Johnson & JohnsonPrincipal Ontologist - R&D DDSAI - Preclinical Sciences & Translational Safety
Johnson & Johnson is hiring a Principal Ontologist - R&D DDSAI - Preclinical Sciences & Translational Safety. Level rates it ; you can apply on Johnson & Johnson.
Level's read on this job
- Level rates this role Works on AI ●●●○: the daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- The posting mentions Semantic Web, Ontologies and ontology engineering among its tools and skills.
- Level classes it as a lead role.
- Johnson & Johnson has 1,700+ other open roles on Level.
- Posted within the past two weeks.
AI in this role
Principal Ontologist developing controlled vocabularies and semantic data standards to support biomedical and preclinical data science.
At Johnson & Johnson, we believe health is everything. Our strength in healthcare innovation empowers us to build a world where complex diseases are prevented, treated, and cured, where treatments are smarter and less invasive, and solutions are personal. Through our expertise in Innovative Medicine and MedTech, we are uniquely positioned to innovate across the full spectrum of healthcare solutions today to deliver the breakthroughs of tomorrow, and profoundly impact health for humanity. Learn more at jnj.com
As guided by Our Credo, Johnson & Johnson is responsible to our employees who work with us throughout the world. We provide an inclusive work environment where each person is considered as an individual. At Johnson & Johnson, we respect the diversity and dignity of our employees and recognize their merit.
Job Function:
Data Analytics & Computational SciencesJob Sub Function:
Data ScienceJob Category:
Scientific/TechnologyAll Job Posting Locations:
Beerse, Antwerp, Belgium, Cornellà de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain, Madrid, Spain, Spring House, Pennsylvania, United States of AmericaJob Description:
We are seeking a Principal Scientist/Ontologist to join our R&D DDSAI team, dedicated to developing and supporting ontologies, controlled vocabularies, and semantic data standards for PSTS.
This hands-on scientific and technical role will establish consistent terminology across PSTS projects, translate scientific knowledge into reusable semantic models, and strengthen connections between PSTS and other departments across the R&D pipeline. Working closely with scientific subject matter experts, data scientists, data engineers, and technology partners, you will help make scientific data easier to find, understand, integrate, and reuse.
The successful candidate combines expertise in ontology engineering with an understanding of pharmaceutical research and a collaborative approach to solving complex scientific data challenges.
Key Responsibilities
Ontology Creation & Terminology Standardization
- Design, develop, test, and maintain ontology modules and controlled vocabularies supporting PSTS scientific workflows, including toxicology, safety assessment, pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics, and translational research.
- Partner with PSTS scientists to capture scientific concepts, definitions, relationships, and experimental context, translating these into well-structured semantic models.
- Harmonize terminology across projects, studies, assays, and data sources while preserving scientifically meaningful distinctions.
- Develop mappings between project-specific terminology, shared R&D ontologies, and relevant external standards, prioritizing reuse over unnecessary duplication.
Project Support & Adoption
- Serve as a primary ontology and terminology resource for PSTS project teams, supporting requirements gathering, semantic annotation, data mapping, and issue resolution.
- Partner with data engineers and platform teams to incorporate ontology terms and mappings into data products, metadata systems, and scientific workflows.
- Provide practical documentation, examples, and training that help scientists and technical teams adopt standardized terminology.
- Maintain a prioritized backlog of ontology enhancements and support requests aligned with PSTS scientific needs.
Cross-R&D Interoperability
- Collaborate with peer ontologists and scientific data teams across discovery, development, therapeutic areas, and other R&D functions.
- Establish shared definitions that connect PSTS evidence with upstream discovery and downstream development data.
- Identify opportunities to reuse ontology components and improve cross-study and cross-functional data integration.
Governance, Quality & Lifecycle Management
- Apply modeling guidelines, naming conventions, persistent identifiers, version control, change management, and release practices.
- Maintain traceable definitions, mappings, provenance, and documentation of modeling decisions.
- Assess the impact of ontology changes on consuming projects and coordinate updates with scientific and technical stakeholders.
Analytics & AI Readiness
- Help ensure PSTS datasets retain the scientific context needed for reliable interpretation and reuse.
- Evaluate approaches to terminology extraction and mapping automation, with appropriate scientific review.
Qualifications
Required
- Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences, Engineering, or a related discipline.
- Hands-on experience developing and maintaining ontologies, controlled vocabularies, semantic models, or knowledge graphs for scientific or biomedical applications.
- Experience with ontology development tools (e.g., Protégé, OWL/RDF) version control, and scripting for data transformation and validation.
- Ability to translate scientific requirements into clear, reusable semantic structures.
- Strong communication, problem-solving, and stakeholder engagement skills.
- Ability to manage multiple workstreams and deliver practical solutions in a matrixed environment.
Preferred
- Experience with pharmaceutical R&D data, particularly toxicology, safety sciences, ADME/DMPK, pathology, or translational research.
- Familiarity with relevant biomedical ontologies and regulatory data standards, including CDISC/SEND.
- Experience integrating semantic models into data pipelines, metadata catalogs, or knowledge graph platforms.
- Understanding of FAIR data principles, provenance, reproducibility, and quality-governed scientific environments.
- Experience facilitating cross-functional agreement on terminology and supporting adoption of shared standards.
- Experience leveraging open-source biomedical ontologies (e.g., GO, BAO) to support harmonization, annotation, integration, and reuse of bioassay and experimental data across discovery and development workflows.
Why This Role Matters
You will help turn fragmented scientific terminology into a shared, reusable foundation for PSTS research. Your work will strengthen scientific data connections across the R&D pipeline, improve evidence reuse, and enable more effective analytics and AI-supported research.
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:
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 :
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
How we rate this
Principal Ontologist - R&D DDSAI - Preclinical Sciences & Translational Safety at Johnson & Johnson rates 60 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Works on AI (AI Level 3 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.
Works on AI. The daily work is on AI products, without building the model.
- ●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
- ●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
- ●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
- ●○○○ Little AI0 to 39
Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.
Prepare for this job
Built from this posting and from similar jobs on Level.
Skills and AI tools this role asks for
Questions you could be asked
- Tell me about a project where ontology engineering was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where data standardization was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where semantic modeling was part of your work. What did you do?
- Tell me about a project where knowledge representation was part of your work. What did you do?
- Walk me through how you've used Semantic Web in your day-to-day work.
Adapt your resume
- List these exact terms on your resume: Ontology Engineering, Data Standardization, Semantic Modeling, Knowledge Representation, and Semantic Web. An applicant tracking system matches the wording, not the idea.
- Attach one line of real, concrete experience to at least one of them. A tool named with nothing behind it rarely survives a human read.
- Show where AI is part of your daily process, not a one-off project. This role expects it to be a running habit.
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