Brittany De Santelices

Brittany (Brie) De Santelices had her sights set on Northeast Florida, and her hard work and commitment made that vision a reality.

De Santelices is a Vision engineering manager at Johnson & Johnson, a global leader in eye care innovation with headquarters in Jacksonville. Jacksonville site operations include manufacturing, distribution, finance, marketing and research and development. Products made here are used across the world in more than 100 countries.

“The most rewarding aspect of my work is the fact that we’re manufacturing contact lenses, which help people see every day. Sight is probably the most important sense that we have, and we’re touching the lives of millions of people by giving them the ability to see,” De Santelices claims.

De Santelices was born in Jacksonville, and while she moved away to Ohio for several years growing up, she always wanted to return to Northeast Florida. She made this dream possible by enrolling at the University of North Florida, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering.

While she was a student, De Santelices was on the planning committee for Expanding Your Horizons, an outreach organization co-led by Johnson & Johnson and the University of North Florida. This opportunity allowed her to meet Johnson & Johnson employees and become familiar with the company. When De Santelices saw an internship at Johnson & Johnson working on its Vision Care portfolio, posted in the university’s career services department, she was excited to apply and eventually begin her internship.

“It’s important to leverage the services that the school provides as well as to do as much outreach as possible because you’re getting to expand your network, which then provides you with a lot of opportunities that you may not have otherwise,” she says.

De Santelices’s internship with Johnson & Johnson created a pathway for a long-term career at the company. In her role as a Vision Engineering Manager, De Santelices manages a technical team that oversees the manufacturing equipment. Her team is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the equipment as well as the long-term roadmap for the fleet.

“The technology that I oversee is one of the newest technologies at our site, so we’re bringing in this new equipment as well as launching some of our new products from this technology,” she states.

De Santelices shares that a strong technical foundation and understanding of the manufacturing process are key to success in her engineering role. She also emphasizes the importance of soft skills—communication, teamwork, collaboration and influence—in becoming a well-rounded leader.

From working with the director of engineering at the University of North Florida to being inspired by the leadership at Johnson & Johnson, De Santelices has been influenced by the mentors and managers in her career and hopes to give that same inspiration to female engineers in the future.

De Santelices is grateful for her previous experiences and opportunities, saying, “Early in my career, I had a lot of amazing managers and mentors, and I saw the impact my relationship with them had both on me and my career. I knew that was something I wanted to do—so not only to continue to grow myself, but I wanted to help people achieve their dreams.”