Taxonomist / Ontologist

In order to be considered for this position, please submit a cover letter with your resume.

Join the Semantic Dream Team!

Are you the kind of person who gets excited about metadata, controlled vocabularies, and the elegant architecture of information? Do you dream in hierarchies, relationships, and RDF triples? If so, we’ve got the perfect role for you!

We’re a dynamic membership association on a mission to connect people, ideas, and resources in smarter, more meaningful ways. And we need you—a brilliant Taxonomist/Ontologist—to help us build the semantic backbone that powers our digital ecosystem.

What You’ll Do:

• • 🧩 Design and maintain taxonomies, ontologies, and metadata schemas to support content organization and retrieval across ASHA’s platforms.
  • 🤝 Collaborate with content creators and subject matter experts to ensure consistent tagging and classification, and conduct regular audits to keep things sharp.
  • 🔄 Lead taxonomy governance and versioning, adapting structures as our content and member needs evolve.
  • 🛠️ Administer our Taxonomy & Ontology Management System (TOMS) to maximize its power as a central tagging hub and autotagging engine.
  • 🔍 Align categorization with user behavior, optimizing for search, discovery, and cross-promotion across digital products.
  • 📊 Work with data analysts and semantic engineers to ensure our frameworks support meaningful content utilization insights.
  • 🧪 Partner with business analysts and project teams to embed taxonomy and metadata functionality into new and existing systems.
  • 🎓 Train and support staff in taxonomy best practices and metadata standards—because good tagging is a team sport!

Description

ASHA’s wide-ranging programs and services require strong content categorization and metadata practices to support effective, efficient planning and dissemination. The Taxonomist/Ontologist develops and maintains categorization systems for use across the organization to make content more discoverable, useful, and impactful. Through collaboration with content and product teams, subject matter experts, data analysts, and semantic engineering staff, the Taxonomist/Ontologist leverages structured data principles to help deliver greater value for ASHA members and other users of its resources.

Responsibilities

1. Develop and maintain taxonomies, ontologies, and metadata schemas to support content categorization, organization, and retrieval needs across ASHA’s content systems.
2. Ensure content is accurately classified and easily discoverable by applying taxonomies and metadata consistently across platforms, in collaboration with content producers, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders. Identify and implement improvements through regular audits and analysis. Establish taxonomy governance practices and lead taxonomy versioning work as categorization needs evolve.
3. Administer the taxonomy and ontology management system (TOMS) to leverage its utility and effectiveness as a central repository of tagging information and autotagging functionality supporting content needs across the enterprise.
4. Improve content discoverability and cross-promotion by aligning categorization systems with user search behavior and content navigation patterns, in partnership with content and digital product teams.
5. Support data-driven decision-making by ensuring taxonomy and ontology structures are optimized for content utilization analysis, in collaboration with data analysts and semantic engineering staff.
6. Ensure systems effectively support taxonomy, ontology, and metadata functionality by integrating these needs into new and existing platform capabilities in partnership with business analysts and project teams.
7. Provide training and support to staff on the use of taxonomies and metadata standards.

Qualifications

Knowledge Typically Acquired Through

• 5–7 years of experience in taxonomy and ontology development, maintenance, and use in online content environments
• application of taxonomy and ontology concepts to address business and content strategy needs
• active collaboration on cross-functional teams including content creators and producers, content and digital product managers, data scientists, and engineers
• hands-on experience with use of taxonomies in content and digital asset management systems, as well as with application of taxonomy and metadata to unstructured content
• formal education or training in information science, library science, and semantic technologies for knowledge management

Skills

• Proficiency with SKOS-based taxonomy and ontology management systems (e.g., PoolParty) and associated querying languages
• Experience with knowledge graph applications
• Detailed knowledge of search and retrieval best practices
• Demonstrated skill in training /orienting subject matter experts on the role of taxonomies and metadata in delivering value
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with a demonstrated ability to negotiate and achieve consensus
• Demonstrated ability to successfully manage multiple projects and deadlines