Ontologist
Offer summary
Qualifications:
Degree in Information Science, Computer Science, or related biomedical field., Experience in designing and developing knowledge organization systems like taxonomies and ontologies., Knowledge of biomedical terminology, metadata standards, and semantic web technologies., Basic programming skills in Python or SQL for data manipulation..Key responsibilities:
- Develop and maintain ontologies, taxonomies, and controlled vocabularies.
- Collaborate with subject matter experts to capture and structure domain knowledge.
- Implement terminology systems within production environments and ensure data quality.
- Support data integration and knowledge sharing to enhance data discoverability and interoperability.
Job description
About us
Owkin is an agentic AI company on a mission to explore complex biology to speed up and scale research for the creation of new treatments and diagnostics for patients. Owkin K, our AI co-pilot combines unparalleled access to multimodal data, cutting-edge AI to understand biology and pioneering agentic AI to achieve Biological Artificial Superintelligence in the future.
Owkin is comprised of a group of specialized companies that work seamlessly together, combining deep expertise with a shared mission to accelerate biological discovery. Owkin K is the technology foundation of our ecosystem, it provides cutting-edge co-pilots incorporating high-quality data infrastructure and AI tools to power breakthroughs for researchers, customers and our companies.
Owkin has raised over $300 million through investments from leading biopharma companies, including Sanofi and BMS, and venture funds like Fidelity, GV and Bpifrance, among others.Owkin is seeking the best and brightest to join our fast-growing and dynamic team.
About the role:
As Ontologist, you will play a crucial role in our newly formed Data Group. This group has end-to-end responsibility for ingesting highly complex patient data and delivering timely, AI-ready biomedical data that drives greater customer value, stronger research, and faster product development.
Transform and capture expert knowledge into structured technical systems by creating formal representations of knowledge that support data integration and discovery. You'll develop and maintain ontologies, taxonomies, and controlled vocabularies that form the semantic backbone of our data ecosystem. A core responsibility is developing precise mathematical conversion systems that maintain clinical validity when translating biomedical data across different standardization and measurement frameworks.
Your responsibilities will include analyzing domain concepts, establishing meaningful relationships between entities, and ensuring ontological frameworks align with both business needs and industry standards. You'll collaborate closely with subject matter experts to capture specialized knowledge accurately while working with technical teams to implement ontologies within our systems. Ultimately, the value of the role comes from your ability to accelerate and scale the use of complex datasets through enhanced discoverability, interoperability, and analysis across the organization.
In particular, you will:
As an Ontologist, you'll develop and maintain knowledge organization systems—from vocabularies to taxonomies—selecting appropriate formalism levels based on specific business needs. You'll collaborate with subject matter experts to capture specialized knowledge while ensuring these structures align with organizational requirements. Your role includes implementing terminology systems in production environments, creating documentation and training materials, and establishing quality control processes. You'll support data integration initiatives through knowledge modeling, partner with data science teams to enhance applications, and continuously evaluate new approaches to knowledge organization as the field evolves.
Impact and Outcomes
- Enable more effective data discovery and retrieval
- Support integration of data across different systems
- Improve search precision and relevance
- Enhance analytics, machine learning and AI-assisted use of data with consistent terminology and measurement ranges
- Reduce ambiguity in data interpretation
- Facilitate knowledge sharing across the organization
- Support compliance with relevant standards while maintaining flexibility
You’ll have the opportunity to work with world-class biomedical and AI experts and contribute to the development of new methods for automated drug discovery and development with Owkin and its customers. This role offers pathways to grow into senior ontology positions, knowledge architecture leadership, semantic AI development, or specialized information management roles across healthcare, research, and technology sectors.
Position is based in our Paris, Nantes or London offices or remotely in France or UK.
About you
Required qualifications / experience:
Technical Skills
- Design and development of knowledge organization systems at various levels of formality
- Experience with taxonomies, thesauri, and controlled vocabularies
- Familiarity with a range of approaches, from lightweight tagging systems to more formal ontologies
- Knowledge of metadata standards and schema design
- Experience with terminology management tools and systems
- Understanding of data modeling and knowledge representation techniques
- Ability to evaluate and select appropriate knowledge organization approaches based on use cases
- Basic programming or scripting skills for data manipulation (Python, SQL)
- Experience implementing knowledge structures in production systems
Domain Knowledge
- Biomedical and healthcare specialization
- Strong understanding of knowledge organization principles
- Experience with metadata management and information architecture
- Ability to analyze and structure complex domain concepts
- Understanding of terminological resources and their practical applications
- Knowledge of semantic web technologies and linked data principles
- Understanding of data governance principles
Soft Skills
- Commitment to ethical data practices and patient privacy in biomedical settings
- Pragmatic Thinking: Balancing theoretical ideals with practical implementation needs
- Adaptability: Tailoring approaches to match specific business requirements
- Communication: Explaining complex concepts in accessible language
- Collaboration: Working effectively with diverse stakeholders
- Business Acumen: Understanding how knowledge organization delivers business value
- Systems Thinking: Seeing how terminology systems fit within larger information ecosystems
- Problem-Solving: Addressing semantic challenges with practical solutions
Preferred qualifications/bonus:
- Advanced degree in Information Science, Computer Science, Knowledge Management, or related biomedical field
- Knowledge of machine learning and its applications with ontologies
- Experience with natural language processing techniques
- Experience in international and multi-language settings
- Familiarity with graph databases and triple stores
- Experience with ontology languages and standards (OWL, RDF, SKOS, OBO), ontology development tools (Protégé, TopBraid, etc.) and query languages for semantic data (SPARQL)
- Experience with ontology alignment and mapping techniques
- Knowledge of international standards organizations and processes
- Publications or contributions to ontology development communities
- Understanding licensing and intellectual property topics
Please submit your CV in English
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What we offer
- Flexible work organization
- Friendly and informal working environment
- Opportunity to work with an international team with high technical and scientific backgrounds
Recruitment Process & Security
- Please complete the form and submit your CV.
- Owkin is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, age, color, religion, national origin, protected veteran status or on the basis of disability.
- Owkin is a great place to work. As a coveted workplace we are, unfortunately, vulnerable to recruitment phishing scams. We urge all job seekers and candidates to be wary of potential scams. Most of these have individuals posing as representatives of prominent companies, including Owkin, with the aim of obtaining personal, sensitive, or financial information from applicants. These scams prey upon an individual’s desire to obtain a job and can sometimes “feel” like a genuine recruitment process. Some red flags are identified below. Should you encounter a recruitment process that claims to be for Owkin but is not consistent with the below, please do not provide any personal or financial information:
- Legitimate Owkin recruitment processes include communication with candidates through recognized professional networks, such as LinkedIn.
- Communication is always through an official Owkin email address (from the @owkin.com domain), over the phone or through our applicant tracking system (Greenhouse).
- The Owkin talent team do use platforms such as LinkedIn and Job Teaser, however if you have any concern or doubt about this contact, please ask for them to send an email from @Owkin.com.
- The Owkin talent team will not solicit personal data from candidates during the application phase including, but not limited to, date of birth, social security numbers, or bank account information;
- Legitimate Owkin interviews may be conducted over the phone, in person, or via an approved enterprise videoconferencing service (Google Meets). They will not occur via Signal, Telegram or Messenger
- Owkin offers of employment are based on merit and only extended once a candidate has interviewed with members of the talent and hiring team. Offers will be extended both verbally and in written format.
If you think that you have been a victim of fraud,
- Check the identity of the talent team on LinkedIn.
- Check the existence of the position on our website https://owkin.com/hiring
- Notify Owkin's recruitment unit at this address hiring@owkin.com
- contact the following authorities:
Required profile
Experience
Hard Skills
Other Skills
- Collaboration
- Adaptability
- Communication
- Systems Thinking
- Business Acumen
- Problem Solving
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