Ontology Engineer

Job Title: Ontology Engineer
Employment Type: FTC / FTE
Work Location: Preferred local candidates from NY/NJ, but open to candidates from other locations as well.

Role Summary

We are seeking an experienced Ontology Engineer to design and build the Onto Sphere Knowledge Graph (KG), the enterprise canonical ontology model integrating SOPIA, ISO 20022, FIBO, PROV-O, and Client PayOps ontologies.

This is a highly strategic and front-loaded role, with the greatest impact during Program Phases P0 P1 where ontology standards, governance, and consensus models are established. The role later transitions into consulting, optimization, and maintenance support during hyper-care phases.

The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in ontology engineering, semantic technologies, RDF/OWL modeling, and enterprise-scale knowledge graph implementation within financial services or banking ecosystems. Since ontology architecture decisions are costly to reverse later, this role requires strong analytical thinking, stakeholder collaboration, and long-term design discipline.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain enterprise ontologies and semantic data models for the OntoSphere Knowledge Graph.
• Integrate and harmonize multiple ontology standards including FIBO, ISO 20022, PROV-O, SOPIA, and internal PayOps ontologies.
• Create RDF/OWL ontology models, named graphs, taxonomies, vocabularies, and semantic relationships.
• Develop and optimize SPARQL queries, including federated and performance-tuned queries.
• Design SHACL validation rules, constraint models, and error reporting mechanisms.
• Implement ontology governance processes, ontology versioning, and semantic consistency controls.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders, SMEs, architects, and engineering teams to achieve ontology consensus.
• Evaluate trade-offs between RDF-based semantic models and property graph approaches.
• Support ontology alignment, mapping, and integration activities across enterprise systems.
• Develop KG integration components using Python or Java-based semantic frameworks.
• Document ontology structures, modeling decisions, standards, and governance processes thoroughly.
• Participate in ontology evolution, iterative refinement, and semantic modeling workshops.

Required Skills & Qualifications

Mandatory Skills (Go / No-Go Criteria)

SkillExperience RequiredRequired ExpertiseKnowledge Graph Databases4+ YearsNeo4j, Stardog, GraphDB, AWS Neptune, Apache JenaSPARQL4+ YearsComplex queries, federated queries, optimizationRDF / OWL4+ YearsOntology modeling, reasoning, named graphsSHACL2+ YearsConstraint validation, shape design, error reportingPython or Java5+ Yearsrdflib, owlready2, Apache Jena integrationBanking Ontologies2+ YearsFIBO, ISO 20022, FRO or strong learning capabilitySchema / Domain Modeling5+ YearsRDF vs Property Graph modeling strategiesOntology Engineering Process4+ YearsCompetency questions, iterative ontology development

Preferred / Nice-to-Have Skills

• Experience with Wikidata or DBpedia
• Ontology alignment and mapping tools such as LIMES or Silk
• PROV-O provenance modeling and audit trail implementation
• Experience with reasoning engines such as Pellet, HermiT, or ELK
• Knowledge of property graph technologies including Cypher and Gremlin
• Apache Jena Fuseki or GraphDB Workbench experience
• RDF-star / RDF* implementation experience
• Knowledge Graph embeddings such as TransE, ComplEx, or RGCN

Preferred Certifications

• OMG Certified Expert in BPM (CEBPM)
• Stardog Certifications

Soft Skills

• Strong communication and collaboration skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Ability to facilitate ontology discussions and consensus-building exercises
• Patient and detail-oriented approach toward semantic modeling and governance
• Strong documentation and knowledge-sharing discipline
• Iterative mindset with focus on continuous ontology evolution and refinement
• Ability to work independently in fast-paced enterprise environments