Taxonomist, Content Design

Meta•Seattle, WA

6d•$120,000 - $171,000

About The Position

Meta is seeking a taxonomist to design and maintain the classification systems, semantic frameworks, and information architectures that power intuitive product experiences across Meta's family of apps and platforms. In this role, you will apply deep expertise in taxonomy development, ontology design, and controlled vocabularies to bring structure and clarity to complex content ecosystems at scale. You will partner closely with content designers, product managers, engineers, and data scientists to ensure that how Meta organizes, labels, and surfaces information is consistent, scalable, and user-centered — from social experiences to AI-powered products and beyond.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in taxonomy development, information architecture, ontology design, or a closely related content design discipline
Bachelor's degree in Linguistics, English, Liberal Arts, Information Sciences or other related field
Experience designing and maintaining controlled vocabularies, metadata schemas, or classification systems for large-scale digital products or content platforms
Experience applying systems thinking to identify gaps in content organization and delivering scalable structural solutions across multiple product surfaces
Experience collaborating with cross-functional partners including engineering, product management, and research to integrate information architecture into product development
Experience communicating complex structural and classification decisions in writing to both technical and non-technical audiences

Nice To Haves

Experience establishing taxonomy governance processes and driving adoption of classification standards across large organizations
Demonstrated ongoing AI skill development (e.g., prompt/context engineering, agent orchestration) and staying current with emerging AI technologies
Experience with semantic web technologies, knowledge graphs, or ontology languages such as OWL or SKOS
Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools into taxonomy and content design workflows to improve efficiency, consistency, or coverage at scale
Experience adhering to and implementing responsible, ethical AI practices (e.g., risk assessment, bias mitigation, quality and accuracy reviews)
Familiarity with search systems, content recommendation engines, or AI-powered content surfaces and how taxonomy structures influence their performance
Demonstrated ability to integrate AI tools to optimize/redesign workflows and drive measurable impact (e.g., efficiency gains, quality improvements)

Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain taxonomies, ontologies, and controlled vocabularies that support content organization and navigation across Meta products and platforms
Conduct audits of existing classification systems and information architectures to identify gaps, inconsistencies, and opportunities for consolidation or improvement
Develop and document taxonomy governance standards, naming conventions, and metadata schemas to ensure consistency and scalability across product surfaces
Collaborate with content designers, product managers, engineers, and researchers to integrate taxonomy frameworks into product flows, search systems, and content recommendation experiences
Apply systems thinking to evaluate how classification decisions affect downstream product experiences, including discoverability, personalization, and localization
Partner with internationalization and localization teams to ensure taxonomy structures translate effectively across languages and cultural contexts
Use data analysis and user research insights to validate and iterate on classification systems, ensuring they reflect how people actually think about and seek information
Contribute to team-level goals by identifying and leading taxonomy projects that span multiple product areas or cross-functional teams
Communicate taxonomy decisions and tradeoffs clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders through documentation, presentations, and design reviews