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Job Title

Head of Technology - Systems & Engineering ( Sr. Director)

Location

Titusville, NJ • Raritan, NJ • Spring House, PA

Reports To

Head of Technology, Innovative Medicine R&D

Division / Department

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine R&D Technology

Travel

15–20% domestic and international

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine R&D is dedicated to advancing transformative therapies and accelerating scientific breakthroughs that improve human health. Through the convergence of science, data, AI, and technology, we enable the discovery, development, and delivery of innovative medicines that address critical unmet patient needs.

The Technology organization serves as a strategic partner to R&D, providing modern platforms, architectures, data capabilities, and digital services that accelerate innovation, strengthen operational excellence, and create competitive advantage across the pharmaceutical value chain.

The Head of Technology, Cross R&D Systems is a senior technology leader responsible for defining, operating, and modernizing the shared technology platforms and products that enable end-to-end Innovative Medicine R&D. This role leads cross-functional platforms/products spanning R&D finance and planning, data, AI and compute, enterprise tools, software engineering capabilities, cloud optimization, operations, reliability, and product lifecycle management.

The role partners across R&D product lines, Technology Services, Information Security & Risk Management, Finance, Data Science, Engineering, Architecture, and business leadership to ensure shared products & platforms are secure, scalable, reliable, cost-effective, and aligned to enterprise standards. The leader will set a clear vision, build and empower a large global team, strengthen cross-regional ways of working, and drive consistent governance, operational excellence, lifecycle discipline, and value realization across cross-R&D products and enabling platforms.

This role is accountable for ensuring the Cross R&D technology portfolio improves productivity, accelerates delivery, enables AI-ready capabilities, strengthens security integration, reduces technical debt, and supports the evolving needs of Discovery, Development, Regulatory Affairs, Medical Safety, and R&D operations.

·   Define and execute the technology strategy and product roadmap for R&D finance, portfolio planning, resource planning, investment management, forecasting, and performance management platforms.

·   Partner with R&D Finance, portfolio leaders, product teams, and business operations to modernize planning workflows and improve decision transparency.

·   Enable integrated views of spend, capacity, portfolio priorities, value realization, and investment tradeoffs across R&D.

·   Drive platform simplification, data quality, automation, and usability improvements to increase adoption and reduce manual work.

·   Ensure planning platforms are interoperable with broader enterprise finance, portfolio, workforce, and data ecosystems.

·     Lead shared data, AI, analytics, and compute platform capabilities that support cross-R&D use cases and product teams.

·     Partner with Data & AI, architecture, engineering, scientific computing, and business teams to provide scalable, secure, and reusable platform services.

·     Enable AI-ready data capabilities, compute environments, model development workflows, and governed access to high-quality data assets.

·     Drive adoption of modern cloud, data engineering, AI/ML operations, automation, and platform engineering practices.

·     Optimize compute consumption, storage, performance, and cost while ensuring fit-for-purpose capabilities for scientific and operational workloads.

·     Own operational excellence for Cross R&D technology products and platforms, including reliability, observability, resiliency, performance, and service management.

·     Drive software and cloud optimization programs focused on cost efficiency, technical health, scalability, capacity management, and measurable value realization.

·     Advance SDLC automation, DevSecOps, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, test automation, release management, and engineering productivity capabilities.

·     Establish service-level objectives, operational metrics, incident management practices, and continuous improvement routines across critical platforms.

·     Reduce operational risk and technical debt through proactive modernization, automation, monitoring, and lifecycle discipline.

·     Serve as the primary Cross R&D interface with Technology Services and Information Security & Risk Management for infrastructure, security, risk, and enterprise technology enablement.

·     Embed secure-by-design practices into platform architecture, engineering, operations, and release processes.

·     Coordinate security assessments, risk remediation, infrastructure dependencies, identity/access patterns, resilience requirements, and compliance obligations.

·     Ensure technology decisions align with enterprise security standards, privacy expectations, regulatory requirements, and business continuity needs.

·     Drive timely resolution of cross-platform risks, vulnerabilities, audit findings, and technology dependencies.

·  Define and enforce adoption of enterprise tools, engineering standards, architecture patterns, operational controls, and governance processes across Cross R&D products.

·  Partner with enterprise architecture, engineering, quality, security, and product leadership to standardize delivery practices and reduce one-off solutions.

·  Build governance mechanisms that improve transparency, decision quality, standards adherence, technology lifecycle discipline, and risk management.

·  Track compliance to standards, platform health, adoption, dependency management, and value realization through clear KPIs and executive reporting.

·  Promote reuse of enterprise services and shared capabilities to improve speed, consistency, cost efficiency, and supportability.

· Lead the Cross R&D product portfolio, including strategy, roadmap prioritization, funding alignment, delivery oversight, and stakeholder engagement.

· Manage product teams delivering shared capabilities used by multiple R&D functions, ensuring strong user experience, service quality, and business value.

· Translate cross-functional needs into scalable technology capabilities with clear outcomes, adoption targets, and measurable benefits.

· Ensure predictable delivery through strong portfolio governance, agile/product operating practices, vendor management, and financial discipline.

· Partner with business and technology leaders to balance innovation, operational stability, modernization, and portfolio affordability.

·  Lead, coach, and develop a large, globally distributed team of technology leaders, product managers, engineers, and operations professionals; create clarity on priorities, decision rights, accountability, and expected outcomes across regions and functions.

·  Foster an inclusive, high-performing leadership culture that enables collaboration across time zones, accelerates decision-making, builds trust with stakeholders, and supports talent development, succession readiness, and organizational resilience.

·  Own ALM/TLM strategy and execution for Cross R&D products, ensuring applications and platforms remain current, secure, cost-effective, and supportable.

·  Establish lifecycle roadmaps for rationalization, upgrades, modernization, decommissioning, vendor transitions, and technical debt remediation.

·  Maintain clear visibility into platform health, lifecycle risk, end-of-life dependencies, product ownership, and investment requirements.

·  Drive disciplined application portfolio management to reduce duplication, simplify the ecosystem, and improve long-term sustainability.

·  Integrate lifecycle decisions into annual planning, security remediation, architecture governance, financial management, and product roadmaps.

·  Preferred master’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, or related field; advanced degree preferred.

·  15+ years of progressive technology leadership experience, including significant responsibility for enterprise platforms, operations, product portfolios, or technology transformation.

·  Experience in life sciences, healthcare, biotech, pharmaceuticals, or other highly regulated global environments preferred.

·  Demonstrated expertise in cloud platforms, data and AI platforms, application portfolio management, software engineering, technology operations, and cybersecurity integration.

·  Proven experience leading large, globally distributed, matrixed teams and influencing outcomes across business, technology, external partners, and enterprise shared services.

·  Demonstrated ability to set enterprise-level direction, build leadership bench strength, develop diverse talent, and create an operating rhythm that drives accountability, empowerment, and sustained performance at scale.

·  Strong financial discipline, portfolio management capability, and ability to connect technology investments to measurable value.

·  Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, communication, and stakeholder management skills.

·  Experience with Agile/product-centric delivery, DevSecOps, FinOps, ALM/TLM, and architecture governance strongly preferred.

·  Deep understanding of pharmaceutical R&D operating models and the shared technology capabilities required across Discovery, Development, Regulatory Affairs, Medical Safety, Data Science, and R&D operations.

·  Proven success leading large-scale platforms and products across finance/planning, data, AI, compute, engineering enablement, cloud, enterprise tools, or technology operations.

·  Demonstrated ability to run critical technology services with high reliability, strong service management, measurable operational performance, and disciplined risk management.

·  Experience partnering with enterprise technology, security, infrastructure, architecture, finance, procurement, data, quality, and business leadership in complex global environments.

·  Strong track record driving software engineering excellence, SDLC automation, DevSecOps, cloud optimization, platform modernization, and application lifecycle management.

·  Demonstrated ability to shape roadmaps, build business cases, manage funding, track value realization, and prioritize investments across a broad product portfolio.

·  Skilled in managing vendor ecosystems, technology dependencies, and multi-year modernization initiatives while maintaining delivery predictability.

·  Strong executive communication and influencing skills, with the ability to translate complex operational and technical topics into clear business decisions.

·  Experience leading through complexity and change across regions, cultures, and functions, with a strong track record of aligning senior stakeholders, engaging teams through ambiguity, and translating strategy into clear execution plans.