Head of Navigation Digital, R&D - Location: Boston, MA, Raynham, MA, Palm Beach Gardens, FL or Warsaw, IN. Other DPS locations to be considered. Fueled by innovation at the intersection of science, technology, and surgical workflow, Johnson & Johnson Orthopaedics is advancing the next generation of solutions to keep patients moving. We are focused on delivering smarter, less invasive, and more personalized orthopedic care, grounded in clinical evidence and enabled by biologics, implants, instruments, enabling technologies, and data-driven insights. Our Orthopaedics teams help more than 6 million patients move each year, partnering with surgeons and healthcare systems worldwide to deliver meaningful clinical outcomes, operational efficiency & reproducibility combined with sustainable economic value. Across joint reconstruction; trauma and craniomaxillofacial; sports, extremities, and elective foot and ankle; spine; and robotics and digital surgery, we bring together deep domain expertise and scalable platforms to redefine standards of care. If you are passionate about expanding what’s possible in orthopedics, your talents can help shape the future of musculoskeletal health and support patients throughout their journey to recovery and renewed mobility. Learn more at Johnson & Johnson announced plans to separate our Orthopaedics business to establish a standalone orthopaedics company, operating as De. Puy Synthes. The process of the planned separation is anticipated to be completed within 18 to 24 months, subject to legal requirements, including consultation with works councils and other employee representative bodies, as may be required, regulatory approvals and other customary conditions and approvals. Should you accept this position, it is anticipated that, following conclusion of the transaction, you would be an employee of De. Puy Synthes and your employment would be governed by De. Puy Synthes employment processes, programs, policies, and benefit plans. In that case, details of any planned changes would be provided to you by De. Puy Synthes at an appropriate time and subject to any necessary consultation processes. We are searching for the best talent to join our Orthopedic team as Director of Navigation, Robotics,located in Boston, MA, Palm Beach Gardens, FL, Warsaw, IN, or Raynham, MA. Other DPS locations will be considered. The Director of Navigation, Robotics, will report to the VP Digital R&D Orthopedics. Position Summary:The Head of Navigation Digital, R&D will lead software and systems engineering for intra operative navigation: localization, registration, sensor fusion, and orchestration across embedded, edge and cloud components. Act as the primary navigation partner to robotics, clinical, and regulatory teams to deliver deterministic, clinician grade navigation capabilities. You will be responsible for: Own multi-year navigation SW & systems roadmap and drive delivery to product milestones. Architect real-time navigation stacks and partition deterministic control loops from non-real-time services. Lead SW, algorithm and AI teams to productionize perception pipelines. Build and operate simulation/digital-twin and synthetic data pipelines for validation and regression testing. Establish IEC 62304-aligned software lifecycle, CI/ CD for embedded cloud, automated test harnesses, and traceability. Define non-functional requirements (accuracy budgets, latency, availability, robustness) and verification strategies. Integrate ML - Ops for model training, validation, deployment controls, and in-field monitoring. Partner with QA/ RA to deliver software evidence, risk controls and regulatory inputs; qualify navigation software suppliers/ SDKs. Partner with technology partners for co-development. Qualifications / Requirements:Required. BS/ MS in Computer Science, Robotics, Systems or equivalent.~10 years SW/systems experience with ~5 years in navigation/perception or related systems; experience shipping production navigation or perception software. Strong C/ C and Python, real-time middleware (ROS/ ROS 2, DDS or equivalent), sensor fusion, SLAM/ VO, 3 D registration, and simulation tooling. Practical experience with software design controls for regulated products (IEC 62304, ISO 13485, ISO 14971). Systems thinker with hands-on credibility; mentors senior engineers, builds cross-disciplinary trust, and navigates clinical/regulatory constraints. Collaborates globally with external partners and sales regions. Preferred. Surgical/orthopedics navigation experience, GPU/accelerator optimization, and ML model lifecycle in regulated contexts. Experience with SBOM, cybersecurity for medical devices, and cloud/edge orchestration.