Director, Data Science - GenAI - Neuroscience

Position Summary

The Director will lead the design, development, and deployment of AI, generative AI, and agentic AI workflow solutions for Neuroscience R&D, working across datatypes, including clinical, omics and other molecular data, and medical imaging data. Working closely with scientists and data teams, the candidate will translate priority research needs into scalable tools and capabilities (e.g., AI co-scientists) that improve how scientific information is discovered, integrated, and used by scientists, in a way that stays current with evolving scientific advances. This hands-on leader will set technical direction, guide multidisciplinary delivery, establish evaluation and responsible AI practices, and build the reusable solutions within the enterprise platforms, in partnership with cross-functional teams in DDSAI and the Neuroscience TA (therapeutic area). The role is accountable for the platform build and evolution, scientific rigor and evaluation, user adoption, and measurable value from the Neuroscience AI portfolio.

Why This Role Is Unique

This is a senior AI seat for Neuroscience R&D, with genuine latitude over what gets built and why. You inherit a production agentic platform (runtime, orchestration, registered corpus, permission model, evaluation registry) and a voice in where it goes next, so your time goes to the part that cannot be outsourced to a model: strategic and hands-on investment in the platform to get the science right. The measure of success at twelve months is platform usage by the neuroscientists who move faster with high scientific accuracy, and a strategic Neuroscience AI plan that leadership funds because you argued for it with evidence. Your work will directly accelerate Johnson & Johnson's scientific discovery, fuel AI innovation, and impact patients globally.

Key Responsibilities

• Set the Neuroscience AI strategy, portfolio, roadmap, and measures of value.
• Build and deploy scalable agentic AI and generative AI solutions for priority scientific needs.
• Own delivery, investment decisions, and outcomes for the Neuroscience AI portfolio.
• Ensure scientific rigor, appropriate evidence use, and reliable domain representation.
• Establish evaluation standards, expert validation, and responsible AI practices.
• Shape shared platform capabilities and develop reusable solutions aligned with enterprise architecture.
• Guide multidisciplinary teams and maintain strong engineering and lifecycle practices.
• Partner with scientists and leaders to prioritize needs, validate solutions, and drive adoption.
• Communicate technical choices, risks, progress, and impact to senior stakeholders.

Qualifications

• PhD in computer science, computational biology, genetics, genomics, medical informatics, or a related quantitative field; or MS with additional relevant experience.
• 8+ years of experience in pharmaceutical, biotech, or healthcare analytics, with experience setting technical direction.
• Within the last 18 months, you should have hands-on experience building agentic systems and deploying AI, NLP, or generative AI solutions, leveraging LLMs, retrieval, grounding, and evaluation.
• Strong ability to critically assess scientific evidence, with optional expertise in neuroscience.
• Strong Python skills and sound software engineering practices.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary technical delivery and influencing across organizational boundaries.
• Demonstrated ability to define priorities, make evidence-based tradeoffs, and deliver measurable value.
• Strong communication skills with technical, scientific, and senior non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience developing within shared platforms, architecture standards, and governance frameworks.
• Experience with genetics, multi-omics, imaging, ontologies, or scientific knowledge systems preferred.
• Exposure to regulated environments, AI governance, and human-in-the-loop systems is preferred.
• Optional: industry experience in drug discovery, clinical development, neuroscience.

This position will be located at one of our US sites (Raritan, NJ; Titusville, NJ; Cambridge, MA; Spring House, PA; San Diego, CA). Travel may be required as needed.