Head of Compliance, South East Africa at Merck Group

The Head of Compliance, South East Africa implements, expands and maintains a state of the art Compliance Program for a multi-national pharmaceutical and chemical company for the South East Africa Region with a primary focus on Healthcare.

The Head of Compliance role is to support regional/country organizations to ensure all employees in the region comply with Merck’s Integrity policies, Anti-Kickback/Bribery, Privacy, International Trade Controls and Healthcare and pharma specific codes of conducts through conducting extensive trainings, setting forth appropriate processes and monitoring systems.

The Head of Compliance should know the culture and values of the company, be close to the Business and demonstrates high level of proactivity in his/her job. The Head of Compliance role is also to:

• Strengthen the compliance infrastructure by implementing/improving systems, procedures and initiatives in line with Company’s regional and global strategies.
• Work closely with regional and local functions and organizations to support regional growth strategy in emerging markets with a business oriented and compliant sound approach.
• Proactively support and drive needed monitoring and control systems, compliance reviews and process changes across the region.
• Support and guide regional and country teams to develop and update policies, procedures and guidelines and shall incorporate country specific requirements to Merck’s regional and global compliance initiatives.
• Develop and maintain major compliance metrics and drive operational mechanisms consistent with Company’s global and regional requirements.
• Help design, develop and support business/Middle East & Africa compliance teams to increase awareness of compliance matters and ensure relevant functions of organizations receive appropriate level compliance trainings in a timely manner across the region.
• Make thoroughrisk assessments and assist in developing appropriate preventive measures and action plans.
• Promptly handle compliance issues by conducting investigations, analyzing facts and producing though and well documented conclusions, support regional and local functions in audit and ongoing internal monitoring processes.
• Support to coordinate and maintain third party business compliance processes and help to make sure that robust due diligence processes are conducted.
• Head of Compliance South East Africa will be reporting to the Head of Compliance Middle East & Africa Region and will work in close collaboration with the Managing Director for South East Africa.

Qualifications and experience:

Essential

• Strong project management and prioritization skills with process focus, ability to effectively manage multiple tasks and priorities with a strong compliance sound and business oriented approach.
• Ability to work in a highly matrix and diverse business environment with multiple stakeholders in a timely manner.
• Strong interpersonalskills and ability to work in a team environment
• Strong problem solving, facilitation and management skills, ability to effectively interactwith regional leadership
• Flexibility to work withnew information, different or unexpected circumstances, and/orambiguous situations.
• Able to simplify strategy into specific actions with clear accountability, making decisions with speed and accuracy based on best available information and communicating priorities clearly and concisely.
• Understand areas of law, regulations, risks, marketplace dynamics, industry trends and compliance landscape. Willing to be connected externally in local pharma trade associations.
• Excellent English language verbal and written communicationskills.
• Strong presentation and PC skills including Microsoft Offices applications (i.e.: Word, Excel, PowerPoint)

Desirable

• Candidates must have a law degree from a reputable national/international university. LL.M is an asset.
• Experience in pharma, healthcare organizations or consultancy firms supporting healthcare and/or pharma industry clients
• Working across multiple countries in Africa
• Previous experience implementing change at a large scale (introduction of a new process/policy, influencing different layers of the organization, trainings)