Director, Data & AI Platforms

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine•Raritan, NJ

1d•$168,000 - $290,950•Hybrid

About The Position

Johnson & Johnson is recruiting a Director, Data & AI Platforms for its DePuy Synthes organization. The role is based in Raritan, New Jersey, on a hybrid work model. DePuy Synthes is preparing to separate from Johnson & Johnson and become a standalone orthopaedics-focused company. The Director will build the data and AI platforms needed to support that transition, exit transition services from Johnson & Johnson, and consolidate regional and functional data, integration, catalog, MDM and BI capabilities into a governed, AI-ready platform on AWS and Databricks. Reporting to the Sr. Director, Enterprise Data & AI Architect, the Director will own the Data & AI Platforms tower and lead four platform teams: Core Data Platform & Integration, Data & BI Platforms, AI Runtime & Serving, and Platform Reliability & DevEx. The role also directs corresponding engineering pods in Bengaluru on a dotted-line basis, in partnership with GCC leadership. This is a leadership role requiring firsthand experience building and operating data and AI platforms, as well as technical depth to guide decisions and review designs and code. The Director owns platform strategy, roadmap, budget and operations; turns target-state architecture and standards into self-service platform services; maintains business continuity during separation; and delivers TSA exits on time and within budget. The role leads consolidation onto a governed lakehouse and works with MDM and Data Governance on MDM and catalog tooling. It covers data ingestion and streaming, lakehouse design, orchestration and API integration; data quality, lineage and cost-efficient processing; BI, semantic layers, data products and unstructured data; AI runtime, model serving, retrieval, lifecycle and evaluation; and DevSecOps, CI/CD, infrastructure as code, reliability, observability and FinOps. The Director enforces identity, guardrails and release criteria established by the Architecture Standards & Responsible AI function, including separation of GxP and non-GxP environments. The role participates in the Architecture Review Board and may deputize for the Sr. Director in architecture, CDAO and CIO forums. It partners with Data Science, MDM & Data Governance, business leaders and GCC leadership; communicates platform status, risks, financials and decisions to senior leaders; develops US and GCC teams; manages platform vendors and partners; and operates the tower with service catalogs, SLAs, adoption measures, unit costs, succession plans and cross-team coverage. Success measures include TSA exit delivery, adoption and tool retirement, reliability and incident reduction, cost trends, delivery speed, and production use and business value of AI capabilities.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related technical field.
15+ years of experience in data engineering, data platforms or cloud engineering.
7+ years leading platform engineering teams, including experience leading managers.
Proven delivery of enterprise lakehouse platforms on Databricks and AWS, including services such as S3, Glue, MSK, IAM and Lake Formation, and Unity Catalog.
Hands-on depth in Spark, SQL, Python, streaming, orchestration such as Airflow or Databricks Workflows, and data modeling; ability to review designs and code.
Experience running production AI/ML platforms, including model serving, RAG/retrieval, LLMOps/MLOps and evaluation.
Strong DevSecOps, CI/CD, Infrastructure-as-Code such as Terraform, SRE and FinOps practices.
Track record of consolidating or migrating legacy platforms at scale with measurable cost and reliability gains.
Experience leading distributed and offshore teams and managing platform budgets and vendors.
Demonstrated ability to communicate with and influence VP- and C-level stakeholders.
English proficiency.
Willingness to travel up to 10%.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field.
Experience in medical device, life sciences or another regulated industry, including GxP, CSV/CSA, 21 CFR Part 11 or data privacy.
Experience with separations, divestitures or TSA exits.
Experience with semantic layers, data products and data marketplaces.
Experience with agentic AI platforms such as Amazon Bedrock AgentCore or MCP.
Databricks, AWS or Kubernetes certifications.

Responsibilities

Own the strategy, roadmap, budget and operations of enterprise Data & AI platforms on AWS and Databricks.
Translate target-state architecture and standards into self-service platform services for domain, data science and delivery teams.
Maintain business continuity through separation by standing up and stabilizing cloned and transitional platforms while building the target state.
Plan and deliver TSA exits from Johnson & Johnson platforms on time and within budget, moving directly to the target platform.
Consolidate regional and functional data lakes, ingestion frameworks and BI tools onto a governed lakehouse; partner with MDM & Data Governance on MDM and catalog tooling consolidation.
Lead ingestion and streaming, lakehouse and medallion design, orchestration and API integration, initially hands-on until the role is backfilled.
Set engineering patterns for data quality, lineage, data contracts and cost-efficient processing.
Manage dependencies across legacy, transitional and target-state pipelines to keep downstream consumers stable through cutover.
Lead governed semantic layers and metrics, BI platforms, data products and marketplaces, and unstructured data capabilities.
Lead AI runtime and serving capabilities, including agentic runtime, model serving and gateways, retrieval and context services, model and prompt lifecycle, and evaluation tooling.
Lead Platform Reliability & DevEx, including DevSecOps, CI/CD, Infrastructure-as-Code, internal developer platforms, observability, SLOs, operations and FinOps.
Enforce identity, guardrails and release criteria defined by the Architecture Standards & Responsible AI function, including GxP and non-GxP separation.
Serve as a standing member of the Architecture Review Board and deputize for the Sr. Director in architecture, CDAO and CIO forums.
Partner with Data Science, MDM & Data Governance, business-facing leaders and GCC leadership to sequence capabilities against business priorities.
Present platform status, risks, financials and decisions to senior leadership in a concise, decision-ready manner.
Build, lead and develop platform managers and engineers across US and GCC teams, including hiring, goal setting and career development.
Direct GCC engineering pods through practice leads, setting clear priorities and quality standards.
Operate the tower with product discipline, including a service catalog, SLAs, adoption metrics and unit costs.
Ensure roles have named successors and cross-paired coverage across platform leads.
Manage key platform vendors and partners, including commercial terms, consumption and performance.
Deliver against measures including TSA exit milestones, platform adoption, platform and tool retirement, SLO attainment, incident reduction, cost trends, delivery speed, production AI use cases and safe adoption of new AI capabilities.

Benefits

Consolidated retirement plan (pension), subject to plan terms.
401(k) savings plan, subject to plan terms.
Eligibility to participate in the long-term incentive program.
Vacation: 120 hours per calendar year, subject to policy and date of hire.
Sick time: 40 hours per calendar year, with stated variations for Colorado and Washington residents.
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 or foster care of a child.
Bereavement leave: 240 hours for an immediate family member and 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.