Principal Laboratory Automation Scientist

At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions 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 . As guided by Our Credo, Johnson & Johnson is responsible to our employees who work with us throughout the world. We provide an inclusive work environment where each person is considered as an individual. At Johnson & Johnson, we respect the diversity and dignity of our employees and recognize their merit. Job Function: R&D Product Development Job Sub Function: R&D Electrical/Mechatronic Engineering Job Category: Scientific/Technology All Job Posting Locations: Spring House, Pennsylvania, United States of America Job Description: About Innovative Medicine 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 We are searching for the best talent for a Principal Laboratory Automation Scientist to be located in Spring House, PA.   Purpose: The Principal Laboratory Automation Scientist sets the scientific automation architecture for integrated discovery platforms. The role defines how scientific requests, sample states, consumables, automated methods, data provenance, UAT, metadata, exception logic, and user adoption should work across interconnected workcells.   The Principal Scientist will serve as a domain expert for advanced laboratory automation, multi-workcell orchestration, scientific workflow transformation, data provenance, metadata strategy, and AI-ready laboratory execution. They will define the scientific workflow architecture that enables autonomous discovery platforms to generate trustworthy, reproducible, model-usable data.   This role is paired with the Principal Automation and Robotics Engineer. The scientist owns scientific and data architecture for automated workflows; the engineer owns robotics, controls, safety, physical automation, serviceability, and machine architecture. Together they provide the core architectural partnership for self-driving laboratories.   You will be responsible for: Reference Architecture and Standards Defining cross-workcell laboratory automation architecture spanning scientific requests, instruments, workcells, sample stores, consumable stores, scheduling layers, data systems, user interfaces, and model feedback loops.   Creating standards for labware, sample identity, reagent identity, consumable identity, state models, method versioning, interface control, recovery logic, run context, data provenance, and operational handover.   Establishing design patterns for request intake, automated worklist generation, queue management, workflow routing, workcell handoffs, exception handling, and data feedback into scientific decision making.   Defining acceptance criteria for nominal workflows, edge cases, failure modes, recovery scenarios, operator interventions, data completeness, and lights-out readiness from a scientific workflow perspective.   Scientific Leadership and Workflow Transformation Defining scientific and technical requirements for integrated automation platforms supporting biologics discovery, small molecule discovery, protein engineering, screening, analytical sciences, NGS, cell-based assays, biophysics, protein characterization, and translational workflows.   Resolving complex issues