Head of Enterprise Semantics & Knowledge Engineering

Novartis; New Jersey; Hybrid; USD 225,000 - 419,000; Full time

Job summary

Novartis is seeking an Executive Director, Semantic and Knowledge Engineering to lead the strategy, architecture, and implementation of the enterprise semantic layer and knowledge engineering capabilities powering NovaOS. This role builds a trusted, reusable knowledge foundation that connects data, business concepts, ontologies, taxonomies, and AI agents to enable scalable enterprise intelligence.

The ideal candidate has 10+ years in semantic technologies with leadership, deep expertise in

Qualifications

• 10+ years in semantic tech, knowledge engineering, data management or AI platforms with leadership.
• Deep expertise in ontologies, taxonomies, metadata, RDF/OWL, knowledge graphs, graph databases, semantic web tech, and enterprise information architecture.
• Experience building enterprise semantic platforms enabling AI, analytics, search, and data interoperability at scale.
• Exceptional leadership, executive communication, and cross-functional stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute the enterprise strategy for semantic technologies, knowledge engineering, and knowledge graph capabilities.
• Lead development and governance of ontologies, taxonomies, vocabularies, and semantic models across the organization.
• Design and implement the enterprise semantic layer enabling trusted AI, analytics, interoperability, and reusable knowledge.
• Partner with Applied AI, Data Science, Product Management, Engineering, and Business teams to embed semantic capabilities into NovaOS products and AI solutions.
• Establish governance, metadata management, knowledge lifecycle processes, and quality standards for enterprise knowledge assets.
• Drive innovation in knowledge graphs, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), semantic search, reasoning engines, and AI-enabled knowledge management.
• Build and lead a high-performing team of semantic engineers, ontology specialists, and knowledge engineers.

Skills

Semantic technologies

Knowledge engineering

Enterprise architecture

Leadership

Executive communication

Stakeholder management

Education

CS/Info AI degree

Tools

RDF/OWL

Knowledge graphs

Graph databases

Job description

Novartis is seeking an Executive Director, Semantic and Knowledge Engineering to lead the strategy, architecture, and implementation of the enterprise semantic layer and knowledge engineering capabilities powering NovaOS. This role builds a trusted, reusable knowledge foundation that connects data, business concepts, ontologies, taxonomies, and AI agents to enable scalable enterprise intelligence.

The ideal candidate has 10+ years in semantic technologies with leadership, deep expertise in