Enterprise Ontologist

ThermoFisher Scientific; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 84,000 - 127,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical plan

Dental plan

Vision plan

Employee assistance

PTO + holidays

401(k) plan

ESPP

Job summary

Thermo Fisher Scientific is seeking an Enterprise Ontologist to design, govern, and extend the semantic models powering the Enterprise Knowledge Graph and AI-focused experiences. You will work across scientific, content, product, AI, data science, and engineering teams to translate complex domains into scalable structures that improve search, discovery, data interoperability, and AI performance.

You will help maintain accurate ontologies aligned with evolving scientific and business needs,

Qualifications

• Experience with ontology engineering, knowledge graphs, or semantic data models.
• Scientific or biomedical knowledge models and AI/search apps preferred.
• Ability to translate complex information into scalable semantic models.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and govern enterprise ontologies and semantic models for EKG and AI apps.
• Model scientific, product, and operational concepts using taxonomies and external ontologies.
• Collaborate with SMEs and tech teams to translate requirements into scalable models.
• Establish ontology governance, standards, lifecycle, provenance, and change management.
• Develop mappings across taxonomies, external ontologies, data sources, and KG entities.
• Enable AI capabilities including semantic search, content classification, and RAG.
• Evaluate ontology effectiveness and identify improvements for retrieval and AI performance.
• Provide ontology guidance and training to diverse stakeholders.

Skills

Ontology engineering

Knowledge representation

Semantic modeling

Knowledge graph design

OWL RDF SKOS

Life-science terminology

Technical translation

Communication

Analytical thinking

Systems thinking

Collaboration

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree preferred

Tools

Neo4j

PostgreSQL

Ontology management tools

Job description

Work Schedule

Standard (Mon-Fri)

Environmental Conditions

Office

Job Description

As part of the Thermo Fisher Scientific team, you’ll discover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Join our colleagues in bringing our Mission to life every single day to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We provide our global teams with the resources needed to achieve individual career goals while helping to take science a step beyond by developing solutions for some of the world’s toughest challenges, like protecting the environment, making sure our food is safe or helping find cures for cancer.

Description

Join our collaborative team as an Enterprise Ontologist and design, develop, and govern the semantic models that power Thermo Fisher's Enterprise Knowledge Graph (EKG) and AI-driven digital experiences. This role translates complex scientific and business domains into scalable knowledge structures that improve search, content discovery, data interoperability, and AI performance.

Working across scientific, Content, Product, AI, Data Science, and Engineering teams, the Enterprise Ontologist will serve as a key steward of the knowledge foundation supporting thermofisher.ai and the Foundry, ensuring enterprise ontologies remain accurate, governed, scalable, and aligned with evolving scientific and business needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and govern enterprise ontologies and semantic models supporting the EKG and enterprise AI applications.
• Model scientific, product, and operational concepts and relationships using enterprise taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, and authoritative external ontologies.
• Partner with scientific SMEs and business and technical teams to translate complex requirements into scalable semantic models.
• Establish ontology governance, including standards, quality assurance, lifecycle management, versioning, provenance, and change management.
• Develop mappings across taxonomies, external ontologies, enterprise data sources, and knowledge graph entities.
• Enable and optimize AI capabilities including semantic search, content classification, RAG, knowledge grounding, and recommendation systems.
• Evaluate ontology effectiveness and identify opportunities to improve retrieval, content quality, knowledge coverage, and AI performance.
• Provide ontology guidance and training to scientific, content, business, and technical stakeholders.

Minimum Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences, Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry, Bioinformatics, Information Science, Computer Science, Data Science, or a related scientific or technical field. Master's degree preferred.
• 5+ years of experience developing or managing ontologies, semantic data models, taxonomies, knowledge graphs, or information architecture. Experience with scientific or biomedical knowledge models and AI/search applications strongly preferred.

Required Knowledge or Experience

• Expertise in ontology engineering, knowledge representation, semantic modeling, and knowledge graph design, including standards such as OWL, RDF, and SKOS.
• Strong scientific literacy and knowledge of life-science terminology, concepts, techniques, applications, and experimental workflows.
• Ability to translate complex scientific and technical information into scalable semantic models and knowledge structures.
• Familiarity with scientific ontologies, controlled vocabularies, semantic technologies, graph databases (neo4j and PostgresSQL preferred), and ontology management tools.
• Understanding of AI and search technologies, including semantic search, RAG, NLP, knowledge grounding, and LLM-based applications.
• Proven ability to establish ontology governance, quality, lifecycle, and data stewardship practices.
• Strong analytical and systems-thinking skills with the ability to navigate complex scientific and enterprise knowledge domains.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, including the ability to work effectively with scientific SMEs and technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Travel: 10-25%

Compensation and Benefits

The salary range estimated for this position based in Pennsylvania is $84,400.00–$126,550.00.

This position may also be eligible to receive a variable annual bonus based on company, team, and/or individual performance results in accordance with company policy. We offer a comprehensive Total Rewards package that our U.S. colleagues and their families can count on, which includes:

• A choice of national medical and dental plans, and a national vision plan, including health incentive programs
• Employee assistance and family support programs, including commuter benefits and tuition reimbursement
• At least 120 hours paid time off (PTO), 10 paid holidays annually, paid parental leave (3 weeks for bonding and 8 weeks for caregiver leave), accident and life insurance, and short- and long-term disability in accordance with company policy
• Retirement and savings programs, such as our competitive 401(k) U.S. retirement savings plan
• Employees’ Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) offers eligible colleagues the opportunity to purchase company stock at a discount

For more information on our benefits, please visit: https://jobs.thermofisher.com/global/en/total-rewards

Thermo Fisher Scientific is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.