Melissa Lynn Balmer

Melissa Balmer is an accomplished technical engineering leader with over 30 years of experience supporting the design, construction, start up, and operation of facilities for biologics and vaccine manufacturing. Her career spans greenfield, brownfield, and retrofit capital projects from $50M to >$450M, with end-to-end involvement from feasibility and design through construction, qualification, and licensed production. Ms. Balmer is currently an Associate Director, Engineering at Merck & Co., serving as a Clean Utility SME supporting all phases of global capital projects. She has led cross-functional engineering teams, resolved complex start-up challenges, mentored early-career engineers, and partnered with internal stakeholders to deliver reliable, compliant facilities under significant cost and schedule pressures. She brings deep expertise in clean utilities, processing equipment, risk-based commissioning and qualification, and change management in regulated environments. Ms. Balmer has been an active contributor to the ASME BioProcessing Equipment (BPE) Standard for nearly 20 years, holding leadership roles on the BPE Design Subcommittee for more than 15 years. She earned her BChE from the University of Delaware.