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People LeaderAll Job Posting Locations:
Spring House, Pennsylvania, United States of AmericaJob Description:
About Innovative MedicineOur 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
We are searching for the best talent for an Associate Director, Laboratory Automation Systems to be located in Spring House, PA.
Purpose: The Associate Director, Laboratory Automation Systems will lead the laboratory automation platform organization that turns scientific workflow needs into deployed, adopted, and sustained automated capabilities. The role is accountable for team leadership, portfolio governance, standards, user adoption, system lifecycle, benefit realization, and the practical operating model required for multi-workcell automation.
This role bridges laboratory automation scientists, automation and robotics engineers, IT/data teams, AI teams, scientific users, facilities, EHS, quality, procurement, and external partners. It does not replace engineering ownership of physical systems; it ensures the scientific automation platform is fit for purpose, adopted by users, supported over time, and continuously improved.
Portfolio and Operating Model
- Leading laboratory automation scientists and matrix contributors delivering integrated automation systems across discovery and analytical workflows.
- Owning portfolio prioritization, resource planning, demand intake, business case input, risk management, governance, stage gates, backlog management, change control, key performance indicators (KPIs), and lifecycle ownership.
- Establishing practical operating models for workflow intake, scientific readiness assessment, user acceptance, hyper-care, support critical issues, method updates, release management, documentation, training, and routine performance review.
- Defining and managing platform KPIs such as uptime, throughput, first-pass success, run completion, data completeness, sample traceability, user adoption, hands-on time reduction, and scientific impact.
Systems Delivery and Sustainment
- Overseeing design, implementation, qualification, optimization, hyper-care, and lifecycle support of automated workcells and orchestrated systems.
- Ensuring scientific workflows, automation designs, sample flows, consumable logistics, data flows, biosafety, user training, facilities needs, EHS constraints, support models, and sustainment plans are considered as one integrated system.
- Coordinating with engineering leadership to ensure physical workcell readiness, safety design, utilities, serviceability, maintainability, and machine-side reliability support scientific workflow needs.
- Driving standardization of requirements, UAT, method documentation, workflow handover, training, run readiness, exception management, and continuous improvement practices.
Partner and Vendor Governance
- Partnering with Discovery, Analytical Development, IT, Data Science, AI, Engineering, Facilities, Procurement, Quality, EHS, Operations, Legal, Finance, and external partners.
- Selecting, challenging, and managing automation vendors, Tier 1 integrators, Tier 2 equipment suppliers, software providers, consumable suppliers, and external engineering partners from the scientific workflow and lifecycle support perspective.
- Representing laboratory automation systems in governance forums, budget discussions, vendor reviews, facilities planning, BT/ISD architecture discussions, and strategic roadmap reviews.
- Developing talent, playbooks, knowledge management practices, communities of practice, and career pathways for laboratory automation scientists and adjacent automation roles.
Additional Responsibilities:
- Support technology evaluations, proof-of-concept studies, workflow readiness assessments, user demonstrations, and vendor evaluations for future automation capabilities.
- Contribute to laboratory automation standards, workflow templates, data handoff expectations, training materials, and playbooks.
- Support audit, inspection, or quality documentation requests where automated scientific workflows intersect with regulated or quality driven environments.
- Participate in lessons learned and continuous improvement activities to improve future automation delivery and adoption.
Education:
- A minimum of a Bachelor's degree in Life Science, Analytical Science, Laboratory Automation, Engineering, Computer Science or a related field is required. An advanced degree is preferred.
Required:
- 10+ years of relevant laboratory automation, scientific automation, analytical automation, discovery automation, or workcell integration experience, including team or matrix leadership.
- Proven record leading integrated laboratory automation systems, high-throughput scientific workflows, or digital laboratory platforms.
- Experience leading scientists, automation specialists, engineers, vendors, or teams through complex programs.
- Strong understanding of scientific workflows, laboratory automation, sample management, data flow, user adoption, and lifecycle support.
- Experience managing vendor relationships, technical scope, requirements, testing, implementation, training, hyper-care, change control, and performance improvement.
- Strong executive communication, prioritization, partner management, change management, and operating model development skills.
- Experience building or leading a laboratory automation team or platform organization.
- Experience with multi-workcell orchestration, automated storage, sample logistics, AI-ready laboratory data strategy, support models for 24/7 operation, SDLs, digital twins, or closed-loop learning.
- Experience developing automation playbooks, governance models, stage gates, RACI matrices, standards, KPIs, and continuous improvement systems.
- Travel may be required for vendor assessments, FAT/SAT activities, site visits, system builds, workshops, training, technology scouting, or cross-site deployment support.
Why Join Us
This role supports the transition from isolated automation projects to integrated, reliable, AI-native, and ultimately self-driving discovery laboratory systems. The work helps connect scientific intent with robust physical execution, reproducible data, model feedback, and scalable operational capability.
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, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.
Johnson & Johnson is committed to providing an interview process that is inclusive of our applicants’ needs. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request an accommodation, external applicants please contact us via https://www.jnj.com/contact-us/careers, internal employees contact AskGS to be directed to your accommodation resource.
If you are under 18 years of age, you (the candidate) may need to obtain the necessary working papers or other documentation required by state law to start the assignment, as well as get a parent’s consent for the background check.
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Required Skills:
Preferred Skills:
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Life Science, Analytical Science, Laboratory Automation, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field
- 10+ years of relevant laboratory automation, scientific automation, analytical automation, discovery automation, or workcell integration experience
- Team or matrix leadership experience
- Experience leading integrated laboratory automation systems, high-throughput scientific workflows, or digital laboratory platforms
- Experience leading scientists, automation specialists, engineers, vendors, or teams through complex programs
- Strong understanding of scientific workflows, laboratory automation, sample management, data flow, user adoption, and lifecycle support
- Experience managing vendor relationships, technical scope, requirements, testing, implementation, training, hyper-care, change control, and performance improvement
- Strong executive communication, prioritization, partner management, change management, and operating model development skills
- Advanced degree
- Experience building or leading a laboratory automation team or platform organization
- Experience with multi-workcell orchestration, automated storage, sample logistics, AI-ready laboratory data strategy, 24/7 support models, SDLs, digital twins, or closed-loop learning
- Experience developing automation playbooks, governance models, stage gates, RACI matrices, standards, KPIs, and continuous improvement systems
Johnson & Johnson Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Johnson & Johnson and has not been reviewed or approved by Johnson & Johnson.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is characterized as comprehensive across medical, dental, and vision, with added supports like onsite clinics, fitness centers, and Employee Assistance resources. Mental-health services and wellbeing reimbursements are also described as meaningful components of the overall package.
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Retirement Support — Retirement offerings are portrayed as a major differentiator, combining a 401(k) with employer matching and an employer-funded pension plan. Stock options and other long-term financial supports are also positioned as part of the broader rewards mix.
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Parental & Family Support — Family-related benefits are presented as notably strong, including paid parental leave for all new parents and additional leave types for caregiving and bereavement. Financial assistance for adoption, fertility treatment, and surrogacy is highlighted as a significant support.
Johnson & Johnson Insights
What We Do
Profound Change Requires Boldness. Johnson & Johnson is the largest and most broadly based healthcare company in the world. We’re producing life-changing breakthroughs every day, and have been for the last 130 years. The combination of new technologies and your expertise enables amazing things to happen. Teams from J&J’s consumer business are creating digital tools to help people track the health of their skin. Those working in medical devices are 3-D printing artificial joints personalized for each patient, while researchers in pharmaceuticals use AI to discover lifesaving drugs. Imagine what the rest of our team of 134,000 people at 260 companies in more than 60 countries across the world is accomplishing. We redefine what it means to be a big company in today’s world. Social Media Community Guidelines: http://www.jnj.com/social-media-community-guidelines
