Ontologist

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory•Laurel, MD

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Threat Analytic Systems (QAI) Group wants talented staff who can work as part of a team to provide our nation with ground-breaking capabilities that bridge the gaps between data, real-world events and people, and prediction of events of national importance. We need talented engineers, scientists, and ontologists with curiosity and a drive for learning! As a member of our team, you will work on a team with software engineers and data scientists to build ontologies and capabilities for applied national security mission needs. You will engage stakeholders to determine ontology requirements. You will work with subject matter experts to craft ontology content. You will contribute to and implement quality assurance and validation practices.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in a field relevant to Ontology (e.g., Philosophy, Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Public / Social Policy, Mathematics, Logic, or Linguistics).
Proficient with Ontology Web Language (OWL), Resource Description Framework Schema (RDFs), and Resource Description Framework (RDF).
Experience crafting SPARQL queries.
Experience building domain ontologies.
Familiarity with ontology editors (e.g., TopBraid Composer, Protégé, ROBOT), or ontology editing software packages (e.g. rdflib, Apache Jena, Sesame, RDF4J).
Ability to work with loosely defined or high-level requirements.
Ability to work on multiple dynamic projects to support evolving national security requirements.
Strong problem solving, analytical, and organizational skills.
Demonstrated initiative.
Experience working successfully independently or within a team environment.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Ability to obtain a TS/SCI+poly level security clearance.
U.S. citizenship.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in a field relevant to Ontology (e.g., Philosophy, Computer Science, Cognitive Science, Public / Social Policy, Mathematics, Logic, or Linguistics).
Experience working with a software engineering team to deliver ontology-driven software features.
Experience building domain ontologies based on a top-level ontology.
Ability to weigh tradeoffs between semantic expressivity and project-specific implementation strategies.
Experience with Basic Formal Ontology (BFO); The Common Core Ontologies (CCO); W3C standards such as SOSA/SSN and the Time Ontology; ontologies in the Open Biological and Biomedical (OBO) Foundry; as well as other semantic web standards, such as Dublin Core, SKOS, QUDT, and GeoSPARQL.
Experience with formal representations of logical reasoning and inference.
Proficiency with SPARQL.
Experience with triple stores or graph databases (e.g., GraphDB, Stardog, Jena Fuseki).
Experience with semantic validation languages (e.g. SHACL, SPIN).
Experience with software version management using GIT.
Experience with Python.
Experience with machine learning, natural language processing, or in the normalization/integration of heterogeneous data sources.
Coursework in data structures, databases, metaphysics, knowledge representation, algorithms, mathematical logic, mereotopology, or software programming.

Responsibilities

Work on a team with software engineers and data scientists to build ontologies and capabilities for applied national security mission needs.
Engage stakeholders to determine ontology requirements.
Work with subject matter experts to craft ontology content.
Contribute to and implement quality assurance and validation practices.