Lead Expert, Finance Operations and Process Automation Merck KGaA

• 3.8 Burlington, MA Job Details $107,900
• $161,900 a year 21 hours ago Qualifications Financial reporting process management Automation software Bachelor's degree Financial process automation Full Job Description Work Your Magic with us! Start your next chapter and join MilliporeSigma. Ready to explore, break barriers, and discover more? We know you've got big plans
• so do we!

Our colleagues across the globe love innovating with science and technology to enrich people's lives with our solutions in Healthcare, Life Science, and Electronics. Together, we dream big and are passionate about caring for our rich mix of people, customers, patients, and planet. That's why we are always looking for curious minds that see themselves imagining the unimaginable with us. This role does not offer sponsorship for work authorization. External applicants must be eligible to work in the US.

Your Role:

An exceptional opportunity has arisen within our Life Science Finance Systems team. In this role, you will own the finance operations backbone that keeps reporting accurate and on time, and you will use the capacity that a well-run operation creates to automate routine work with AI. You will partner closely with internal teams and our delivery partners to keep the numbers right and to move routine checks off people and onto tools.

Your responsibilities will include:

Owning the Life Science finance operations backbone end to end: GCOH, daily sales reporting accuracy, annual business segmentation, and reconciliation across the daily operation through to the Pacing View reporting that reaches senior leadership. Running the annual cost and reallocation cycle hands-on, including the reallocation logic and annual restatement, in coordination with Group Accounting and our delivery partners. Setting the standard and cadence for the partner teams that execute the operational work, making the structural and accuracy decisions, and resolving exceptions. Cataloging the manual checks across the operation and converting the deterministic ones into automations that run continuously, applying AI to the language and pattern work such as summarizing and anomaly detection. Building on our existing stack (My Insights Agent, Project Recall, SG&A Commentary AI, and Claude Code with the Foundry MCP) with the data and AI team, and reporting the capacity returned while holding the accuracy bar. In this position, you will own established operational cycles, decide how they run, and build the automation that frees the team for higher-value analysis. You will pilot automations on the highest-friction steps and scale the ones that prove out, working closely with our data and AI teams.

What good looks like:

Operational cycles close on time and reconcile. The daily sales report, month-end close, GCOH, and forecasts land on schedule, tie out, and are confirmed to controllers. Reconciliation gaps are caught before they travel. Discrepancies across the daily operation, DivCo allocations, and Pacing View are surfaced and resolved before they reach the reporting chain. GCOH stays clean. The structure is accurate, and No Hierarchy and Unmapped entries are kept within agreed thresholds. The annual cycles land. Annual cost and reallocation, and annual restatement, complete accurately and to schedule with Group Accounting and the delivery partners. Automation returns measured capacity. Manual checks are cataloged and converted to continuous rules each cycle, each one clearing a measured accuracy benchmark before it replaces the manual check, with cycle-time saved and capacity returned tracked and reported. Issues are owned to closure. Problems move from raised to resolved, and escalations carry a diagnosis and a recommended option, not just a symptom.

Who You Are Minimum Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Business, Information Systems, or a related field Minimum of 5 years of experience in financial operations, controlling, or FP&A, owning recurring reporting cycles end to end A track record of automating manual work (scripting, rules, macros, or pipeline tooling)

Preferred Qualifications :

Passionate about data-driven decision making, financial operations, and governance. Working knowledge of agentic AI in a finance context, with judgment on where it fits Experience with Snowflake and Foundry, and visualization tools like Tableau; SAP and finance-systems exposure (MCloud, CSR, or equivalent) a plus Deep understanding of finance operations, reconciliation, and key performance indicators (KPIs) Strong reconciliation and data-validation discipline, and experience implementing governance and accuracy best practices Skilled in Lean, Six Sigma, or other process improvement methodologies would be an advantage. Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, suitable for an audience that reaches senior leadership

Location:

Burlington, MA, USA; Onsite (3x week)

Travel: