Senior Principal Scientist, Data Science - R&D DDSAI - Therapeutics Development & Supply (TDS)

Description

The company is a healthcare business working across Innovative Medicine and MedTech. This role sits in Therapeutics Development & Supply (TDS), which connects scientific discovery with clinical use across Chemistry, Manufacturing and Controls (CMC), device development, and clinical supply chain.

The role is in the R&D Data, Data Science & AI (DDSAI) group and is a senior individual contributor position focused on Operations Research and Decision Intelligence across TDS. You will do hands-on modeling, provide technical leadership, and influence cross-functional decisions. You will work with Director- and VP-level leaders on priorities, decision needs, and the recommendations, trade-offs, and risks they need to hear.

The work covers reusable forecasting, optimization, simulation, and decision-modeling tools for portfolio and resource planning, business operations, laboratory and process digital twins, and clinical supply. The ideal candidate has an Operations Research or Engineering background and has worked in pharmaceutical CMC development or supply chain.

Responsibilities

• Build, validate, and deliver forecasting, optimization, simulation, and decision-support solutions for complex scientific, planning, and operational problems.
• Create long- and short-term forecasts for portfolio, workload, resources, and capacity, including uncertainty, dependencies, and scenario sensitivity.
• Develop business operations analytics and laboratory or process digital twins that link demand, workflow, equipment, capacity, and performance to decisions.
• Apply operations research methods to clinical supply and development planning, stating assumptions, trade-offs, and model limits openly.
• Build reusable modeling frameworks, reference implementations, and practical guidance for forecasting, optimization, simulation, decision analysis, and uncertainty quantification.
• Hold models and code to disciplined standards: modular code, version control, testing, documentation, reproducibility, peer review, sensitivity analysis, and monitoring.
• Work with J&J Technology and DDSAI teams on data integration, deployment, observability, security, support, and lifecycle ownership. Work with quality and compliance partners where regulated controls apply.
• Guide data scientists and quantitative practitioners through problem formulation, model architecture, code review, and validation.
• Work with TDS scientists, engineers, laboratory leaders, Clinical Supply Chain, business operations, Digital Operations & Strategy, and Finance to define decision needs and fit solutions into existing workflows.
• Work with DDSAI data product, ontology, AI/ML, and platform teams on shared definitions, reusable data products, methods, and components.
• Explain recommendations, assumptions, uncertainty, and limits clearly to technical and business audiences, including senior leaders, and build adoption through evidence and clear decision framing.
• Help shape the Operations Research and Decision Intelligence roadmap, take part in technical forums and communities of practice, and assess emerging methods and external solutions.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Operations Research, Industrial Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related quantitative field, with 8+ years of relevant experience; or a master's degree with 10+ years of relevant experience.
• Advanced expertise in mathematical optimization, including linear and mixed-integer programming; simulation, including Monte Carlo or discrete-event methods; and forecasting with uncertainty analysis.
• Strong hands-on Python skills and a record of applying modern software development and model validation practices.
• A record of delivering quantitative decision-support solutions that are adopted over time, with methods or components reused beyond the first use case.
• Demonstrated technical leadership through solution architecture, methodological improvement, standards, or mentoring. People-management experience is not required.
• Ability to shape problems with subject matter experts, influence technical and business stakeholders, and communicate assumptions, trade-offs, and limitations clearly.
• Preferred: experience in pharmaceutical R&D, CMC development, laboratory operations, clinical supply, manufacturing, or another regulated environment.
• Preferred: experience with portfolio and resource forecasting, capacity planning, business operations analytics, or laboratory and process digital twins.
• Preferred: experience connecting decision models with enterprise data products, planning systems, or production platforms.
• Preferred: exposure to stochastic programming, Bayesian decision methods, agent-based modeling, reinforcement learning, or combining AI/ML with optimization and simulation.
• Preferred: publications, patents, open-source contributions, conference presentations, or comparable work in operations research or decision science.

Conditions

The role is based in Malvern, Pennsylvania or Spring House, Pennsylvania, United States.

The anticipated base pay range is $137,000.00 to $235,750.00.

Employees are eligible for the company's long-term incentive program.

Employees may join the consolidated retirement plan (pension) and savings plan (401(k)), subject to plan terms.

The company is an equal opportunity employer and accommodates applicants with disabilities on request.

Benefits

• Vacation of 120 hours per calendar year.
• Sick time of 40 hours per calendar year, or 48 hours in Colorado and 56 hours in Washington.
• 13 days per calendar year of holiday pay, including floating holidays.
• Up to 40 hours per calendar year of work, personal, and family time.
• Parental leave of 480 hours within one year of the birth, adoption, or foster care of a child.
• Bereavement leave of 240 hours for an immediate family member, or 40 hours for an extended family member, per calendar year.
• Caregiver leave of 80 hours in a 52-week rolling period.
• Volunteer leave of 32 hours per calendar year.
• Military spouse time off of 80 hours per calendar year.