Research and Development Leadership Development Program; RDLDP- PhD

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 Med Tech, 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.

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Job Function: Career Programs

Job Sub Function: R&D LDP

Job Category: Career Program

All Job Posting Locations: Santa Clara, California, United States of America

Job Description:

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

Your unique talents will help patients on their journey to wellness. Learn more at

A pre-identified candidate for consideration has been identified. However, all applications will be considered.

Our Med Tech Research & Development Leadership Development Program (RDLDP) is a two-year dynamic rotational program that offers exciting and unrivaled assignment experiences supporting a wide variety of highly specialized, innovative R&D teams, such as New Product Development, Design, Orthopedic Laboratory Testing, Manufacturing, Design Quality, and Bioengineering.

• Opportunities to participate and/or lead in rotational assignments encompassing the entire project or a substantial portion of a major project. This may include resolving advanced materials, process, inspection/testing, or procedural approaches to advance a medical device through the pipeline process into full R&D, and potentially into commercialization.
• Support of products’ design development, manufacturing, and commercialization, leveraging technical expertise to anticipate and proactively address challenges and risks.
• Increase the productivity of product design utilizing CAD, improve the quality of projects, improve communications through documentation, and create a database for manufacturing.
• Engineer capabilities required to develop and deliver automated medical devices – including requisite instruments, advanced imaging, and user interface/experience.

• Pursue several internal developmental training programs as well as externally recognized qualifications such as Process Design Excellence.
• Opportunity to work in a fast-paced cross-functional, technologically advanced corporate environment in a program focused on developing individual engineers capable of pursuing careers across medical device businesses and high-volume manufacturers.

• Conduct rigorous policy-focused research, synthesize evidence, and produce a range of deliverables to inform regulatory strategy, market access, and ongoing policy dialogue.
• Help shape how we navigate global health policy, regulatory science, and biomedical innovation in a fast-moving medical device landscape.
• Translate complex policy and scientific concepts into clear, actionable insights for cross-functional teams (R&D, Regulatory, Quality, Clinical, Marketing, and Market Access).
• Contribute to thought leadership and public-facing communications to support policy advocacy and external engagement.
• Collaborate on study design, evidence generation plans, and dissemination activities (conferences, webinars, publications).
• Support project coordination and timelines for policy and regulatory initiatives, including stakeholder engagement and reporting to leadership.

• Currently enrolled in an Engineering PhD Program graduating between May 2025 & June 2026
• The following engineering disciplines or specialties are preferred:
  Mechanical, Mechatronics, Robotics, Electrical, Computer, Systems, Software, Computer Science, Materials Science, Biomedical, Optical and Bioinformatics.
• The following concentration fields and/or skills are strongly preferred:
  Machine Learning, IoT, Embedded Software, Deep Machine Learning, Prototyping, Robot Design, Systems…