Senior Knowledge Engineer

UK Atomic Energy Authority; England; Hybrid; GBP 57,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading energy research organization in the UK is seeking a Senior Knowledge Engineer to develop semantic technologies that support data-driven fusion energy research. This role involves creating and maintaining ontologies and knowledge graphs while applying generative AI tools. Candidates should have a PhD in Computer Science or similar, with strong experience in knowledge engineering and related technologies. The organization actively encourages diverse applicants and provides opportunities for flexible working arrangements.

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent experience in Computer Science, AI or a related field.
• Significant experience with knowledge engineering and semantic technologies.
• Practical experience with predictive and generative AI.

Responsibilities

• Develop semantic technologies for fusion energy research.
• Lead and deliver projects while ensuring milestones and budgets are met.
• Contribute to collaborative projects and represent the organization at forums.

Skills

Knowledge engineering

Semantic technologies

Graph databases

Data analytics

Natural language processing

Education

PhD in Computer Science, AI or related field

Tools

Protégé

Neo4j

GraphDB

Job description

The salary for this role is 56596 (inclusive of aSpecialist Allowance). Onsite working is expected for 2 - 3 days each week however we actively support requests for flexible working.

This role is based at the following site: Culham Oxfordshire. Please note that this role can also be based in Rotherham.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) including the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data.

The Role

We are looking for a Senior Knowledge Engineer to join our team. You will develop semantic technologies to support data-driven fusion energy research, creating and maintaining ontologies and knowledge graphs that connect experimental data simulations and scientific literature. You will responsibly apply generative AI tools such as large language models to accelerate ontology development and knowledge graph creation while maintaining high standards of provenance and transparency.

Working across knowledge engineering, data integration and applied AI you will build scalable semantic systems for collaborative research, contribute to research strategy, supervise early-career researchers, lead small projects and teams, and work closely with scientists and engineers to ensure solutions meet evolving research and industry needs. You will bring strong organisation and time‑management skills, including experience coordinating scientific or technical events, along with excellent written and verbal communication skills.

If in addition to the above you also have strong organisation and time‑management skills, experience coordinating scientific or technical events, and excellent written and verbal communication abilities, we would love to hear from you.

Key Accountabilities

General

Lead and deliver projects ensuring milestones, outputs and budgets are met while identifying and pursuing new research and funding opportunities aligned with UKAEA's semantic data strategy.

Manage a small team (13 staff) and supervise MSc and PhD students supporting their development and delivery of high-quality research.

Contribute to internal and external collaborative projects, representing UKAEA in national and international forums and partnerships.

Share research outputs and support user adoption of semantic tools through reports, presentations, software releases, publications, meetings and knowledge‑sharing activities.

Knowledge Engineering

Design, develop and maintain modular, standards‑aligned ontologies and scalable knowledge graphs for fusion research, integrating experimental simulation and textual data.

Apply generative AI and large language models to accelerate ontology development and knowledge graph population while ensuring strong provenance, explainability and quality assurance.

Enable semantic interoperability through ontology alignment, vocabulary mapping, data integration workflows and automated validation, versioning and deployment processes.

Work closely with scientists, engineers and software teams to deliver robust semantic solutions, produce clear technical documentation and promote best practices in knowledge engineering.

Qualifications – Essential

• PhD in Computer Science, AI or related field or equivalent research/industry experience.
• Significant experience of knowledge engineering and semantic technologies (knowledge graphs, ontologies, RDF/RDFS/OWL data modelling).
• Hands‑on experience with semantic standards and vocabularies (e.g. Dublin Core, DCAT, PROV).
• Proficiency with ontology engineering and graph technologies (e.g. Protégé, ROBOT, OWLAPI, Neo4j, GraphDB, Blazegraph).
• Practical experience with predictive and generative AI.
• Demonstrated teamwork and collaboration through project work, events or co‑authored outputs.

Desirable

• Experience using large language models, generative AI techniques and prompt engineering.
• Record of scientific publication and familiarity with open science and FAIR data practices.
• Experience with AI‑enabled tool or assistant design.
• Familiarity with collaborative knowledge platforms such as Wikipedia or Wikidata.

Additional Information

A full list of our benefits can be found here. Our mission is clean energy for all and we welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission. We are under‑represented from some groups and so want to encourage applications in particular from women in STEM, people from Black British, Caribbean and African backgrounds and from Pakistani and Bangladeshi British backgrounds. Our Executive team supported by our Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) and Wellbeing and our EDI Networks actively promote inclusion and take steps to increase diversity within our organization. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

UK Atomic Energy Authority is committed to being accessible. Please email if you have any questions or require help or adjustments to compete on a fair basis, for example changes to the way we interview or share information.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.

Remote Work: No

Employment Type: Full‑time

Key Skills

Graph Databases, Data Analytics, AI, Ontology, OWL, RDF, SPARQL, Natural Language Processing, Neo4j, Knowledge Management, Taxonomy

Experience: years

Vacancy: 1