Principal AI Lead - Surgical AI

Overview Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is committed to advancing healthcare through innovation. J&J’s MedTech portfolio focuses on digital surgery and robotics, providing end‑to‑end solutions that improve surgical performance, operating‑room collaboration, and patient outcomes. Job Function Job Function: R&D Product Development Job Sub Function: R&D Machine Learning Job Category: Scientific/Technology Location: Santa Clara, California What You Will Do AI Development Standardization: conceptualize end‑to‑end pipelines that ingest data, process it, and deliver production‑ready models; design agentic workflows; build reusable capability primitives such as pre‑built models, feature stores, AI‑assisted annotations, and proactive insights. Applied AI/ML Features & Model Strategy: select suitable model families given cost and capability constraints; lead the design and deployment of CNN, transformer, and LLM/VLM‑based models; apply prompting, constraints, and reasoning structures to reduce hallucination. Model Integration & Inference Optimization: integrate advanced models with product functionality; ensure output reliability, consistency, safety, and user‑centric alignment; develop logic for hybrid model usage; collaborate with engineering to optimize latency, cost, and scalability. Product Acuity: bring strong product judgement to the MLOps platform, balancing researcher/data‑scientist workflows with engineering, security, and compliance constraints; partner with multi‑functional collaborators to define user needs, success metrics, and a prioritized roadmap; make pragmatic trade‑offs across build vs. buy, usability vs. flexibility, and time‑to‑value vs. long‑term scalability for ML platform components. Required Qualifications MS or PhD in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, or a related field. 10+ years of experience in machine learning engineering or applied AI, with significant ownership of production systems. Deep expertise in computer‑vision–based deep learning. Experience developing and deploying production models on cloud and edge. Strong product competence for ML platforms/MLOps, with the ability to translate multi‑functional needs into a clear roadmap and excellent developer/researcher experiences. Advanced proficiency in PyTorch and the modern ML ecosystem. Strong software engineering skills in Python and experience designing scalable ML systems. Proven track record of leading sophisticated technical initiatives and influencing technical direction across teams. Excellent communication and teamwork skills. Preferred Qualifications Experience building or working on ML or developer platforms for data scientists and researchers, including adoption through documentation, templates, and self‑serve workflows. Familiarity with MLFlow, Kubeflow, or similar MLOps platforms. Experience developing AI systems in regulated environments (e.g., SaMD) such as surgical, medical‑imaging, or healthcare‑related ML/AI applications, with attention to traceability, validation, and auditability. Experience with foundation models, multimodal AI, or vision‑language architectures. Prior experience mentoring or leading ML engineering teams. Experience working with large‑scale datasets or distributed training systems. Equal Opportunity Employer 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 any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law. Johnson & Johnson is committed to providing an inclusive interview process for applicants with disabilities. Benefits & Compensation Base pay: $157,000.00 – $271,400.00 per year, adjustable based on experience. Long‑term incentive program participation. Vacation: 120 hours per calendar year. Sick time: 40 hours per calendar year (48 hours in Colorado; 56 hours in Washington). 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 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. Additional general information on company benefits is available at #J-18808-Ljbffr SwiftCruit