Director, Transformation Management (Open to Remote, Continental U.S.)

We welcome remote candidates across the continental U.S. who can work Pacific Time Zone working hours. This role requires regular travel to the Los Angeles area.

Company Description 

Merkle is a leading data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. The agency’s heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive people-based marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With 16,000+ employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with additional offices in the US, Europe, and Asia. In 2016, the agency joined the Dentsu Aegis Network. 

Job Description 

The Director, Transformation Management serves as the strategic leader responsible for driving adoption, readiness, and value realization across a portfolio of interconnected commercial transformation initiatives. This role partners with executive stakeholders, business leaders, program teams, and external partners to ensure that transformation investments translate into measurable business outcomes, sustained adoption, and improved ways of working. 

As a senior member of the Transformation team, you will lead enterprise adoption planning and transformation orchestration efforts across multiple programs, helping stakeholders move from technology implementation to organizational adoption and business value realization. You will serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, providing visibility into transformation progress, adoption performance, organizational readiness, risks, dependencies, and business outcomes. 

This role requires a strategic leader with deep experience in enterprise transformation, adoption strategy, governance, value realization, organizational readiness, and stakeholder management. The ideal candidate can operate effectively at both the executive and program levels, balancing long-term transformation goals with near-term adoption and business needs. 

Success in this role requires the ability to align diverse stakeholder groups, establish effective governance and operating rhythms, connect transformation activities to business outcomes, and create the structure necessary to achieve sustainable organizational change at scale. 

Key Responsibilities  

• Lead the transformation adoption strategy across multiple commercial transformation initiatives, ensuring new capabilities are successfully adopted and deliver measurable business value. 

• Partner with executive stakeholders to align transformation priorities, adoption objectives, readiness activities, and business outcomes. 

• Serve as the senior lead for the Transformation Management Office (TMO) adoption function, connecting transformation efforts across programs, business teams, and stakeholder groups. 

• Develop and maintain integrated adoption roadmaps that align capability releases, organizational readiness, communications, training, and business planning cycles. 

• Translate technology deployments and program milestones into business capability adoption plans focused on user engagement and value realization. 

• Establish governance processes and operating rhythms that support adoption decision-making, issue resolution, risk management, and executive visibility. 

• Lead executive reporting efforts by developing adoption dashboards, readiness assessments, value realization reporting, and transformation narratives. 

• Define and oversee adoption, readiness, and business value measurement frameworks across transformation initiatives. 

• Establish KPIs and success metrics to measure employee adoption, organizational readiness, business outcomes, and capability utilization. 

• Drive pilot-to-scale adoption strategies, ensuring readiness criteria and stage-gate requirements are met before broader deployment. 

• Partner with change management, training, communications, and business teams to coordinate adoption activities across stakeholder groups. 

• Lead cross-program dependency management efforts to identify adoption risks, resource constraints, timing conflicts, and organizational impacts. 

• Facilitate executive governance forums, steering committees, and leadership discussions focused on transformation progress, adoption performance, and value realization. 

• Serve as the primary point of coordination across business leaders, program teams, and external partners for transformation adoption planning and execution. 

• Foster a culture of continuous improvement by leveraging adoption insights, stakeholder feedback, and performance metrics to optimize transformation outcomes and accelerate value realization. 

Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Organizational Development, Healthcare Administration, Management, Communications, or a related field. 

• 10+ years of experience in business transformation, organizational transformation, consulting, program leadership, change management, or strategy roles. 

• 7+ years of experience leading enterprise-scale transformation programs within highly matrixed organizations. 

• Demonstrated experience developing and leading transformation adoption, readiness, governance, and value realization initiatives. 

• Experience establishing executive governance structures, operating models, measurement frameworks, and strategic roadmaps. 

• Proven ability to influence and advise executive leaders, senior stakeholders, and cross-functional teams. 

• Experience leading large-scale transformation efforts involving technology, process, operating model, and organizational change. 

• Strong knowledge of transformation governance, organizational readiness, stakeholder engagement, and adoption best practices. 

• Experience developing executive dashboards, transformation reporting, business cases, and value realization frameworks. 

• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and strategic thinking capabilities. 

• Exceptional executive communication, presentation, facilitation, and relationship management skills. 

• Ability to translate complex transformation activities into clear, actionable business insights and recommendations. 

• Experience managing multiple workstreams and priorities within fast-paced, evolving transformation environments. 

• Proficiency in PowerPoint and executive-level communication development. 

Preferred  

• Experience supporting transformation initiatives within life sciences, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare, or other highly regulated industries. 

• Experience leading adoption and value realization efforts for digital, AI, data and analytics, content operations, CRM, or enterprise technology transformation initiatives. 

• Experience establishing Transformation Management Office (TMO), Transformation Office, PMO, or enterprise governance capabilities. 

• Familiarity with organizational change management methodologies, including Prosci, ADKAR, Kotter, or similar frameworks. 

• Experience with Agile delivery methodologies, scaled transformation programs, and cross-functional operating models. 

• Experience managing complex partner ecosystems, consulting teams, implementation vendors, and business stakeholders. 

Dentsu is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees. We do this without regard to race, color, national origin, sex , sexual orientation, gender identity, age, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, ancestry, physical or mental disability, marital status, political affiliation, religious practices and observances, citizenship status, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.