Director, Computer-Directed Drug Design and AI-Native Molecular Design - San Diego, CA

At Johnson & Johnson,we believe health is everything.

Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build aworld where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured,where treatments are smarter and less invasive, andsolutions are personal.Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity.Learn more at jnj.com .

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Job Function:
Data Analytics & Computational Sciences

Job Sub Function:
Data Science

Job Category:
People Leader

All Job Posting Locations:
San Diego, California, United States of America

Job Description:

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 recruiting for a Director, Computer-Directed Drug Design and AI-Native Molecular Design to join our In Silico Drug Discovery team.

This position will be located in San Diego, CA (La Jolla area) and may require up to approximately 20% travel as needed (no remote option).

The Opportunity

We are seeking a Director to lead a portfolio-embedded Computer-Directed Drug Design (CDDD, CD3) team and advance AI-native scientific discovery across small-molecule therapeutic programs.

The successful candidate will bring deep expertise in computational drug discovery and molecular design, while operating with sufficient breadth to connect medicinal chemistry, biology, structural sciences, experimental data, developability, and therapeutic strategy.

This leader will co-own program and molecular design strategy, translate project goals into integrated computational and experimental plans, build a high-performing team, and scale repeatable learning systems that improve compound quality and portfolio decisions across traditional Rule-of-Five molecules, beyond-Rule-of-Five modalities, degraders, RIPTACs, molecular glues, peptides, and emerging modalities.

This is a scientific, portfolio-facing leadership role-not a software, or platform development position.

The Director will lead drug discovery architects who shape program strategy with medicinal chemistry and cross-functional partners, orchestrate rapid design-make-test-learn cycles, critically evaluate AI-generated proposals, and drive adoption of v...