Fast Facts

NWEA is seeking a Senior Ontology Engineer to lead the technical development of ontologies for information systems that enhance knowledge organization and support informed decision-making. This fully remote role involves collaborating with engineering teams and ensuring ontological structures meet quality standards.

Responsibilities: Key responsibilities include developing and maintaining ontologies, writing SPARQL queries, collaborating with teams to define information needs, and ensuring the alignment of knowledge representation with enterprise data systems.

Skills: Advanced knowledge of ontology modeling languages (RDF, OWL, SHACL), proficiency in SPARQL and semantic data integration, and experience with semantic technologies and graph databases are essential.

Qualifications: An advanced degree in computer science, information science, or equivalent experience is preferred, along with substantial experience with ontologies and knowledge graphs.

Location: This position is fully remote, allowing for flexible work arrangements.

Compensation: $105000 - $125000 / Annually

Job Title: Senior Ontology Engineer

Location: Remote 

Who We Are 

NWEA® is a division of HMH that supports students and educators through research, assessment solutions, policy and advocacy services, professional learning and school improvement services that fight for equity, drive classroom impact and push for systemic change in our educational communities. For nearly 50 years, NWEA has developed innovative pre-K–12 assessments, including their flagship interim assessment, MAP® Growth™ and their reading fluency and comprehension assessment, MAP® Reading Fluency™. For more information, visit NWEA.org to learn more. 

What you will do

The Senior Ontology Engineer acts as a technical leader working with multiple engineering teams and projects to contribute to the system design, development, integration, and maintenance. Ontology Engineers play a pivotal role in shaping our organization's knowledge structure. They are responsible for developing and managing ontologies that underpin our information systems, facilitating better data organization and knowledge discovery. Additionally, they identify opportunities to enhance our knowledge systems and lead efforts to align ontological models with business needs, supporting better data organization and informed decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Develops and maintains logical, semantically rich, and extensible ontologies that define and structure knowledge and underpin HMH information systems and products.
• Supports triple store development and investigation by writing SPARQL queries against RDF, OWL or validating with SHACL. Senior Ontology engineers translate user and product requirements into Abox/Tbox/Rbox requirements to execute against.
• Supports and contributes to the definition of strategies for integration between the ontology management system and source data management repositories and ontology user interfaces.
• Ensures the accuracy and consistency of ontological structures by performing regular quality checks and updates as needed. Senior Ontology engineers provide technical consultation and guidance on standards and best practices and ensure that the delivered product meets quality standards.
• Collaborates with cross-functional teams to understand, define, and document their information needs and provide ontological solutions that support their objectives.
• Creates comprehensive documentation for ontologies and knowledge graphs, making them accessible to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Senior Ontology engineers define the necessary documentation and utilize them to communicate effectively with stakeholders.
• Coordinates with Enterprise data governance and management teams or structures to ensure the knowledge representation is in alignment with enterprise data systems.

What you’ll need

• Possess an advanced degree in computer science, information science, or a related quantitative field, or have equivalent professional experience.
• Demonstrate advanced knowledge of ontology modeling languages such as RDF, OWL, or SHACL, and vocabularies like SKOS.
• Exhibit proficiency in query languages such as SPARQL or other property graph query languages like Gremlin and openCypher.
• Have experience with semantic data integration and the utilization of graph databases.
• Show significant experience with ontologies, knowledge graphs, and semantic technologies, including tools like Protégé, Semaphore, PoolParty, or similar ontology management systems.
• Be experienced with foundational/top-level ontologies, particularly Basic Formal Ontology (BFO) or Descriptive Ontology for Linguistic and Cognitive Engineering (DOLCE).
• Possess advanced knowledge of Common Core Ontologies and methodologies, OBO Foundry methodologies, git versioning, software development practices, data normalization, ETL procedures, data integration processes and tools, entity resolution, referent tracking, and data workflow or analysis tools.
• Be skilled in integrating multiple disparate data sets into a common vocabulary and writing effective queries for production environments.
• Have experience with high-level programming languages and scripting/interpreted languages such as Java, JavaScript, and Python.
• Exhibit excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to adapt quickly to new technologies, trends, and frameworks.

Salary range: 105k – 125k annually. 

Application Deadline: 

The application window for this position is anticipated to close March 2, 2025. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. The posting may be available after this date but is not guaranteed. 

HMH is fully committed to Equal Employment Opportunity and to attracting, retaining, developing and promoting the most qualified employees without regard to race, gender, color, religion, sexual orientation, family status, marital status, pregnancy, gender identity, ethnic/national origin, ancestry, age, disability, military status, genetic predisposition, citizenship status, status as a disabled veteran, recently separated veteran, Armed Forces service medal veteran, other covered veteran, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. We are dedicated to providing a work environment free from discrimination and harassment, and where employees are treated with respect and dignity. We actively participate in E-Verify.

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