Overview
Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (J&J IM) is recruiting for a Sr Director, R&D Data Science - Head of Data Strategy & Products – TA Focus. Primary location is Titusville, NJ, with eligibility for Spring House, PA; Cambridge, MA; San Francisco, CA; or Zug, Switzerland. The role requires 25% travel. For US applicants, use requisition R-035880. Learn more at www.jnj.com.
Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries work on teams that save lives by developing 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 about Innovative Medicine at the link above.
Position Summary
The Head of Data Strategy & Products – TA Focus leads the development of Data Strategy and the design and delivery of user-centric, reusable data products that enable delivery of Data Science and AI solutions for TA Discovery and drug development. This leader will manage three specialized sub-teams: Data Strategy & Products for Oncology TA, Immunology TA, and Neuroscience TA. The role includes implementing use cases to unify data across domains, scaling semantic/knowledge services, and institutionalizing data governance. The position focuses on productizing high-value data assets across TAs and coordinating with internal and external data sources and real-world evidence (RWE). The Head works in close collaboration with Data Science TA teams and aligns with centralized Data Product Architecture & Governance and Knowledge Management functions.
A core responsibility is developing a TA Ontology as the semantic backbone of TA data, aligning with the broader strategy of integrating the R&D data landscape. The ontology supports data product standardization, reuse, and interoperability, and the role ensures seamless integration with graph-based reasoning capabilities.
Beyond collaboration with Data Product Architecture & Governance and Knowledge Management, liaison with Master Data Management is critical to establish a Data Strategy & Products function for TAs.
Travel – Less than 25% to conferences and key internal meetings.
Key Responsibilities
Data Strategy
* Develop an ongoing data strategy program, partnering with Data Science TA teams to align with TA business needs and priorities.
Data Product Strategy & Execution
* Define and maintain a roadmap for data products supporting TAs.
* Embed product thinking, agile delivery, and FAIR data principles across the product lifecycle.
Ontology & Semantic Modeling
* Lead the development and governance of a TA Ontology to enable semantic consistency across TA domains.
* Align the ontology with internal metadata standards and external frameworks.
Collaboration with Knowledge Management
* Contribute to governance of vocabularies, taxonomies, and semantic layers to enable knowledge reasoning, search, and graph-based automation.
Team & Operating Model Leadership
* Build and lead a cross-functional team.
* Establish agile delivery processes, value-tracking metrics, and product lifecycle governance.
Value Realization & Communication
* Define and track KPIs.
* Communicate product vision, roadmaps, and value realization to stakeholders.
Qualifications
* Education & Experience
* PhD or Master’s degree in life sciences, informatics, natural sciences, data science, or related discipline.
* 10+ years of leadership in data platforms, data engineering, or governance, with significant pharma/biotech R&D or regulated domain experience.
* Strong business acumen in pharmaceutical and/or data science, drug discovery, and data product development.
* Experience with high-throughput screening data, omics, chemical and biological data for scalable data science solutions.
* Prior leadership of multi-disciplinary teams and vendor/partner ecosystems.
* Proven track record delivering business-critical data solutions.
* Experience in data product design and semantic modeling; familiarity with ontological frameworks, metadata governance, and industry standards.
* Strong experience with pre-clinical, clinical, and real-world data.
* Track record in building data strategy with business impact.
* Strong background in data analysis, solution development, and architecture.
* Excellent communication, interpersonal, and written skills; energetic and collaborative.
* Experience in managing and leading diverse teams and global collaborations.
* Ability to multi-task, organize effectively, and prioritize to maximize business value.
* Ability to build networks across the business to sponsor initiatives at all levels.
* Ability to influence and drive change in a complex organization.
* Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with risk management capabilities.
Leadership Competencies
* Strategic & Systems Thinking
* Operational Excellence
* Governance Mindset
* People & Culture Builder
* Outcome Orientation
* Risk & Compliance Stewardship
Strategic Impact
Through this role, high-value data products are positioned as strategic enablers of insight, automation, and compliance across TAs. By embedding semantic rigor and aligning with industry-wide data harmonization efforts, the Head of Data Strategy & Products transforms how TA data is structured, shared, and used across the organization and beyond.
Other
* Travel – Less than 25% to conferences and key internal meetings.
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 email the Employee Health Support Center or AskGS for accommodation resources.
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