Between 1999 and 2004, Katrin Merkel worked as a freelance author and editor, including as an editor in the fiction department of RTL in Cologne from 2001. In 2005, she took over as head of RTL's editing department and assisted both the editorial team and the division management in several development projects as an advisory dramaturg. Since 2010, Katrin Merkel has been working as a freelance dramaturg and development producer, primarily for series productions, as a consultant and as a lecturer.