Semantic AI Engineer

AbbVie; North Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

AbbVie’s global Information Research group seeks a skilled Semantic Engineer in Illinois to design and operationalize AI-driven semantic capabilities. You will work with EOS, Ontology services, and Dataverse to connect ontologies with enterprise data.

You will collaborate across platform, product, governance teams to deliver scalable solutions, ensure FAIR data principles, and contribute to CI/CD pipelines while maintaining clear technical documentation and high standards of data security.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree plus 5 years experience or Master’s plus 4 years experience.
• Experience building production-quality data, software, AI, or semantic technology solutions (APIs, MCP tools, agents, services, integrations).
• Knowledge of ontologies, vocabularies, knowledge graphs, semantic standards (OWL, RDF, SPARQL) and FAIR data principles.

Responsibilities

• Design and deploy AI-driven semantic solutions integrating ontologies into enterprise platforms via EOS.
• Translate ontologies, vocabularies, mappings into reusable services and APIs.
• Enable inference, search, normalization, and data integration across large workflows.
• Collaborate to embed FAIR data principles into software assets.
• Align semantic services with business requirements and scalable delivery.
• Develop technical documentation and reusable patterns for EOS adoption.
• Follow corporate standards, security, GxP where relevant, and responsible AI.
• Stay aware of emerging tech trends and contribute to CI/CD.

Skills

APIs

Python

Knowledge graphs

SPARQL

Ontology/ontologies

CI/CD practices

Stakeholder collaboration

English fluency

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Data Science / CS / Informatics / Software Engineering / Semantic Technologies or related field

Master’s Degree or higher in related field

Tools

REST APIs

JSON

Pydantic (Python)

OWL

RDF

Job description

About AbbVie

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Company Description

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Job Description

AbbVie’s global Information Research (IR) group has a mission to unlock information that makes cures possible. Within IR, the Enterprise Knowledge Accelerator (EKA) team serves as a trusted knowledge partner for clients in R&D and the Corporate Business & Strategy Office (CBSO), helping drive innovation, knowledge sharing, and faster decisions that support advancement of AbbVie’s pipeline. EKA is a global organization with presence in Lake County, Illinois, Boston, Massachusetts, and Ludwigshafen, Germany. Within EKA, the Reference Data Architecture (RDA) team is building Ontoverse to develop AbbVie’s enterprise semantic capabilities by combining GenAI technologies, reference data expertise, and semantic architecture. RDA creates the semantic layer that connects high-quality internal and external ontologies, controlled vocabularies, and reference standards with major company data initiatives and platforms, making knowledge more connected, computable, and actionable across the enterprise. The Semantic AI Engineer will build and operationalize software capabilities that expose these semantic assets through Enterprise Ontology Services (EOS) for use in platforms such as Enterprise Product Master Data (EPMD), Dataverse, and controlled technology development frameworks like SHIFT. The role applies software engineering and semantic knowledge representation to create reusable components, APIs, MCP tools, agents, and AI-enabled services that support discovery, inference, harmonization, data integration, and decision-making at scale, while contributing to CI/CD practices that enable reliable delivery and ongoing operational support. Working closely with platform, product, ontology, data, and governance teams, the role will also help deliver implementation solutions that embed FAIR data principles into GenAI-generated software assets from the start.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operationalize AI-driven semantic solutions that embed enterprise ontologies and semantic assets into Enterprise Product Master Data initiative, the Dataverse, and related enterprise platforms through EOS.
• Engineer and translate ontologies, controlled vocabularies, mappings, semantic contracts, and reference standards into machine-consumable services, APIs, agent tools, and reusable software components.
• Enable semantic knowledge structures to actively drive inference, search, normalization, query expansion, entity resolution, and data integration across enterprise-scale workflows.
• Partner with the Standards & Governance Expert to define implementation patterns, decision processes, and quality gates that embed FAIR data principles into SHIFT-generated software assets from project initiation.
• Collaborate with platform, product, data, ontology, and governance teams to align semantic services with business requirements, enterprise architecture, and scalable delivery practices.
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, integration patterns, reusable examples, and guidance that help teams consume EOS capabilities consistently and effectively.
• Understand and adhere to applicable corporate standards, including code of conduct, data security, GxP compliance where relevant, software development lifecycle expectations, and responsible AI practices.
• Monitor and be attuned to new technology trends relevant for knowledge analysis and insights discovery.
• Achieve great results, while demonstrating key AbbVie values and behaviors.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Informatics, Software Engineering, Semantic Technologies or any related field and 5 years of experience; or Master’s Degree and 4 years of experience.
• Demonstrated experience building production-quality data, software, AI, or semantic technology solutions, including APIs, MCP tools, agents, services, integrations, or reusable platform components, common technologies, and formats (e.g., Rest APIs, XML, JSON, Python libraries such as Pydantic).
• Working knowledge of ontologies, controlled vocabularies, knowledge graphs, semantic standards (OWL, RDF, SPARQL), metadata, mapping, normalization, and FAIR data principles.
• Ability to translate business and governance requirements into scalable technical designs that make semantic assets accessible to applications, AI agents, search, and data integration workflows.
• Demonstrated ability to learn and apply emerging technologies, operate within timelines, and produce clear technical documentation for enterprise adoption, contributing to CI/CD practices that enable reliable delivery and ongoing operational support.
• Strong collaboration, stakeholder management, and communication skills, with the ability to work across platforms, governance, ontology, and product teams.
• Comfortable working in a fast paced, highly collaborative, dynamic work environment with constantly shifting priorities.
• Demonstrate an interest in working cross-functionally and in inter-disciplinary teams with an ability to effectively communicate, both verbally and in writing, with scientists and non-scientists.
• Innate scientific curiosity, technical creativity, and innovative thinking. Motivated to break new ground in the field of information analysis and insights generation.
• Fluency in English

Additional Information

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state or local law:

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Company believes in good faith it will pay for this role at the time of this posting based on the job grade for this position. Individual compensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, and we may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range. This range may be modified in the future.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick), medical/dental/vision insurance and 401(k) to eligible employees.
• This job is eligible to participate in our short-term incentive programs.

Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole and absolute discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent with applicable law.

AbbVie is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to operating with integrity, driving innovation, transforming lives and serving our community. Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.