Business Systems Analyst - Semantic Layer

Description and Requirements
The Team You Will Join
At MetLife, data isn't just a tool - it is a catalyst for growth. As part of our Data & Analytics organization, you'll unlock trusted insights that drive bold decisions, power personalized customer experiences, and deliver lasting business impact. Your skills in AI, predictive modeling, and advanced analytics will help solve complex challenges, scale solutions globally, and fuel innovation across every region. We're building the future of data - one that's governed responsibly, engineered for scalability, and designed for growth. When you join us, you're not just supporting the business - you're empowering it. Let's transform insight into impact and data into action, together.
The Opportunity
As a Business Systems Analyst for the Semantic Layer program, you will serve as the critical bridge between MetLife's insurance business domains and the technical teams building the enterprise semantic layer. You will translate complex insurance concepts into formally structured ontologies and business metadata, enabling consistent, governed, and reusable data definitions across the organization. This is a high-impact, hands-on role for a practitioner who combines deep insurance industry knowledge with expertise in ontology design, business metadata management, and semantic technologies. You will help define how MetLife speaks data & creatine the common language that connects business users, data engineers, AI models, and analytics consumers.
Key Responsibilities
Semantic Layer Design & Implementation

• Lead requirements gathering and functional design for MetLife enterprise semantic layer, translating business concepts into structured semantic models.
• Define and maintain the business glossary, logical data models, and semantic mappings that align insurance terminology across business units and systems.
• Collaborate with data architects and engineers to implement semantic layer components in platforms such as Stardog/ Dremio/ AtScale Semantic Layer or equivalent tools.
• Design metric definitions, KPI hierarchies, and dimensional models that reflect insurance business logic (e.g., earned premium, incurred loss, persistency, claim frequency).

Ontology & Business Metadata Implementation

• Design and implement insurance-domain ontologies using standards such as OWL, RDF, SKOS, or industry frameworks (e.g., ACORD, OMG Insurance Domain Analysis Model).
• Develop and maintain the enterprise business metadata catalog - defining data assets, ownership, lineage, classifications, and business definitions within tools such as Collibra, Alation, or Apache Atlas.
• Establish and enforce metadata governance standards: term definitions, synonym management, hierarchical classifications, and cross-domain concept alignment.
• Map physical data assets (tables, columns, APIs) to business concepts and ontological entities, enabling semantic search and automated data discovery.
• Partner with Data Governance and stewardship teams to ensure ontology and metadata artifacts meet regulatory, compliance, and audit requirements.

Insurance Domain Analysis

• Apply deep understanding of insurance product lines - Group Benefits, Life, Disability, Dental, Vision, and Voluntary - to accurately model business entities, events, and relationships.
• Translate insurance operational concepts (policy lifecycle, claims adjudication, underwriting, billing, reinsurance, regulatory reporting) into precise semantic definitions.
• Identify cross-LOB data harmonization opportunities by standardizing entities such as Employer, Policies, Claims and Broker, and Pricing across disparate source systems.
• Support regulatory and statutory reporting requirements by ensuring semantic models align with NAIC, GAAP, and IFRS 17 data constructs.

Stakeholder Collaboration & Delivery

• Work directly with business owners, data stewards, analytics engineers, and AI/ML teams to gather requirements and validate semantic model designs.
• Collaborate with engineering and architecture teams to support delivery across:
• Relational and non-relational databases (e.g., SQL, NoSQL).
• Multi-database environments and cross-platform data integration.
• Facilitate workshops and working sessions to establish shared vocabulary and resolve definitional conflicts across business units.
• Produce clear, well-structured functional specifications, data flow diagrams, semantic model documentation, and data dictionaries.
• Lead and mentor junior analysts; promote best practices in semantic modeling and metadata management across the D&A organization.
• Operate in an Agile delivery model: manage backlog items, write user stories, and participate in sprint ceremonies with cross-functional teams.

Data Quality & Governance

• Define data quality rules and validation logic at the semantic layer to ensure consistency and trustworthiness of business metrics.
• Capture data lineage end-to-end - from source systems through transformation pipelines to semantic layer consumption - within the enterprise metadata platform.
• Monitor and govern semantic layer usage, identifying gaps, conflicts, or misalignments as new data sources and use cases emerge.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Information Systems, Data Management, or a related discipline.
• 8+ years of overall experience, including 5+ years in data management, business analysis, or data governance roles.
• Demonstrated experience in semantic layer design or implementation (e.g., dbt Semantic Layer, Stardog, AtScale, Cube, LookML, or similar).
• Proficiency in business metadata management platforms (Collibra, Alation, Informatica, Apache Atlas, or equivalent).
• Experience writing detailed functional requirements, data dictionaries, and semantic model specifications.
• Strong understanding of:
• Database technologies (SQL, NoSQL, distributed systems).
• Multi-database and hybrid data environments.
• Exposure to:
• Data virtualization technologies.
• Ontology / semantic modeling concepts.
• Familiarity with modern cloud-based data platforms (Databricks, Azure Synapse, etc.).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with ACORD data standards, OMG Insurance Domain Analysis Model (IDAM), or similar insurance data frameworks.
• Familiarity with knowledge graph technologies (Neo4j, Amazon Neptune, GraphDB) and SPARQL query language.
• Experience with all of the following cloud data platforms: Azure Synapse, Azure Databricks, Snowflake, or Databricks Unity Catalog.
• Exposure to AI/ML pipelines and understanding of how semantic layers enable LLM-based analytics or RAG architecture.
• Understanding of IFRS 17, NAIC reporting, or other insurance regulatory data requirements.
• Strong knowledge of the insurance industry - product lines, operational processes, and data structures.
• Hands-on experience designing or implementing ontologies using OWL, RDF, SKOS, or equivalent forms.
• Proficiency in data modeling tools (ERWIN, ER/Studio, dbt, or similar).
• DevOps familiarity: Git, Azure DevOps, CI/CD for data pipeline and semantic layer versioning.
• Experience with FHIM, FIBO (Financial Industry Business Ontology), or similar financial/insurance ontology standards.

Location Expectation: This is a hybrid role requiring a minimum of 3 days per week in office.
The expected salary range for this position is $120,000 - $161,600 . This role may also be eligible for annual short-term incentive compensation and stock-based long-term incentives. All incentives and benefits are subject to the applicable plan terms.
Benefits We Offer
Our U.S. benefits address holistic well-being with programs for physical and mental health, financial wellness, and support for families. We offer a comprehensive health plan that includes medical/prescription drug and vision, dental insurance, and no-cost short- and long-term disability. We also provide company-paid life insurance and legal services, a retirement pension funded entirely by MetLife and 401(k) with employer matching, group discounts on voluntary insurance products including auto and home, pet, critical illness, hospital indemnity, and accident insurance, as well as Employee Assistance Program (EAP) and digital mental health programs, parental leave, paid time off, paid holidays, volunteer time off, tuition assistance and much more!
About MetLife
Recognized on Fortune magazine's list of the "World's Most Admired Companies", Fortune World's 25 Best Workplaces™, as well as the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For®, MetLife, through its subsidiaries and affiliates, is one of the world's leading financial services companies; providing insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management to individual and institutional customers. With operations in more than 40 markets, we hold leading positions in the United States, Latin America, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Our purpose is simple - to help our colleagues, customers, communities, and the world at large create a more confident future. United by purpose and guided by our core values - Win Together, Do the Right Thing, Deliver Impact Over Activity, and Think Ahead - we're inspired to transform the next century in financial services. At MetLife, it's #AllTogetherPossible . Join us!
MetLife is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All employment decisions are made without regards to race, color, national origin, religion, creed, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, genetic information, citizenship status (although applicants and employees must be legally authorized to work in the United States), uniformed service member or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law ("protected characteristics").
If you need an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [email protected]. This information will be held in confidence and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the application process.
MetLife maintains a drug-free workplace.
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