Lead Ontology & Knowledge Engineer (Remote)

Date Posted:
2026-01-15
Country:
United States of America
Location:
US-CT-REMOTE
Position Role Type:
Remote
U.S. Citizen, U.S. Person, or Immigration Status Requirements:
Security Clearance:
None/Not Required

Pratt & Whitney is working to once again transform the future of flight - designing, building and servicing engines unlike any the world has ever seen. And because transformation begins from within, we're seeking the people to drive it. So, calling all curious.

Come ready to explore and you'll find a place where your talent takes flight-beyond the borders of title, a country or your comfort zone. Bring your passion and commitment and we'll welcome you into a tight-knit team that takes our mission personally. Channel your drive to make a difference into shaping an organization and an industry that's evolving fast to the future.

At Pratt & Whitney, the difference you make is on display every day. Just look up. Are you ready to go beyond?

Pratt & Whitney digital technology has an exciting new opportunity for a Lead Ontology & Knowledge Engineer.

What You Will Do:

You aren't just building a database; you are teaching machines how to think about our business. You are the architect of the logic that powers our digital workforce.

As the Lead Ontology & Knowledge Engineer, you will bridge the gap between structured/unstructured enterprise data and our LLM-powered agents. You will design, implement, and maintain the ontologies that serve as the "ground truth" for Pratt and Whitney.

You will move us beyond simple RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) toward GraphRAG, enabling our agents to perform multi-hop reasoning and causal analysis.

The Mission

We are building the central nervous system for AI at Pratt & Whitney. Our goal is not just to manage data, but to deploy autonomous AI agents capable of complex reasoning, decision support, and automation.

To achieve this, we need a Lead Ontology & Knowledge Engineer to construct the semantic layer, the Knowledge Graph, that gives our agents the context they need to understand the relationship between a specific engine part, a maintenance schedule, and a supply chain constraint.

Key Responsibilities

1. Ontology & Schema Design

Develop and maintain enterprise-grade ontologies (OWL/RDF) that model the complex domain of aerospace engineering, manufacturing, and supply chain.

Define the semantic schema for AI Agents, ensuring they share a common vocabulary when communicating across different business units (e.g., ensuring a "Task" in Engineering means the same thing to an agent in Operations).

2. Knowledge Graph Implementation

Lead the architecture and deployment of our Enterprise Knowledge Graph

Build data pipelines (Python) to ingest data from legacy ERP systems, PLM software, and unstructured documents into the graph.

Implement Entity Resolution and linking strategies to unify disparate data points across the organization.

3. Context Engineering for AI Agents

Collaborate with AI Engineers to design "Context Windows" for LLMs. You will determine what graph data needs to be injected into a prompt to maximize agent accuracy.

Work on Causal Inference models: Structure data to help agents distinguish between correlation and causation (e.g., Did the maintenance delay cause the part failure, or did the part failure cause the delay?).

4. Governance & Standards

Establish semantic standards and data governance policies for the AI ecosystem.

Evangelize the use of Knowledge Graphs within Pratt & Whitney, training other developers on graph-based thinking.

Qualifications You Must Have:

- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Science, Mathematics, or related field with 10+ years of relevant experience; OR a Master's degree with 8+ years of relevant experience; OR a PhD in Computer Science, Information Science, Mathematics, or related field with 5+ years of relevant experience.

- Experience: 5+ years in Ontology Engineering, Knowledge Representation, or Data Modeling.

Technical Stack:

- Proficiency in Graph Query Languages (SPARQL, Cypher, Gremlin).

- Strong coding skills in Python (essential for our AI stack).

- Experience with semantic web standards (RDF, OWL, SKOS, SHACL).

- AI Integration: Experience working with LLMs, Vector Databases, and RAG architectures.

- Domain Knowledge: Experience in manufacturing, aerospace, or complex supply chain environments is a strong plus.


Learn More & Apply Now:

In addition to transforming the future of flight, we are also transforming how and where we work. We've introduced role types to help you understand how you will operate in our blended work environment. This role is:

What is my role type?

In addition to transforming the future of flight, we are also transforming how and where we work. We've introduced role types to help you understand how you will operate in our blended work environment.

This role is:

Remote: Employees who are working in Remote roles will work primarily offsite (from home).

Candidates will learn more about role type and current site status throughout the recruiting process.

*This requisition is eligible for an employee referral award. ALL eligibility requirements must be met to receive the referral award.

As part of our commitment to maintaining a secure hiring process, candidates may be asked to attend select steps of the interview process in-person at one of our office locations, regardless of whether the role is designated as on-site, hybrid or remote.

The salary range for this role is 132,400 USD - 251,600 USD. The salary range provided is a good faith estimate representative of all experience levels. RTX considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the role, function and associated responsibilities, a candidate's work experience, location, education/training, and key skills.

Hired applicants may be eligible for benefits, including but not limited to, medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, 401(k) match, flexible spending accounts, flexible work schedules, employee assistance program, Employee Scholar Program, parental leave, paid time off, and holidays. Specific benefits are dependent upon the specific business unit as well as whether or not the position is covered by a collective-bargaining agreement.

Hired applicants may be eligible for annual short-term and/or long-term incentive compensation programs depending on the level of the position and whether or not it is covered by a collective-bargaining agreement. Payments under these annual programs are not guaranteed and are dependent upon a variety of factors including, but not limited to, individual performance, business unit performance, and/or the company's performance.

This role is a U.S.-based role. If the successful candidate resides in a U.S. territory, the appropriate pay structure and benefits will apply.

RTX anticipates the application window closing approximately 40 days from the date the notice was posted. However, factors such as candidate flow and business necessity may require RTX to shorten or extend the application window.

RTX is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or veteran status, or any other applicable state or federal protected class. RTX provides affirmative action in employment for qualified Individuals with a Disability and Protected Veterans in compliance with Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act.

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