Senior Ontology Engineer - job 1 of 2

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 – immunology, oncology, neuroscience, and eye care – and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Tik Tok.

Come to work each day with an inclusive and collaborative Business technology team! As a Senior Ontology Engineer in AbbVie Business Technology Solutions (BTS), you’ll have opportunities to contribute to the digital transformation of a leading biopharma company, helping to create solutions that impact patients and their communities for the better.

***This a hybrid role based in Lake County***

Purpose 

About our Team

The RDA (Reference Data Architecture) team provides comprehensive ontologies and services to manage and semantically map diverse controlled vocabularies throughout our pipeline. We aim to make company-wide data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and unite common meta data in a single reference data architecture.  

In partnership with AbbVie’s EPIC team, our company-internal software incubator, dedicated to building and scaling cutting-edge technology products for internal use, we are building an enterprise ontology service layer to support, among others, our generative AI and large language model (LLM) capabilities to derive new insights and improve existing processes with our partners from all over the business. Join this global collaborative team in a flexible work environment to help AbbVie make a remarkable impact on people’s lives. 

As a Senior Ontology Engineer, you will be responsible for  

• Working with a team of experts to create and maintain an enterprise ontology service layer to provide common access to ontology information within AbbVie 

• Demonstrating the benefits of using ontologies in conjunction with our in-house AI/LLM capabilities to produce more accurate and AbbVie-specific results 

• Delivering clean, scalable, well-optimized Python code and creating and maintaining documentation, metrics, operating procedures and training materials 

• Contributing to building out data governance rules for reference data and their use 

• Supporting larger R&D-wide convergence initiatives, like our AbbVie R&D Convergence Hub (ARCH), with a comprehensive meta data model 

• Understanding the Ontology and LLM landscape and help to evaluate the right tools for the right tasks 

• Participating in the identification and development of new reference data sources and demonstrating applicability in selected projects with business data owners 

To do this effectively, strong communication skills will be crucial for cross-functional collaboration, scientific engagement and training.  Excellent problem-solving and quantitative skills are needed to identify the right solution and troubleshoot workflows. Building solutions such as dashboards, visualizations, APIs, and analyses will require strong technical skills and experience with appropriate software. 

Tools and skills you will use in this role

• Excellent skills in developing Python code in a production environment and experience with enterprise platform integration 
• Strong technical capabilities to programmatically use ontology management tools (e.g. CENtree), triple stores (e.g. Marklogic), and knowledge graphs (e.g. Neo4J) 
• SQL, SPARQL, and Cypher skills (basic queries, table creation, views, and reporting) 
• Familiarity with GitHub or other version control tools and project tracking platforms (e.g. JIRA) 
• Experience working with foundational language models and LLM frameworks 
• Mature interpersonal communication skills that will enable you to work with clients from AbbVie R&D and other business areas 
• Excellent problem-solving skills 

Experiences that make you a strong candidate for this role

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or other relevant technical degree and at least 6 years relevant experience OR Master’s degree in relevant field and at least 5 years experience OR PhD degree in relevant field 
• Excellent skills in developing Python code in a production environment and experience with enterprise platform integration 
• Working knowledge of using and building APIs 
• Experience with pipeline software (e.g., Apache AirFlow), Machine Learning workflows (e.g., Cloudera ML) 
• Experience working with foundational language models and LLM frameworks 
• Familiarity with FAIR data principles and common life science data standards 
• Knowledge of semantics, data modeling (RDF), and data mining techniques 
• Demonstrated history of successful execution in a fast-paced, collaborative environment and in managing multiple priorities effectively 
• Demonstrated ability to learn, understand and master new technologies 
• Strong written and oral English communication skills.  

Beneficial

• Background in life sciences and work experience in the bio-pharmaceutical industry 
• Working knowledge of the drug discovery and development process  
• Familiarity with life science resources (e.g., public or commercial databases) and descriptive metadata for small molecule and biologics research (e.g. omics) 
• Experience designing and developing taxonomies, reference data, or controlled vocabularies 

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

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• 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. ​

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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, serving our community and embracing diversity and inclusion.  It is AbbVie’s policy to employ qualified persons of the greatest ability without discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy), physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, marital status, status as a protected veteran, or any other legally protected group status.

US & Puerto Rico only - to learn more, visit https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/equal-employment-opportunity-employer.html 

US & Puerto Rico applicants seeking a reasonable accommodation, click here to learn more:

https://www.abbvie.com/join-us/reasonable-accommodations.html