Principal Scientist, Data Science (Translational Knowledge Engineering)

Biopharma Careers; North Carolina; Hybrid; USD 117,000 - 201,000; Full time

Job summary

Johnson & Johnson’s Innovative Medicine division seeks a Principal Translational Knowledge Architect & Graph Lead to design semantic and knowledge architecture enabling AI-driven reasoning across drug discovery and development. Lead ontology strategy, governance, and RDF-based knowledge graphs to connect discovery biology, safety, clinical development, and post-marketing data.

Collaborate with scientists, AI engineers, and platform teams to create knowledge assets supporting GraphRAG, agentic

Qualifications

• PhD or Master’s degree in Biomedical Informatics, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Information Science, Knowledge Engineering or related scientific discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in biomedical informatics, semantic technologies, knowledge engineering, or scientific data architecture.
• Demonstrated experience designing ontology-driven knowledge systems in life sciences, healthcare, or pharmaceutical R&D environments.
• Experience working across multiple phases of drug discovery and development.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain enterprise knowledge models spanning discovery biology, toxicology, safety pharmacology, pathology, clinical development, pharmacovigilance, and real-world evidence.
• Lead ontology strategy, development, governance, and lifecycle management.
• Curate and extend biomedical ontologies supporting translational safety and efficacy use cases.
• Establish ontology governance processes, quality standards, and semantic review procedures.
• Ensure semantic consistency, provenance, traceability, and FAIR data principles.
• Design RDF-based knowledge graph architectures and related semantic technologies.
• Develop semantic mappings, inference rules, and reasoning frameworks supporting scientific decision-making.
• Define knowledge representations enabling GraphRAG, semantic retrieval, AI agents, and reasoning systems.
• Establish semantic interoperability across heterogeneous data sources and standards.
• Develop semantic bridges across SEND, SDTM, ADaM, MedDRA, HPO, MONDO, SNOMED CT, FHIR, OMOP, Cell Ontology and Protein Ontology.
• Partner with stakeholders across Discovery, Preclinical Safety, Clinical Development, Pharmacovigilance, Data Science, and Digital Health.
• Collaborate with engineering teams responsible for data products, pipelines, and AI platforms.
• Influence enterprise semantic strategy and represent the organization in external standards and ontology communities.
• Familiarity with LLM-based retrieval and reasoning architectures; experience building semantic foundations for AI, GraphRAG, agentic AI.

Skills

Advanced Analytics

Coaching

Critical Thinking

Data Analysis

Data Privacy Standards

Data Quality

Data Reporting

Data Savvy

Data Science

Data Visualization

Digital Fluency

Econometric Models

Organizing

Process Improvements

Strategic Thinking

Technical Credibility

Workflow Analysis

Education

Biomedical Informatics

Bioinformatics

Computational Biology

Computer Science

Information Science

Knowledge Engineering

Related scientific discipline

Job description

Job Function:

Data Analytics & Computational Sciences

Job Sub Function:

Data Science

Job Category:

Scientific/Technology

All Job Posting Locations:

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America, Horsham, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Raritan, New Jersey, United States of America, Spring House, Pennsylvania, United States of America, Titusville, New Jersey, United States of America

Job Description:

About Innovative Medicine

Our expertise in Innovative Medicine is informed and inspired by patients, whose insights fuel our science-based advancements. Visionaries like you work on teams that save lives by developing the medicines of tomorrow.

Join us in developing treatments, finding cures, and pioneering the path from lab to life while championing patients every step of the way.

Learn more at https://www.jnj.com/innovative-medicine

Position Summary

The Principal Translational Knowledge Architect & Graph Lead will be responsible for designing and implementing the semantic and knowledge architecture that enables AI-driven reasoning across the drug discovery and development lifecycle.

This role will serve as the scientific and technical lead for ontology development, knowledge graph design, semantic interoperability, and AI-ready knowledge representation. Working at the intersection of translational science, patient safety, biomedical informatics, and artificial intelligence, this individual will help establish the semantic foundation required to connect discovery biology, preclinical safety, clinical development, real-world evidence, and post-marketing safety into a unified reasoning framework.

The successful candidate will partner closely with scientists, safety experts, data scientists, AI engineers, and platform teams to create knowledge assets that support GraphRAG, agentic AI, scientific reasoning, and next-generation translational intelligence capabilities.

Mission

Build the semantic foundation that enables AI systems to reason across discovery, preclinical, clinical, and post-marketing domains while preserving scientific meaning, provenance, and translational fidelity.

Key Responsibilities

Semantic Architecture & Knowledge Modeling

Design and maintain enterprise knowledge models spanning:

• Discovery biology
• Toxicology
• Safety pharmacology
• Pathology
• Clinical development
• Pharmacovigilance
• Real-world evidence

Develop semantic frameworks that support translational reasoning across the R&D lifecycle.

Create conceptual, logical, and physical knowledge models supporting AI-enabled scientific discovery.

Ontology Engineering & Governance

Lead ontology strategy, development, governance, and lifecycle management.

Curate and extend biomedical ontologies supporting translational safety and efficacy use cases.

Establish ontology governance processes, quality standards, and semantic review procedures.

Ensure semantic consistency, provenance, traceability, and FAIR data principles.

Knowledge Graph & Reasoning Infrastructure

Design RDF-based knowledge graph architectures and related semantic technologies.

Develop semantic mappings, inference rules, and reasoning frameworks supporting scientific decision-making.

Define knowledge representations enabling GraphRAG, semantic retrieval, AI agents, and reasoning systems.

Establish semantic interoperability across heterogeneous data sources and standards.

Translational Data Harmonization

Develop semantic bridges across major industry standards and ontologies, including:

• SEND
• SDTM
• ADaM
• MedDRA
• HPO
• MONDO
• SNOMED CT
• FHIR
• OMOP
• Cell Ontology
• Protein Ontology

Enable AI systems to traverse translational boundaries while preserving biological and clinical context.

Scientific & Cross-Functional Leadership

Partner with stakeholders across Discovery, Preclinical Safety, Clinical Development, Pharmacovigilance, Data Science, and Digital Health.

Collaborate with engineering teams responsible for data products, pipelines, and AI platforms.

Influence enterprise semantic strategy and represent the organization in external standards and ontology communities when appropriate.

Required Qualifications

Education

PhD or Master’s degree in:

• Biomedical Informatics
• Bioinformatics
• Computational Biology
• Computer Science
• Information Science
• Knowledge Engineering

Related scientific discipline

Experience

5+ years of experience in biomedical informatics, semantic technologies, knowledge engineering, or scientific data architecture.

Demonstrated experience designing ontology-driven knowledge systems in life sciences, healthcare, or pharmaceutical R&D environments.

Experience working across multiple phases of drug discovery and development.

Technical Expertise

Deep expertise in:

• Ontology development and governance
• Knowledge representation
• RDF
• OWL
• SHACL
• SPARQL
• Semantic Web technologies

Strong experience with:

• Enterprise ontology management platforms
• RDF graph architectures
• Semantic APIs
• FAIR data principles

Domain Knowledge

Strong familiarity with one or more:

• Translational science
• Toxicology
• Safety pharmacology
• Clinical development
• Pharmacovigilance
• Regulatory data standards

Experience working with:

• SEND
• SDTM
• ADaM
• MedDRA
• HPO
• MONDO
• FHIR
• OMOP

Preferred Qualifications

Experience building semantic foundations for AI, GraphRAG, agentic AI, or scientific reasoning systems.

Familiarity with LLM-based retrieval and reasoning architectures.

Experience supporting translational safety, efficacy, biomarker, or mechanistic reasoning use cases.

Contributions to ontology standards, open-source biomedical ontologies, or scientific knowledge graph initiatives.

Leadership Competencies

Strategic thinker capable of translating scientific challenges into scalable knowledge architectures.

Strong communicator who can engage effectively with scientists, clinicians, data scientists, engineers, and senior leadership.

Ability to operate in ambiguous, highly cross-functional environments.

Passion for advancing AI-enabled drug discovery and development through semantic and knowledge-driven approaches.

Johnson & Johnson is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status or other characteristics protected by federal, state or local law. We actively seek qualified candidates who are protected veterans and individuals with disabilities as defined under VEVRAA and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Johnson & Johnson is committed to providing an interview process that is inclusive of our applicants’ needs.

If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request an accommodation, external applicants please contact us via https://www.jnj.com/contact-us/careers , internal employees contact AskGS to be directed to your accommodation resource.

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Required Skills

Advanced Analytics, Coaching, Critical Thinking, Data Analysis, Data Privacy Standards, Data Quality, Data Reporting, Data Savvy, Data Science, Data Visualization, Digital Fluency, Econometric Models, Organizing, Process Improvements, Strategic Thinking, Technical Credibility, Workflow Analysis

Preferred Skills

Advanced Analytics, Coaching, Critical Thinking, Data Analysis, Data Privacy Standards, Data Quality, Data Reporting, Data Savvy, Data Science, Data Visualization, Digital Fluency, Econometric Models, Organizing, Process Improvements, Strategic Thinking, Technical Credibility, Workflow Analysis

The anticipated base pay range for this position is :

$117,000.00 - $201,250.00

Additional Description for Pay Transparency

Subject to the terms of their respective plans, employees are eligible to participate in the Company’s consolidated retirement plan (pension) and savings plan (401(k)).

This position is eligible to participate in the Company’s long-term incentive program.

Subject to the terms of their respective policies and date of hire, employees are eligible for the following time off benefits:

• Vacation –120 hours per calendar year
• Sick time - 40 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Colorado –48 hours per calendar year; for employees who reside in the State of Washington –56 hours per calendar year
• Holiday pay, including Floating Holidays –13 days per calendar year
• Work, Personal and Family Time - up to 40 hours per calendar year
• Parental Leave – 480 hours within one year of the birth/adoption/foster care of a child
• Bereavement Leave – 240 hours for an immediate family member: 40 hours for an extended family member per calendar year
• Caregiver Leave – 80 hours in a 52-week rolling period10 days
• Volunteer Leave – 32 hours per calendar year
• Military Spouse Time-Off – 80 hours per calendar year

For additional general information on Company benefits, please go to: - https://www.careers.jnj.com/employee-benefits