Head of Navigation R&D Digital

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:

R&D Product Development

Job Sub Function:

R&D Digital

Job Category:

People Leader

All Job Posting Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, United States of America, Raynham, Massachusetts, United States of America, Warsaw, Indiana, United States of America, West Chester, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Job Description:

Fueled by innovation at the intersection of science, technology, and surgical workflow, Johnson & Johnson Orthopaedics is advancing the next generation of solutions to keep patients moving. We are focused on delivering smarter, less invasive, and more personalized orthopedic care, grounded in clinical evidence and enabled by biologics, implants, instruments, enabling technologies, and data‑driven insights.

Our Orthopaedics teams help more than 6 million patients move each year, partnering with surgeons and healthcare systems worldwide to deliver meaningful clinical outcomes, operational efficiency & reproducibility combined with sustainable economic value. Across joint reconstruction; trauma and craniomaxillofacial; sports, extremities, and elective foot and ankle; spine; and robotics and digital surgery, we bring together deep domain expertise and scalable platforms to redefine standards of care.

If you are passionate about expanding what’s possible in orthopedics, your talents can help shape the future of musculoskeletal health and support patients throughout their journey to recovery and renewed mobility. Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/medtech.

We are searching for the best talent to join our Orthopedic team as Sr. Director of Navigation located in Raynham or Boston MA. Other DPS locations will be considered. The Sr. Director of Navigation will report to the VP Digital R&D Orthopedics.

Role summary

Lead software and systems engineering for intra‑operative navigation: localization, registration, sensor fusion, and orchestration across embedded, edge and cloud components. Act as the primary navigation partner to robotics, clinical, and regulatory teams to deliver deterministic, clinician‑grade navigation capabilities.

Core responsibilities

• Own multi‑year navigation SW & systems roadmap and drive delivery to product milestones.
• Architect real‑time navigation stacks and partition deterministic control loops from non‑real‑time services.
• Lead SW, algorithm and AI teams to productionize perception pipelines.
• Build and operate simulation/digital‑twin and synthetic data pipelines for validation and regression testing.
• Establish IEC 62304‑aligned software lifecycle, CI/CD for embedded + cloud, automated test harnesses, and traceability.
• Define non‑functional requirements (accuracy budgets, latency, availability, robustness) and verification strategies.
• Integrate MLOps for model training, validation, deployment controls, and in‑field monitoring.
• Partner with QA/RA to deliver software evidence, risk controls and regulatory inputs; qualify navigation software suppliers/SDKs.
• Partner with technology partners for co-development

Key qualifications (must‑have)

• BS/MS in Computer Science, Robotics, Systems or equivalent.
• 10+ years SW/systems experience with ~5+ years in navigation/perception or related systems; experience shipping production navigation or perception software.
• Strong C/C++ and Python, real‑time middleware (ROS/ROS2, DDS or equivalent), sensor fusion, SLAM/VO, 3D registration, and simulation tooling.
• Practical experience with software design controls for regulated products (IEC 62304, ISO 13485, ISO 14971).

Preferred

• Surgical/orthopedics navigation experience, GPU/accelerator optimization, and ML model lifecycle in regulated contexts.
• Experience with SBOM, cybersecurity for medical devices, and cloud/edge orchestration.

Leadership attributes

• Systems thinker with hands‑on credibility; mentors senior engineers, builds cross‑disciplinary trust, and navigates clinical/regulatory constraints.
• Collaborates globally with external partners and sales regions

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…