Principal Scientist, Computational Pathobiologist

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:

Discovery & Pre-Clinical/Clinical Development

Job Sub Function:

Nonclinical Safety

Job Category:

Scientific/Technology

All Job Posting Locations:

La Jolla, California, United States of America, Spring House, Pennsylvania, 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

We are searching for the best talent for a Principal Scientist, Computational Pathobiologist to be in Spring House, PA or La Jolla, CA.

Purpose:
The Pathobiology Department within Preclinical Sciences and Translational Safety (PSTS) is seeking an intellectually bold, highly motivated scientific leader to help shape the next generation of Computational Pathobiology.

As Principal Scientist, you will do more than support science—you will help build the digital and analytical engine that powers our science, shaping the future of translational safety. In this role, you will democratize Pathobiology data and design, build, and deploy modern data pipelines, automations, and AI‑enabled analytics that transform multimodal nonclinical data into clear, decision‑ready insight. You will translate complex Pathobiology questions into actionable data science challenges, applying analytics, visualization, modeling, and AI to generate mechanistically grounded adverse outcome pathways, deepen understanding of on‑ and off‑target safety findings, and strengthen translational safety confidence across the portfolio.

Pathobiology brings together toxicologic and clinical pathologists, immunotoxicologists, and biomarker, molecular and histopathology scientists to support the breadth of the J&J portfolio. This role is best suited for a scientifically grounded computational leader who thrives in cross-functional environments and can communicate effectively across experimental biology, data science/data engineering/IT, and leadership.

You will be responsible for:
 

Shape the Pathobiology Digital Transformation Vision and Strategy

• Partner closely with Pathobiology scientists and leaders across functions to identify, prioritize, and deliver high‑impact data use cases aligned with PSTS priorities.
• Drive implementation of FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data principles through fit‑for‑purpose metadata, standards, and workflows.

Build Scalable Data Foundations

• Establish workflows to ingest CRO Pathobiology data in near real time.
• Develop and implement scalable processes for data ingestion, integration, curation, standardization, and warehousing.
• Ensure robust quality, governance and reproducibility practices are embedded from the ground up.

Deliver Insight Through Sophisticated Analytics, Visualization & AI

• Create tools that support search, interpretation, reporting, and scientific storytelling.
• Apply analytics, intuitive visualizations, and decision‑focused summaries tailored to diverse scientific and leadership audiences.
• Partner to deploy statistical, machine learning, and AI approaches to complex, multimodal datasets.

Collaborate to achieve Cross‑Functional Digital Delivery

• Collaborate across PSTS, Discovery Statistics, IT, and Data Science teams to assess the current data and platform ecosystem
• Co‑create or guide the creation of clear, practical digital roadmaps aligned with strategic priorities.

Advance Digital Pathobiology

• Enable key Digital Pathology initiatives, including LIS support, digital imaging hardware and software, and whole‑slide image repositories.
• Develop algorithms to help prioritize and screen candidate drug targets based on tissue expression data.
• Create composite measures and algorithms to identify translationally relevant blood- and tissue-based safety biomarkers.

Serve as Technical & Scientific Leader

• Act as a trusted subject matter expert in data science and engineering, biostatistics, and AI, guiding solution selection and implementation.
• Build familiarity with and drive adoption of J&J data science tools and digital ecosystem.
• Manage stakeholders and deliver results via collaboration in matrixed organizations
• Drive AI literacy through training and education.
• Mentor colleagues and drive AI and data analytics literacy across Pathobiology and PSTS.
• Foster a culture of data quality, FAIR principles, and data‑driven decision‑making.

Communicate Science with Impact

• Independently interpret and communicate findings through high‑quality reports and presentations.
• Present insights in multidisciplinary forums.

Qualifications / Requirements:

Education:

• Minimum of a Master’s degree in a relevant scientific or computational discipline is required
• PhD is preferred

Required:

• 6+ years of proven experience applying data science/engineering and biostatistics to biomedical (human or animal) multimodal data.
• Fluency in programming languages: Python and/or R
• Experience leveraging agentic AI and generative AI to automate workflows, derive programmatic solutions, and embed biological context.
• Cloud computing and deployment experience (e.g., GCP, Azure, AWS, Snowflake, Posit Connect).
• Strong foundation in AI, Machine learning and Statistics (e.g. clustering, random forests, SVM, LLMs, regression modeling and statistical inference, integrative analysis, AlphaFold)
• Strong understanding of scientific method and hypothesis testing
• Experience developing data visualization and dashboarding tools (e.g., Spotfire, Power BI, R Shiny).

Preferred:

• Familiarity with medical terminology and healthcare data standards (SNOMED, CPT, HL7).
• Proficiency in SAS
• Experience in the biopharmaceutical industry.
• Understanding of digital image analysis, biomarkers, and multi-Omics.
• Experience leading AI/automation/data engineering/dashboarding/analytics projects for immunology, biomarkers, digital pathology, and investigative pathology.
• Publication and public speaking record

The anticipated base pay range for this position in the US is $117,000 to $201,250.

The Company maintains highly competitive, performance-based compensation programs. Under current guidelines, this position is eligible for an annual performance bonus in accordance with the terms of the applicable plan. The annual performance bonus is a cash bonus intended to provide an incentive to achieve annual targeted results by rewarding for individual and the corporation’s performance over a calendar/performance year. Bonuses are awarded at the Company’s discretion on an individual basis.
 

Subject to the terms of their respective plans, employees and/or eligible dependents are eligible to participate in the following Company sponsored employee benefit programs: medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short and long-term disability, business accident insurance, and group legal insurance.

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)).
 

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 period 10 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
 

This job posting is anticipated to close on April 27, 2026.  The Company may however extend this time-period, in which case the posting will remain available on https://www.careers.jnj.com to accept additional applications.

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.

#LI-Hybrid

Required Skills:

 

 

Preferred Skills:

 

 

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

Global healthcare company spanning pharmaceuticals, medtech, and consumer health products. Headquartered in New Brunswick, NJ.

jnj.com