Job Details

Senior Director, R&D Data Science & Digital Health Ophthalmology

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.

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine is recruiting for Senior Director, R&D Data Science & Digital Health Ophthalmology. This position can be located in one of our office locations in either Cambridge, MA (preferred), Spring House, PA, Titusville, NJ, or San Diego, CA. May require approximately 25% domestic and international travel.

Role Summary:

We are seeking an experienced and visionary Senior Director to lead our data science and digital health strategy for ophthalmology. This role will shape and execute innovative approaches leveraging multiomics, digital health technologies, artificial intelligence, and clinical/real-world evidence (RWE) to accelerate drug discovery, development, and patient impact. You will partner closely with Neuroscience Therapeutic Area, Clinical Development, Quantitative Sciences, Regulatory and Patient Reported Outcomes as well as external collaborators to drive a precision neuroscience agenda. This position offers the opportunity to transform how we understand disease biology, identify novel endpoints, stratify patients, and deliver better outcomes for people living with ophthalmic disorders.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define and execute the data science and digital health strategy for ophthalmology, integrating computational biology, AI/ML, digital health, and clinical/RWE insights.
• Drive the application of multiomics (genomics, proteomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, etc.) and integrative analytics to uncover disease mechanisms, biomarkers, and novel targets.
• Lead the development, validation, and regulatory engagement of digital tools and novel endpoints to enhance clinical trial design, patient monitoring, and care pathways.
• Champion the use of machine learning, deep learning, generative and agentic AI to accelerate patient stratification, disease modeling, and translational discovery.
• Partner with clinical development and medical affairs to integrate RWE into evidence generation, supporting trial optimization, regulatory submissions, and real-world impact assessment.
• Build strong cross-functional and external collaborations with academic groups, technology providers, regulators, and consortia to position the company at the forefront of data-driven science.
• Recruit, develop and inspire a diverse team of digital health scientists, RWE experts and computational scientists to deliver on strategic initiatives.

Qualifications:

• Advanced degree (PhD, MD or equivalent) in neuroscience / quantitative sciences such as biomedical engineering, data science, biostatistics, computational biology or a related field is required.
• 10+ years of relevant industry or academic experience, with proven leadership in applying data-driven methods to drug discovery and development is required.
• 7+ years of experience as a people manager is required.
• Experience in clinical development with demonstrated expertise in ophthalmology preferred.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate complex data-driven insights into clear strategies for senior stakeholders and external partners is required.
• Technical Expertise in at least two of the three following areas is required:
• Proficiency in multiomics integration (e.g., genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics,) and advanced statistical/causal inference methods;
• Expertise in applying digital health technologies (wearables, sensors, mobile platforms) and novel endpoints in clinical research.
• Experience with large-scale clinical datasets, EHR, and real-world data and expertise in advanced modeling, longitudinal analysis, and patient stratification.
• Track record of scientific contributions (presentations and publications) in this field is required.
• Familiarity with data standards, privacy regulations, and regulatory qualification pathways is required.
• Knowledge of data infrastructures, development of data analysis pipelines and their implementation at scale, and state-of-the-art AI methodologies is a plus.
• Competence with programming and analytics environments (e.g., Python, R) with ability to guide technical teams at a strategic level is required.
• Demonstrated success in leading cross-disciplinary teams at the interface of data science, biology, and clinical development is required.

This position currently has the option to follow a hybrid schedule of 3 days per week working on-site and 2 days per week working remotely (no fully remote option available) and can be located in one of our office locations in either Cambridge, MA, Spring House, PA, Titusville, NJ, or San Diego.

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, please contact us via or internal employees contact AskGS to be directed to your accommodation resource.