Sr Director - R&D DDSAI - Discovery Biologics

At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at jnj.com

As guided by Our Credo, Johnson & Johnson is responsible to our employees who work with us throughout the world.  We provide an inclusive work environment where each person is considered as an individual.  At Johnson & Johnson, we respect the diversity and dignity of our employees and recognize their merit.

Job Function:

Job Sub Function:

Job Category:

All Job Posting Locations:

Job Description:

J&J Innovative Medicine is hiring for a Sr Director - R&D DDSAI - Biologics Discovery opportunity. This position has a primary location of Spring House, PA and will require up to 25% travel.

J&J Innovative Medicine develops treatments that improve the health of people worldwide. Research and development areas encompass oncology, immunology, neuroscience, cardiopulmonary and specialty ophthalmology. Our goal is to help people live longer, healthier lives. We have produced and marketed many first-in-class prescription medications and are poised to serve the broad needs of the healthcare market — from patients to practitioners and from clinics to hospitals. To learn more about Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine visit https://innovativemedicine.jnj.com/

About the Opportunity

Help shape the next generation of Discovery Biologics by bringing together exceptional science, biologics data, lab robotics, and AI to discover better medicines for patients, faster.

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine is seeking an accomplished scientific and organizational leader to oversee all Data & AI activities supporting Discovery Biologics. Your mission will be to help our scientists discover the best possible molecules with speed to double our rate of clinical candidates in our already industry leading organization.

You will set the organization’s data and AI strategy for Discovery Biologics, build outstanding multidisciplinary capabilities, and translate advances in Tech, Data, & AI into productive scientific practice. Working closely with Discovery Biologics scientists and IT, you will connect molecular design, experimentation, data generation, and analytical insight into a new AI-Native Biologics engine that learns from every experiment.

Key Responsibilities

Set the Data & AI Strategy

• Define and execute an integrated strategy spanning data, advanced analytics, machine learning, and AI across Discovery Biologics.
• Translate scientific and portfolio priorities into a focused, multiyear roadmap, balancing immediate discovery needs with differentiated long-term capabilities.
• Oversee the Data & AI project portfolio, aligning investments, resources, partnerships, and delivery priorities with scientific impact.
• Serve as a senior strategic partner to the Discovery Biologics leadership team, communicating opportunities, progress, risks, and investment tradeoffs clearly.

Make AI Productive in Biologics Discovery

• Lead the development, evaluation, and deployment of AI approaches that support antibody engineering, lab data analytics, profiling, and candidate optimization.
• Partner with experimental scientists & IT to define the questions that matter, design meaningful evaluations, and translate process opportunities into project investments with clear measurable impacts
• Advance predictive, generative, and multimodal approaches where they offer demonstrable value in collaboration with our Discovery modeling and IT teams.
• Ensure promising methods become reliable, scalable capabilities embedded in discovery workflows rather than isolated proofs of concept.

Connect Molecular Design and Experimental Learning

• Partner with scientific and automation teams to connect molecular design, experimental execution, data capture, analysis, and subsequent design decisions.
• Ensure experimental data continuously strengthens models and scientific understanding.
• Enable scientists at the center of AI-enabled discovery through the use of AI tools and lab automation.  Combining computational recommendations with experimental evidence and scientific reasoning.

Build Connected, AI-Ready Data Foundations

• Oversee the data strategy and engineering capabilities needed to capture, integrate, curate, and reuse Discovery Biologics data.
• Establish durable data products connecting sequence, assay results, profiling, biophysical measurements, automation outputs, and external partner datasets.
• Champion FAIR principles, semantic alignment, metadata quality, shared ontologies, and provenance.
• Partner with downstream development colleagues to maintain continuity of molecular knowledge and developability evidence across the Discovery-to-CMC interface.

Deliver Trusted, Sustainable Capabilities

• Partner with technology, platform, and enterprise AI teams to align scientific requirements with scalable architecture and infrastructure.
• Oversee the full lifecycle of analytical and AI solutions, including development, testing, deployment, monitoring, maintenance, and improvement.
• Promote reusable capabilities and standards that strengthen collaboration across R&D.

Build Talent and Scientific Adoption

• Attract exceptional talent and develop leaders who can bridge experimental science and computational innovation.
• Foster a culture of scientific rigor, curiosity, collaboration, and accountability for usable outcomes.
• Strengthen scientists’ data and AI Literacy through partnership, coaching, and practical demonstrations of value.

Shape External Innovation

• Build strategic collaborations with academic groups, biotechnology companies, technology partners, and scientific consortia.
• Evaluate emerging methods and external capabilities against Discovery Biologics priorities.
• Represent the organization in scientific and industry forums and support publications and intellectual property where appropriate.

Required Qualifications

Proposed requirements for this role:

• Ph.D. or equivalent experience in Computational Biology, Bioinformatics, Protein Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, AI/ML, Applied Mathematics, or a related discipline.
• 12+ years of relevant experience applying data science, computational methods, or AI in drug discovery or related scientific environments, including 7+ years building and leading scientific or technical teams.
• Substantial experience in biologics discovery, with the scientific depth to partner credibly with antibody and protein engineering scientists.
• Demonstrated success translating ML/AI and data capabilities into experimentally grounded discovery decisions and adopted scientific workflows.
• Strong technical judgment across ML/AI, scientific computing, data engineering, and model lifecycle management.
• Experience setting strategy, prioritizing investments, and delivering complex programs through multidisciplinary teams and matrix partnerships.
• Expertise in building reusable, interoperable data foundations with high standards for quality, governance, and reproducibility.
• Exceptional executive communication and stakeholder leadership, with the ability to connect technical opportunities to scientific and organizational priorities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with AI-enabled experimentation, laboratory automation, or closed-loop optimization.
• Familiarity with knowledge graphs, ontologies, semantic search, and scientific data integration.
• Experience connecting discovery data and insights with developability and downstream development needs.
• A record of scientific publications, intellectual property, or impactful academic and industry collaborations.

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to shape how Discovery Biologics invents new medicines of the future, not simply how discovery data is analyzed, in the largest health company on the planet.

You will bring scientific ambition and computational innovation together around a compelling purpose: helping scientists explore more possibilities, learn faster, and create better molecules for patients. Your influence will span strategy, talent, data foundations, AI capabilities, and the everyday decisions that move discovery forward.

If you are energized by deep science, bold leadership, and turning AI’s potential into meaningful discovery impact, we invite you to help us build the future of Discovery Biologics.

Johnson & Johnson is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Johnson & Johnson is committed to providing an interview process that is inclusive of our applicants’ needs. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request an accommodation, external applicants please contact us via https://www.jnj.com/contact-us/careers, internal employees contact AskGS to be directed to your accommodation resource.

#JRDDS

#JNJDataScience

JNJIMRND-DS

Required Skills:

Preferred Skills:

The anticipated base pay range for this position is :

Additional Description for Pay Transparency: