finance to facilitate month-end close and accruals.
• Supporting global transportation budget overview and reporting to monitor and explain monthly performance against the plan.
• Ensuring accurate general ledger coding and cost allocation.
• Collaborating with division and corporate leadership to identify requirements and develop strategies for the development, implementation, and monitoring of freight audit and payment processes both within the region and globally.
• Ensuring compliance with internal accounting requirements including industry and legal requirements and standards.
• Measuring and reporting the effectiveness of the audit and payment processes.
• Ensuring the transfer of freight payment data from the audit and/or payment provider into our company’s system of record.
• Ensuring our company’s reporting system and the provider’s system are in balance.
• Determining metrics, implementing changes to drive business improvements, and maintaining dashboards to achieve targets and communicate progress monthly, quarterly, annually.
• Conducting regular process improvement reviews to identify automation or enhancement opportunities and managing those improvement projects to completion within the Fiscal Year Targets.
• Managing relationship and ongoing improvement projects with third-party freight audit providers.
• Mentoring and training team members and new hires on freight audit and payment policies, procedures, and system functionalities to foster a collaborative and knowledgeable team environment.

Qualifications

Required

• Eight or more (8+) years of supply chain, audit, logistics, or other relevant experience.
• Three or more (3+) years of freight audit and payment experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Finance, or related field
• Intense attention to detail while working with large datasets to support decision making.
• Experience managing and participating in multi-functional projects and global teams.
• Able to think critically to solve sophisticated problems.
• Excellent communication skills, including comfort working across multiple functional areas globally.

Preferred

• Master’s degree in Business, Supply Chain, or related field
• Ten or more (10+) years of experience with freight audit and payment processes across all modes of transportation.
• Experience with analytics and dashboarding tools (e.g. Power BI).
• People management experience.
• Proven leadership experience both in leading projects and teams.

Required Skills:

Business Creativity, Clinical Supply Chain Management, Cost Allocations, Cross-Cultural Awareness, Customer-Focused, Data Analysis, Freight Audit, Freight Payment, General Ledger Coding, Influencing Without Authority, International Logistics, Inventory Control Management, Logistics Operations, Process Improvements, Production Planning, Supply Chain Management (SCM), Supply Chain Processes, Team Coaching, Trade Compliance, Transportation Management, Transportation Regulations, Transportation Systems

Preferred Skills:

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

US and Puerto Rico Residents Only:

Our company is committed to inclusion, ensuring that candidates can engage in a hiring process that exhibits their true capabilities. Please click here if you need an accommodation during the application or hiring process.

As an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer, we provide equal opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability status, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.  As a federal contractor, we comply with all affirmative action requirements for protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.  For more information about personal rights under the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment laws, visit:

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We are proud to be a company that embraces the value of bringing together, talented, and committed people with diverse experiences, perspectives, skills and backgrounds. The fastest way to breakthrough innovation is when people with diverse ideas, broad experiences, backgrounds, and skills come together in an inclusive environment. We encourage our colleagues to respectfully challenge one another’s thinking and approach problems collectively.

Learn more about your rights, including under California, Colorado and other US State Acts

The salary range for this role is

$117,000.00 - $184,200.00

This is the lowest to highest salary we in good faith believe we would pay for this role at the time of this posting. An employee’s position within the salary range will be based on several factors including, but not limited to relevant education, qualifications, certifications, experience, skills, geographic location, government requirements, and business or organizational needs.

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 the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance

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:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

No

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

1st - Day

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

n/a

Job Posting End Date:

06/11/2026

*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.