What is a Business Analyst at MSD?

At MSD (known as Merck & Co. in the United States and Canada), the role of a Business Analyst is pivotal to bridging the gap between complex scientific goals and technological execution. You are not just gathering requirements; you are facilitating digital transformation in a company dedicated to saving and improving lives. Whether you are working within Research & Development, Manufacturing, or Commercial divisions, your work directly supports the infrastructure that delivers vaccines and medicines to millions of patients globally.

In this position, you act as a strategic partner to business stakeholders—scientists, supply chain managers, or commercial leaders—helping them articulate their problems and translating those needs into actionable technical specifications for IT and engineering teams. The scope of work at MSD is vast, often involving large-scale global projects, regulatory compliance (GxP), and data-driven decision-making.

This role requires a unique blend of technical acumen and empathetic communication. You will be expected to navigate a large, matrixed organization, driving clarity in ambiguous situations. Success here means delivering solutions that are not only technically sound but also compliant with rigorous industry standards, ultimately accelerating the company's mission to discover and provide innovative health solutions.

Getting Ready for Your Interviews

Preparation for MSD requires a shift in mindset. You are entering a highly regulated industry where precision and process are as important as innovation. Approach your preparation by focusing on how you add value to a structured enterprise environment.

Key Evaluation Criteria

Stakeholder Management & Translation In a global pharma environment, you will interact with diverse teams ranging from lab technicians to senior executives. Interviewers assess your ability to listen actively, decode complex business jargon, and translate it into clear technical requirements. You must demonstrate that you can manage conflicting priorities and keep disengaged or busy stakeholders aligned.

Process Analysis & GxP Awareness MSD operates under strict regulatory frameworks. While you may not need to be an expert in regulation immediately, interviewers look for a "compliance mindset." They evaluate your ability to map current state processes, identify bottlenecks, and propose future state solutions that respect safety and quality standards.

Problem Structuring & adaptability The interview process can sometimes test your patience and adaptability. Interviewers want to see how you handle ambiguity. They evaluate whether you can take a vague problem statement ("we need to improve our inventory tracking") and break it down into a logical project plan with defined deliverables.

Cultural Fit & Resilience MSD values patient focus, integrity, and collaboration. However, large organizations can be slow-moving. Interviewers look for resilience—candidates who can maintain momentum in long projects and remain professional and focused even when processes (or interview schedules) face delays.

Interview Process Overview

The interview process at MSD for Business Analyst roles is generally structured but can vary significantly in pace and organization depending on the specific location and hiring team. You should expect a multi-stage process that emphasizes behavioral fit and past experience over intense technical testing. The atmosphere is often described as professional, though the level of interviewer engagement can vary.

Typically, the process begins with a screening call from a recruiter or HR representative to verify your background and interest. This is followed by a conversation with the Hiring Manager, which focuses on your resume and core competencies. If successful, you will move to a final round, which may consist of back-to-back interviews with potential peers, stakeholders, or senior leaders.

Candidates should be prepared for a timeline that can be unpredictable. While some candidates experience a straightforward process, others report long gaps between steps, scheduling changes, or a lack of communication. It is crucial to remain patient and proactive in your follow-ups. The questions asked are usually standard behavioral and situational queries, aiming to understand how you operate within a team and how you handle project challenges.

This visual timeline represents the typical flow, but reality may differ. Use this to plan your preparation: the "Skills & Behavioral" and "Onsite/Final" stages are where you will need your strongest examples prepared. Be ready for the process to potentially stretch over several weeks, and do not be discouraged by administrative delays.

Deep Dive into Evaluation Areas

To succeed, you must demonstrate competence in core business analysis domains while showing an aptitude for the life sciences context.

Requirements Elicitation & Management

This is the bread and butter of the role. Interviewers need to know you can do more than just take notes. They want to see that you can proactively extract requirements from stakeholders who might not know exactly what they need.

Be ready to go over:

• Elicitation Techniques – Interviews, workshops, observation, and surveys. Know when to use which.
• Documentation Standards – Writing clear User Stories, Business Requirement Documents (BRDs), and Functional Specification Documents (FSDs).
• Prioritization Frameworks – How you decide what gets built first (e.g., MoSCoW method, RICE).

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had to gather requirements from a stakeholder who was resistant or unavailable."
• "How do you handle a situation where the business requirements change late in the project lifecycle?"
• "Walk me through your process for documenting a complex workflow."

Process Mapping & Optimization

In the pharmaceutical industry, efficiency and clarity are critical. You will be evaluated on your ability to visualize workflows and identify areas for improvement.

Be ready to go over:

• Visual Modeling – Proficiency with tools like Visio, Lucidchart, or BPMN standards.
• As-Is vs. To-Be – The ability to analyze the current state and design an optimized future state.
• Gap Analysis – Identifying what is missing between the current capabilities and business needs.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Describe a process you improved. What metrics did you use to measure the improvement?"
• "If I asked you to map out the 'Order to Cash' process, where would you start?"
• "How do you ensure that a new process you designed is actually adopted by the users?"

Stakeholder & Conflict Management

You will likely face questions about interpersonal dynamics. The ability to influence without authority is a major evaluation point at MSD.

Be ready to go over:

• Managing Expectations – innovative ways to say "no" or "not yet" without damaging relationships.
• Cross-functional Collaboration – Working with developers, QA, and business units simultaneously.
• Communication Styles – Adapting your message for technical vs. non-technical audiences.

Example questions or scenarios:

• "Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a developer regarding a requirement. How did you resolve it?"
• "How do you handle a stakeholder who insists on a feature that provides low business value?"

Key Responsibilities

As a Business Analyst at MSD, your day-to-day work revolves around ensuring that technology investments deliver real business value. You act as the primary liaison between the business units (such as Clinical Operations, Manufacturing, or Sales) and the IT delivery teams.

You will spend a significant portion of your time engaging with stakeholders to understand their pain points. This involves running workshops, conducting interviews, and observing workflows to gather detailed requirements. Once gathered, you are responsible for documenting these needs into clear, testable specifications that engineering teams can build against. In an Agile environment, this means writing and refining user stories and acceptance criteria.

Beyond requirements, you will often play a key role in the testing and validation phase. In the pharma context, this often includes supporting User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and ensuring that systems meet compliance standards. You will also assist in change management, helping to train users and ensure smooth adoption of new tools. You are expected to be proactive—not just taking orders, but suggesting improvements that align with MSD’s strategic goals.

Role Requirements & Qualifications

To be competitive for this role, you need a solid foundation in BA methodologies combined with the soft skills to navigate a large corporation.

Must-Have Skills

• Core BA Methodologies: Proven experience with requirements gathering, lifecycle management, and documentation (BRD, FRD, User Stories).
• Communication: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills; the ability to simplify complex data for decision-makers is non-negotiable.
• Process Modeling: Proficiency in mapping business processes using standard tools (Visio, BPMN).
• Project Management Awareness: Familiarity with SDLC, Agile/Scrum, and Waterfall methodologies.

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Industry Experience: Background in Pharma, Life Sciences, or Healthcare is a significant advantage.
• Regulatory Knowledge: Understanding of GxP, FDA regulations, or Computer System Validation (CSV).
• Technical Familiarity: Experience with SQL, data visualization tools (Power BI, Tableau), or specific enterprise systems like SAP, Veeva, or Salesforce.

Common Interview Questions

The questions you will face at MSD are a mix of standard behavioral inquiries and role-specific situational challenges. While the exact questions vary by team, the data suggests a focus on your past behavior as a predictor of future performance. Do not memorize answers; instead, prepare stories using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) that highlight your adaptability and thoroughness.

Behavioral & Situational

These questions test your soft skills and cultural fit.

• "Tell me about a time you made a mistake at work. How did you handle it?"
• "Describe a time you had to deliver bad news to a stakeholder."
• "How do you prioritize your work when you have multiple urgent deadlines?"
• "Tell me about a time you had to learn a new domain or technology quickly."
• "Describe a situation where you had to influence a team member who did not report to you."

Technical & Process

These questions assess your core competency as a BA.

• "What is your approach to gathering requirements for a project with vague objectives?"
• "What is the difference between a functional and a non-functional requirement? Give examples."
• "How do you ensure the quality of your documentation?"
• "Explain a complex technical concept to me as if I were a five-year-old."
• "What tools do you use for tracking requirements and why?"

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How technical does the Business Analyst interview get? Most BA interviews at MSD focus on process, logic, and behavioral fit rather than deep coding skills. However, depending on the specific team (e.g., Data Analytics vs. Commercial), you might be asked basic questions about SQL or data modeling. Focus on your ability to understand systems, not necessarily build them.

Q: What is the interview timeline like? Based on candidate feedback, the timeline can be variable. Some processes are wrapped up quickly, while others can span several weeks with gaps in communication. It is important to stay patient. If you haven't heard back in a week, a polite follow-up email is appropriate.

Q: Do I need pharmaceutical experience to get hired? While pharma experience is a strong "nice-to-have," it is not always mandatory for all BA roles. Strong domain knowledge in supply chain, finance, or IT, coupled with a willingness to learn the regulatory landscape (GxP), can often be sufficient.

Q: Is the role remote or hybrid? MSD generally operates on a hybrid model, though this varies by location (e.g., Cork, London, Rahway). You should expect to be in the office a few days a week to collaborate with stakeholders, as face-to-face interaction is valued in their culture.

Other General Tips

Drive the Energy Some candidates have reported that interviewers can appear distracted or disengaged. Do not let this discourage you. Bring high energy and enthusiasm to the conversation. Your engagement can help wake up the room and demonstrates your ability to motivate teams—a key BA skill.

Know the Products Take time to research MSD’s key therapeutic areas (Oncology, Vaccines, Infectious Diseases). Mentioning specific products (like Keytruda or Gardasil) or recent company initiatives during your interview shows that you have done your homework and are genuinely interested in the company's mission.

Focus on "The Why" When answering questions, don't just explain what you did. Explain why you did it that way and how it benefited the business. MSD is results-oriented; they care about the outcome (time saved, money saved, compliance achieved) more than the output (the document itself).

Prepare Questions for Them Always have 3-4 thoughtful questions ready for the end of the interview. Ask about the team structure, the biggest challenges the department is facing, or how the BA role has evolved at MSD. This turns a standard interview into a strategic conversation.

Summary & Next Steps

Securing a Business Analyst role at MSD is an opportunity to apply your analytical skills to challenges that truly matter. You will be joining a company with a massive global footprint and a mission to improve health outcomes. While the interview process may require patience and resilience, the result is a career in a stable, impactful industry that values process and precision.

Focus your preparation on your ability to translate complex needs into clear solutions, your experience managing difficult stakeholders, and your adaptability in large corporate environments. Be professional, be prepared for a mix of relaxed and rigorous questions, and maintain a positive attitude even if the process moves slowly.

The compensation for this role is competitive and varies significantly by location (e.g., salaries in the US will differ from those in Ireland or the UK). Generally, MSD offers a strong benefits package including bonuses and comprehensive health coverage. Use the data above as a baseline, but consider the total value of the package when evaluating an offer.

You have the skills to succeed here. Review your resume, practice your STAR stories, and approach the interview with the confidence of a partner who is ready to help MSD solve its toughest business problems. Good luck!