Knowledge Engineer

Govini • Pittsburgh, PA

13h • Onsite

About The Position

We are seeking a Knowledge Engineer to join our Data Product & Operations team. In this role, you will build and maintain taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, and domain ontologies that bring structure to complex defense acquisition data. Working alongside data engineers and data scientists, domain experts, and product teams, you'll create semantic models that provide structured knowledge to AI systems and enable effective search, classification, and analysis across Govini's Ark platform. This role requires systematic analytical thinking, strong communication skills, and a passion for combining theoretical rigor with practical implementation. The ideal candidate brings hands-on experience in taxonomy and ontology development, along with the ability to guide teams in adopting semantic technologies. This role is a full-time position located out of our office in Pittsburgh, PA. This role may require up to 10% travel

Requirements

• U.S. Citizenship is required
• Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field
• 3+ years of experience developing ontologies, taxonomies, or knowledge graphs
• Hands-on experience with ontology editors (e.g., Protégé, TopBraid) and graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, RDF stores)
• Working knowledge of semantic web standards (OWL, RDF, SKOS, SPARQL)
• Proven ability to collaborate with technical and non-technical stakeholders to translate requirements into semantic models

Nice To Haves

• Understanding of how AI/ML and generative AI systems leverage structured knowledge and ontologies
• Active U.S. security clearance or ability to obtain one
• Experience in or exposure to the nuances of a startup or other entrepreneurial environment
• Master’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field
• Familiarity with defense acquisition data and processes
• Experience with data modeling, schema design, or metadata management

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain ontologies, taxonomies, and controlled vocabularies for defense acquisition domains
• Map unstructured data to structured semantic models that integrate with Ark's data infrastructure
• Establish metadata standards and modeling guidelines in collaboration with data engineering and data science teams
• Partner with product and domain experts to translate business requirements into semantic solutions
• Document semantic models and provide guidance to support team adoption and effective use
• Help drive organization-wide understanding and adoption of semantic technologies and best practices.
• Track adoption and measure impact, continuously refining models, tools, and practices

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level