Head of Joints Robotics, R&D Digital

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine•Boston, MA

19h•Onsite

About The Position

At Johnson & Johnson, health is paramount, and the company leverages healthcare innovation to prevent, treat, and cure complex diseases, offering smarter, less invasive, and personalized solutions through its expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech. Johnson & Johnson Orthopaedics is dedicated to advancing next-generation solutions to enhance patient mobility, focusing on smarter, less invasive, and more personalized orthopedic care supported by clinical evidence, biologics, implants, instruments, enabling technologies, and data-driven insights. The Orthopaedics teams assist over 6 million patients annually, collaborating with surgeons and healthcare systems globally to achieve significant clinical outcomes, operational efficiency, reproducibility, and sustainable economic value across various orthopedic specialties including joint reconstruction, trauma, spine, and robotics and digital surgery. Johnson & Johnson has announced plans to separate its Orthopaedics business into a standalone company, DePuy Synthes, a process anticipated to conclude within 18 to 24 months. Upon completion, the successful candidate for this position would become an employee of DePuy Synthes. The Head of Joints Robotics, R&D will lead a cross-disciplinary Robotics R&D organization, responsible for the system engineering, software, and hardware development of next-generation orthopedic robotic systems. This role involves owning the technical roadmap, ensuring delivery, fostering team development, and aligning with clinical, regulatory, and manufacturing stakeholders to bring safe and differentiated robotic products to market.

Requirements

MS or PhD in Robotics, Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, Computer Science.
10+ years leading engineering teams with combined software and hardware responsibility.
3 years in medical device, surgical robotics, or similarly regulated industry.
Proven track record delivering complex electromechanical multi-disciplinary systems from concept to production.
Strong systems engineering mindset: requirements decomposition, architecture, verification/validation.
Deep experience in embedded systems, real‑time control, motion planning, perception (vision/force/encoders), and relevant SW stacks (C/C++, RTOS, ROS or robotics frameworks).
Demonstrated knowledge of medical device regulations, design controls, and risk management practices.
Excellent stakeholder management, cross‑functional leadership, and communication skills.
Strong Clinical workflow understanding through the patient pathway.
Hands on technical credibility and ability to mentor senior engineers.
Customer and clinician empathy; data driven decision maker.
Skilled at prioritizing scope in constrained timelines and budgets.
Builds high trust teams and fosters psychological safety for innovation.
Results driven leadership with strong execution focus.

Nice To Haves

Prior experience with surgical systems, orthopedics, or other implantable device ecosystems.
Exposure to cloud/edge analytics, cybersecurity for medical devices, and machine learning for perception or decision support.
MBA or demonstrated P&L/program ownership experience.

Responsibilities

Set technical vision and roadmap for robotics platforms (mechatronics, embedded systems, perception, control, autonomy, and cloud/edge software) in collaboration with product, clinical, regulatory, and manufacturing teams.
Manage end‑to‑end R&D delivery for full product lifecycle: requirements, architecture, prototyping, verification, validation, and transfer to production.
Lead, coach, and recruit a multidisciplinary team: firmware engineers, controls/mechatronics, electrical/mechanical design engineers, robotics perception/ML, embedded & application software, and systems engineers.
Establish robust engineering processes (requirements management, design control, risk management, software lifecycle, CI/CD, component obsolescence management).
Drive systems‑level tradeoffs between performance, safety, cost, and manufacturability for medical devices.
Ensure alignment with regulatory standards and support technical inputs for submission considerations.
Partner with human factors for clinical validation, and iterative improvements informed by surgeon feedback.
Own technical risk register, milestones, budgets, and resource allocation; report program status to senior leadership.
Define and track key metrics for product quality, development velocity, reliability, and time‑to‑market.

Benefits

Eligible to participate in the Company’s consolidated retirement plan (pension).
Eligible to participate in the Company’s savings plan (401(k)).
Vacation –120 hours per calendar year.
Sick time - 40 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Colorado –48 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Washington –56 hours per calendar year.
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/foster care of a child.
Bereavement Leave – 240 hours for an immediate family member: 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.
Long-term incentive program.