Principal Engineer, Early Innovation R&D

Johnson Johnson; Raritan (NJ); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Johnson & Johnson MedTech Surgery is seeking a Principal Engineer for its R&D Innovation & Partnerships team, onsite at Raritan, NJ. The role focuses on shaping the next generation of surgical and wound-closure technologies by translating clinical needs into system-level requirements.

The position collaborates with R&D, marketing, business development, regulatory, and external partners to accelerate meaningful medical innovations for patients and healthcare professionals worldwide.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline related to systems or engineering.
• Minimum of 8 years of progressive engineering experience.

Responsibilities

• Identify and assess external technologies, platforms, and partnerships aligned to J&J MedTech Surgery's strategy.
• Conduct technical due diligence on startups, academia, licenses, and collaborations.
• Develop technology landscapes, scans, and evidence summaries across surgical and engineered systems.
• Translate clinical and workflow insights into system requirements and architecture considerations.
• Engage clinicians and external partners to sustain a robust innovation pipeline.
• Lead front-end innovation: customer discovery, need definition, feasibility, and PoC.
• Collaborate across functions to de-risk, integrate, and transition to product development.
• Prepare technical assessments and business cases for senior leadership and governance.
• Adhere to laws, design controls, and quality requirements; travel up to 20%.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Systems/Electrical/Mechanical/ Biomedical Engineering or related field

Job description

Job Function:

R&D Product Development

Job Sub Function:

R&D Software/Systems Engineering

Job Category:

Scientific/Technology

All Job Posting Locations:

Raritan, New Jersey, United States of America

Job Description:

Johnson & Johnson MedTech Surgery is currently seeking a Principal Engineer to join our R&D Innovation & Partnerships team located onsite at our Raritan, NJ location.

#LI-Onsite

About Surgery

Fueled by innovation at the intersection of biology and technology, we're developing the next generation of smarter, less invasive, more personalized treatments.

Are you passionate about improving and expanding the possibilities of surgery? Ready to join a team that's reimagining how we heal? Our Surgery team will give you the chance to deliver surgical technologies and solutions to surgeons and healthcare professionals around the world. Your contributions will help effectively treat some of the world's most prevalent conditions such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and cancer. Patients are waiting. Your unique talents will help patients on their journey to wellness.

Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/medtech

JOB SUMMARY

This role will help shape the next generation of surgical, wound closure, digitally enabled, and engineered system solutions by identifying and assessing external innovation, translating clinical and customer unmet needs into system-level requirements, and advancing high-potential technologies through structured due diligence, concept generation, feasibility planning and assessment, and early development. The Principal Engineer will partner across R&D, Global Strategic Marketing, Business Development, Clinical, Medical Affairs, Regulatory, Quality, Supply Chain, Digital, and external partners to support portfolio decisions and accelerate meaningful innovation for patients and customers.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Identify, assess, and recommend external technologies, platforms, and partnership opportunities aligned to J&J MedTech Surgery's Wound Closure & Healing strategy and innovation pipeline.

Conduct technical due diligence on startups, academic innovations, licensing opportunities, and strategic collaborations, including evaluation of clinical need, technical feasibility, intellectual property, regulatory pathway, quality considerations, scalability, and strategic fit.

Develop technology landscapes, target scans, competitive intelligence, and evidence summaries across priority surgical, wound closure, engineered systems, electromechanical, connected device, automation, sensing, software, and digital solution spaces.

Translate customer, clinical, workflow, and technology insights into problem statements, user needs, system requirements, subsystem requirements, architecture considerations, risk profiles, and evidence-based recommendations.

Engage clinicians, key opinion leaders, academic collaborators, suppliers, incubators, accelerators, and external innovation partners to maintain a robust innovation pipeline.

Lead front-end innovation activities, including customer discovery, unmet need definition, opportunity framing, concept generation, system architecture exploration, feasibility planning, prototype evaluation, integration testing, and proof-of-concept execution.

Partner cross-functionally to advance opportunities from assessment through technology de-risking, system integration, prototype builds, verification strategy, and transition to formal product development, as appropriate.

Prepare and communicate technical assessments, business cases, risk profiles, and recommendations to senior leaders and governance forums to support portfolio prioritization and investment decisions.

Follow all applicable laws and regulations, J&J policies and procedures, design control expectations, quality system requirements, health, safety, and environmental practices.

Up to 20% travel may be required.

EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

A minimum of a bachelor's degree in systems engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electromechanical Engineering, Robotics, Biomedical Engineering, or a related technical discipline is required.

A minimum of 8 years of progressive experience