[Hiring] Principal Engineer, AI/Software Support @Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine

Role Description

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine is seeking a Principal Engineer to serve as a senior, hands-on technical leader within the CAR Screening & Lead Selection team (CSLS). This individual will design, build, and scale the software, data, and AI capabilities that support complex, high-throughput cell therapy discovery across pooled and arrayed screening workflows. The Principal Engineer will partner with scientists, automation engineers, computational scientists, and technology teams to connect experimental design, laboratory execution, data capture, analysis, visualization, and decision-making through scalable digital workflows. The successful candidate will move fluidly between technical strategy and implementation, establish robust software architecture and engineering practices, and directly deliver production-quality applications, APIs, data pipelines, computational tools, and AI-enabled solutions. The role is remote-eligible within the United States and requires approximately 10–15% travel to company sites, including Spring House, Pennsylvania, La Jolla, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

• Serve as the senior software and AI technical expert for Cell & Genetic Medicines high-throughput screening capabilities, both pooled and arrayed.
• Define and implement scalable architecture connecting laboratory automation, analytical instruments, enterprise systems, scientific data, and user workflows.
• Build reliable applications, APIs, data pipelines, computational tools, and user-facing visualization solutions for cell therapy discovery.
• Develop and deploy AI-enabled capabilities, including machine learning, generative AI, retrieval-augmented generation, and agentic workflows, where they provide clear scientific or operational value.
• Proactively identify and prioritize opportunities to apply AI or software solutions that improve organizational effectiveness, scientific productivity, operational efficiency, and decision-making.
• Translate complex experimental processes and scientific questions into intuitive, maintainable, and reproducible digital solutions.
• Help organize and contextualize screening data, construct information, assay metadata, and analytical outputs to improve experimental planning, data quality, hit identification, candidate ranking, and knowledge capture.
• Establish engineering best practices for architecture, development, testing, documentation, version control, deployment, observability, security, and lifecycle management.
• Build trusted cross-functional and cross-departmental partnerships across Discovery Research, IT, Business Technology, and other groups; align stakeholders, clarify expectations, and communicate decisions, risks, tradeoffs, and progress constructively.
• Influence technical direction without direct authority and mentor scientists and engineers in software engineering, data architecture, and the responsible use of AI.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, data science, computational biology, bioinformatics, engineering, or a related technical field, with significant relevant industry experience; an advanced degree is preferred.
• Extensive experience designing and delivering complex software systems in scientific, engineering, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, or similarly data-intensive environments.
• Demonstrated experience integrating AI/ML or generative AI models into usable, production-quality software systems.
• Experience using Amazon Web Services (AWS), including provisioning and managing compute instances and working with Amazon S3 buckets for secure data storage, access, and transfer.
• Strong systems thinking and the ability to rapidly understand scientific workflows and translate user needs into scalable technical solutions.
• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and relationship-building skills, including the ability to manage both projects and expectations across organizational boundaries.
• Ability to work effectively in highly collaborative, multidisciplinary teams and travel approximately 10–15% annually.

Requirements

• Experience supporting drug discovery, cell therapy, functional genomics, high-throughput screening, or laboratory automation.
• Experience integrating robotic systems, analytical instruments, and automated data-generation platforms with software and informatics infrastructure.
• Familiarity with high-dimensional biological datasets, FAIR data principles, scientific metadata standards, data governance, and regulated or highly controlled technology environments.
• Experience developing scientific applications, visualization tools, knowledge systems, workflow orchestration, or AI agents.
• Hands-on experience with electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) software, especially Benchling, including integrating ELN workflows with scientific data platforms, laboratory systems, or automation.
• Experience embedded in laboratory-facing organizations and partnering directly with experimental scientists.

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
• Volunteer Leave – 32 hours per calendar year
• Military Spouse Time-Off – 80 hours per calendar year