Principal Scientist - AI-Reasoning for Drug Discovery

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:

Data Analytics & Computational Sciences

Job Sub Function:

Data Science

Job Category:

Scientific/Technology

All Job Posting Locations:

New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States of America, Raritan, New Jersey, United States of America, Spring House, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Titusville, New Jersey, United States of America

Job Description:

About Innovative Medicine

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow.

Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.

Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/innovative-medicine

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (J&J IM) is recruiting for the role of "Principal Scientist – AI-Reasoning for Drug Discovery".

The primary location for this role is Spring House, PA.

Other possible locations are:

• Horsham, Pennsylvania,
• New Brunswick, Raritan or Titusville, New Jersey

J&J IM develops treatments that improve the health and well-being of people worldwide. Research and development areas encompass oncology, cardiovascular and retina disorders, immunology, and neuroscience. Our goal is to help people live longer and 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 J&J IM, please visit https://www.jnj.com/. 

The DDSAI-OCMO  team is seeking a visionary Principal Scientist to architect an AI-Reasoning platform to support Translational Safety decision making in drug discovery and development. You'll pioneer the development of innovative reasoning platform that scientists can access through  Large Language Models (LLMs) and agentic systems, harnessing Multimodal Scientific data across Discovery, Preclinical, Clinical, and RWE domains, harnessing large scale datasets spanning scientific literature, omics, biomolecular knowledge, and manufacturing processes to fundamentally transform how we bring therapeutics to patients. Your innovations in areas such as multimodal reasoning, agent adaptability and uncertainty, memory architecture, and motivation frameworks will directly compress discovery timelines and accelerate promising therapeutics from hypothesis to clinical trials. 

Key Responsibilities: 

• Pioneer breakthrough multimodal AI systems that synthesize scientific data into actionable scientific insights which accelerate drug discovery 

• Architect next-generation agent memory systems that establish how AI retains knowledge and makes context-aware decisions, creating persistent intelligence that evolves across the entire discovery-to-development pipeline 

• Define the future of AI reliability in R&D by orchestrating groundbreaking research in uncertainty quantification and establishing new standards for trustworthy AI-driven scientific reasoning 

• Shape the scientific vision as an inspiring leader, translating emerging AI/ML frontiers into transformative applications while mentoring teams to push the boundaries of what's possible in computational drug discovery 

• Drive scientific validation and impact by rigorously benchmarking AI agents against top human experts and state-of-the-art methods, with the opportunity to publish paradigm-shifting findings in premier venues.

Required qualifications: 

• Ph.D. in AI/ML or related fields (computer science, machine learning, data science, applied mathematics, statistics) with 2+ years of proven experience 

• Deep expertise in sophisticated mathematical frameworks including Bayesian inference, uncertainty quantification, information theory, causal inference, graph neural networks, and related methodologies that advance the field of agentic reasoning 

• Proficiency with agentic frameworks (LangGraph, DSPy, mem0) and deep learning platforms (PyTorch, TensorFlow), and extend these tools for novel scientific applications 

• Exceptional Python programming skills, capable of architecting scalable solutions that bridge innovation and production deployment 

• The ability to lead small teams of researchers to achieve success in their work.

Preferred (“nice-to-have”) qualifications: 

• Understanding of drug discovery pipeline and familiarity with biological data types 

• Strong understanding of statistics and applicable methods to validate model performance 

• Familiarity with cloud hosting solutions (ex. AWS and/or Azure) 

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 and 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 email the Employee Health Support Center  ([email protected]) or contact AskGS to be directed to your accommodation resource.

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Required Skills:

Preferred Skills:

Advanced Analytics, Coaching, Critical Thinking, Data Analysis, Data Privacy Standards, Data Quality, Data Reporting, Data Savvy, Data Science, Data Visualization, Digital Fluency, Econometric Models, Organizing, Process Improvements, Strategic Thinking, Technical Credibility, Workflow Analysis

The anticipated base pay range for this position is :

$117,000.00 - $201,250.00

Additional Description for Pay Transparency:

Subject to the terms of their respective plans, employees are eligible to participate in the Company’s consolidated retirement plan (pension) and savings plan (401(k)).

This position is eligible to participate in the Company’s long-term incentive program.

Subject to the terms of their respective policies and date of hire, employees are eligible for the following time off benefits:

Vacation –120 hours per calendar year

Sick time - 40 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Colorado –48 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Washington –56 hours per calendar year

Holiday pay, including Floating Holidays –13 days per calendar year

Work, Personal and Family Time - up to 40 hours per calendar year

Parental Leave – 480 hours within one year of the birth/adoption/foster care of a child

Bereavement Leave – 240 hours for an immediate family member: 40 hours for an extended family member per calendar year

Caregiver Leave – 80 hours in a 52-week rolling period10 days

Volunteer Leave – 32 hours per calendar year

Military Spouse Time-Off – 80 hours per calendar year

For additional general information on Company benefits, please go to: - https://www.careers.jnj.com/employee-benefits