Position: Data Ontologist
Location: Remote - Belgium or Hybrid - Ghent, Belgium
Client: Biotech
Type: Full-time Contract
Main Responsibilities
* Design, implement, and maintain ontologies covering key R&D domains such as diseases, genes, biomarkers, compounds, pathways, studies, and clinical endpoints
* Define semantic relationships, hierarchies, and controlled vocabularies that accurately reflect scientific concepts and enable advanced querying and reasoning
* Align internal ontologies with external standards and reference frameworks to ensure interoperability and reuse
* Translate complex scientific data across discovery, preclinical, and clinical domains into structured, machine-readable semantic models
* Preserve scientific context, assumptions, and data provenance within semantic frameworks
* Support the development and scaling of knowledge graphs for integrated data exploration, analytics, and AI-driven use cases
* Collaborate with data engineers and architects to implement ontologies within semantic and graph-based data platforms
* Enable use cases such as semantic search, graph queries, hypothesis generation, and AI-assisted discovery
* Establish and enforce semantic governance standards including naming conventions, versioning, and change management
* Contribute to FAIR data principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) through consistent semantic modeling and metadata alignment
* Partner with data scientists, product owners, and analytics teams to ensure semantic models support real-world scientific workflows
* Educate stakeholders on ontology usage, best practices, and the value of semantic models within R&D data environments
* Maintain clear documentation and contribute to knowledge sharing across teams
Main Requirements
* Master’s degree or PhD (or equivalent experience) in Biomedical Sciences, Bioinformatics, Life Sciences, Computer Science, Information Science, or a related field
* Strong scientific background combined with hands-on experience in data or semantic modeling
* 5+ years of experience working with ontologies, semantic data models, or knowledge graphs
* Proven experience within life sciences, pharmaceutical R&D, biotech, or a closely related domain
* Expertise in ontology modeling and semantic data design
* Knowledge of semantic web standards such as RDF, OWL, SPARQL, and controlled vocabularies
* Experience integrating heterogeneous data sources using knowledge graphs or semantic technologies
* Strong scientific literacy across R&D domains including discovery, preclinical, and clinical research
* Ability to translate complex scientific concepts into structured, machine-readable representations
* Experience working collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams including scientists, engineers, and data professionals
ABOUT PLANET PHARMA
Planet Pharma is an American parented Employment Business/Agency that provides global staffing services with its head-quarters in Chicago and our EMEA regional office located in Central London. We have invested significantly in creating a robust international platform that enables us to work compliantly in 30+ countries with a current network of 2500+ active contractors globally as well as a very strong permanent / direct hire recruitment offering.
Our specialist knowledge and close relationships with our clients and the wider industry really makes us unique in our field. Just recently we were recognised by FORBES as the 17th best professional staffing firm, and have won multiple awards from industry accredited bodies for our commitment to excellence and service delivery. We have extensive functional expertise including: Regulatory Affairs, Pharmacovigilance, QA, QC, Submissions experts, Clinical development, Quality, Biostatistics, and Medical Affairs / Writing.
We are an equal opportunities Recruitment Business and Agency.
We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates regardless of their race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age.
* www.planet-pharma.com