Specialist, Semantic Data Engineer

Job Description

Our company is seeking a semantic data engineer to build, and scale enterprise-grade knowledge graph solutions that power advanced analytics and decision-making in pharmaceutical research. This role will implement the design of semantic data layers that integrate heterogeneous scientific datasets, enabling end-to-end traceability, cross-domain insights, and AI/ML-driven discovery. The ideal candidate will combine deep expertise in knowledge graphs, ontology engineering, and data engineering, with strong domain awareness in pharmaceutical R&D.

Key responsibilities

• Design and implement scalable knowledge graph architectures to integrate multi-modal data (e.g., omics, process, analytical, lineage)
• Build and manage graph data models representing entities such as samples, processes, assays, targets, and biological relationships
• Drive adoption of graph technologies (e.g., RDF, property graphs, SPARQL/Cypher)
• Partner with platform teams to implement scalable infrastructure (e.g., Amazon Neptune, serverless pipelines)
• Ensure performance, scalability, and governance of knowledge graph platforms
• Collaborate with product managers, scientists, data engineers, and AI/ML teams to translate business needs into semantic models

Required experience and skills

• Semantic web technology stack (e.g., RDF data format, SPARQL query language)
• Amazon Web Services (AWS), particularly the serverless services (e.g., Lambda, Step Functions)
• Data engineering (e.g., SQL queries, ETL jobs)
• Programming in Python
• Experience with DevSecOps practices like continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD), source code version control (e.g., Git), infrastructure-as-code (e.g., CloudFormation, Terraform), and containers (e.g., Docker)

Desired experience and skills

• Cheminformatics and familiarity with the pharmaceutical research
• Exposure to AI/ML applications leveraging graph data
• Good communication and collaboration skills, and ability to collaborate with other teams to develop solutions
• Experience with Atlassian stack of tools for agile software development (e.g., Jira, Confluence)
• Demonstrate growth mindset and ability to work with enterprise teams

Additional location(s) Compensation Information:

Required Skills:

Amazon Web Services (AWS), CI/CD, Collaboration, Communication, DevSecOps, Extract Transform Load (ETL), Graph Databases, Infrastructure As Code (IaC), Python (Programming Language), Resource Description Framework (RDF), SPARQL, Structured Query Language (SQL), Version Control

Preferred Skills:

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Atlassian Confluence, Atlassian JIRA, AWS CloudFormation, Cheminformatics, Docker (Software), Git, Machine Learning (ML), Pharmaceutical Research, Terraform (Software)

Current Employees apply HERE

Current Contingent Workers apply HERE

Search Firm Representatives Please Read Carefully  Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, also known as Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, Rahway, NJ, USA, does not accept unsolicited assistance from search firms for employment opportunities. All CVs / resumes submitted by search firms to any employee at our company without a valid written search agreement in place for this position will be deemed the sole property of our company.  No fee will be paid in the event a candidate is hired by our company as a result of an agency referral where no pre-existing agreement is in place. Where agency agreements are in place, introductions are position specific. Please, no phone calls or emails. 

Employee Status:

Regular

Relocation:

No relocation

VISA Sponsorship:

Yes

Travel Requirements:

10%

Flexible Work Arrangements:

Hybrid

Shift:

Not Indicated

Valid Driving License:

No

Hazardous Material(s):

N/A

Job Posting End Date:

11/6/2026*A job posting is effective until 11:59:59PM on the day BEFORE the listed job posting end date. Please ensure you apply to a job posting no later than the day BEFORE the job posting end date.