Translational Post Doctoral Researcher - Agentic AI for Neurodegeneration

Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine • San Diego, CA

2d • $79,000 - $127,650 • Onsite

About The Position

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow. Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way. Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/innovative-medicine Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine is seeking a Translational Postdoctoral Researcher — Agentic AI for Neurodegeneration for a 2-year fixed term position. This position can be located in either Raritan NJ, Titusville NJ, Spring House PA, San Diego CA or Cambridge MA. (No fully remote option.) The next frontier in neurodegeneration research is integrating insights across the data we already have at scale with agentic AI in ways which were previously not possible. Whole slide pathology, PET and MRI imaging, multi-omics, and longitudinal clinical records each offer a different lens on the neurodegenerative diseases; brought together, they tell a story no single modality can. This integration challenge is reshaping how we build agentic AI systems for drug discovery and how we evaluate them. Traditional benchmarks were composed for single-modality reasoning. Evaluating whether an AI co-scientist can synthesize across pathology, imaging, molecular, and clinical evidence and produce hypotheses that are biologically sound, demands new frameworks. We are seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher to build them. The Researcher will be embedded in the Machine Intelligence (MI) team at J&J Innovative Medicine, working in partnership with the c-brAIn academic network. The role begins with engagement in multi-modal neuroscience data - understanding what each modality reveals, how they relate, and where integration breaks down - and builds toward crafting the evaluation frameworks and standards by which agentic co-scientist systems are tested, validated, and trusted. The Researcher will work day-to-day with AI scientists in J&J’s Machine Intelligence group while partnering closely with translational and experimental teams across C-BRAIN’s academic network at Washington University in St. Louis and partner institutions. Mentorship is designed to build leaders at the Multi-Modal Data × AI Evaluation × Neurodegeneration interface, with opportunities for publications, cross-sector exposure, and leadership development.

Requirements

• PhD (or MD/PhD) in neuroscience, neurobiology, computational neuroscience, biomedical informatics, or a closely related field. (Degree must have been completed within the last 3 years, or will be completed in the next 6 months.)
• Deep knowledge of neurodegenerative disease biology (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc.) including disease mechanisms, experimental models, and translational challenges
• Hands-on experience working with at least two of the following data modalities in a research context: neuroimaging (PET, MRI), digital pathology, omics, longitudinal clinical data
• Familiarity with large language model architectures and agentic AI frameworks (e.g., LangGraph, DSPy, or equivalent orchestration tools)
• Proficiency in Python and common ML/data engineering frameworks
• Excellent scientific communication skills and comfort working across computational, translational, and experimental teams
• Self-directed, with the ability to work both independently and within a diverse, multi-disciplinary team

Nice To Haves

• Experience building data pipelines that integrate heterogeneous biomedical data types
• Familiarity with evaluation or benchmarking methodologies for AI/ML systems
• Experience with NLP techniques: named entity recognition, natural language inference, knowledge graph construction
• Knowledge of graph data structures, graph analytics, and graph platforms (Neo4j, Neptune)
• Familiarity with cloud infrastructure (AWS and/or Azure) for scalable pipelines

Responsibilities

• Characterize and integrate biomedical data modalities — digital pathology (whole slide images), neuroimaging (PET, structural and functional MRI), omics (genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics), and longitudinal clinical data to develop specialized, domain-specific models for neurodegeneration
• Build and refine data engineering pipelines that harmonize heterogeneous modalities — reconciling differences in spatial resolution, temporal scale, and dimensionality — into unified analytical frameworks
• Identify where cross-modal integration produces genuine insight versus where it introduces noise or artifact, establishing ground truth for downstream AI evaluation
• Critically assess AI-driven literature synthesis and automated “third reviewer” capabilities for detecting methodological weaknesses, logical gaps, and unsupported claims across data modalities
• Establish standards for how agentic systems incorporate overlooked or contradictory evidence such as negative findings, failed clinical trials, etc. and evaluate whether these integrations generate genuinely novel hypotheses
• Design evaluation frameworks for agentic AI systems operating across neuroscience data modalities — assessing whether models can reason credibly across imaging, omics, and clinical evidence
• Develop benchmarks using synthetic and real-world multi-modal datasets that probe AI co-scientist capabilities under realistic research conditions, testing for robustness, reproducibility, and alignment with expert-level biomedical reasoning
• Serve as a neurodegeneration domain expert within the AI/ML team, ensuring that model outputs remain anchored to clinically relevant disease questions
• Translate evaluation findings into actionable guidance for AI system development, bridging computational and experimental perspectives
• Publish evaluation methodologies and findings in leading journals and conferences (e.g., AD/PD, AAIC, NeurIPS)
• Articulate emerging AI/ML approaches — causal reasoning, intent classification, agentic planning — to diverse audiences with clear framing of practical applications in drug discovery
• Co-author manuscripts, concept papers, and translational strategy documents

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision
• life insurance
• short- and long-term disability
• business accident insurance
• group legal insurance
• consolidated retirement plan (pension)
• savings plan (401(k))
• Vacation – up to 120 hours per calendar year
• Sick time - up to 40 hours per calendar year
• Holiday pay, including Floating Holidays – up to 13 days per calendar year
• Time off, Personal and Family Time - up to 40 hours per calendar year

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree