We are seeking a Knowledge Engineer to join our Data Product & Operations team. In this role, you will build and maintain taxonomies, controlled vocabularies, and domain ontologies that bring structure to complex defense acquisition data. Working alongside data engineers and data scientists, domain experts, and product teams, you'll create semantic models that provide structured knowledge to AI systems and enable effective search, classification, and analysis across Govini's Ark platform.
This role requires systematic analytical thinking, strong communication skills, and a passion for combining theoretical rigor with practical implementation. The ideal candidate brings hands-on experience in taxonomy and ontology development, along with the ability to guide teams in adopting semantic technologies.This role is a full-time position located out of our office in Pittsburgh, PA.
This role may require up to 10% travel
- Build and maintain ontologies, taxonomies, and controlled vocabularies for defense acquisition domains
- Map unstructured data to structured semantic models that integrate with Ark's data infrastructure
- Establish metadata standards and modeling guidelines in collaboration with data engineering and data science teams
- Partner with product and domain experts to translate business requirements into semantic solutions
- Document semantic models and provide guidance to support team adoption and effective use
- Help drive organization-wide understanding and adoption of semantic technologies and best practices.
- Track adoption and measure impact, continuously refining models, tools, and practices
- U.S. Citizenship is required
- Bachelor’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field
- 3+ years of experience developing ontologies, taxonomies, or knowledge graphs
- Hands-on experience with ontology editors (e.g., Protégé, TopBraid) and graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, RDF stores)
- Working knowledge of semantic web standards (OWL, RDF, SKOS, SPARQL)
- Proven ability to collaborate with technical and non-technical stakeholders to translate requirements into semantic models
- Understanding of how AI/ML and generative AI systems leverage structured knowledge and ontologies
- Active U.S. security clearance or ability to obtain one
- Experience in or exposure to the nuances of a startup or other entrepreneurial environment
- Master’s degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field
- Familiarity with defense acquisition data and processes
- Experience with data modeling, schema design, or metadata management
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field
- 3+ years of experience developing ontologies, taxonomies, or knowledge graphs
- Hands-on experience with ontology editors (e.g., Protege, TopBraid) and graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, RDF stores)
- Working knowledge of semantic web standards (OWL, RDF, SKOS, SPARQL)
- Proven ability to collaborate with technical and non-technical stakeholders
Govini Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Govini and has not been reviewed or approved by Govini.
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is positioned as strong, with medical, dental, and vision insurance described as covered “in full” for employees and offered with competitive options for families.
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Retirement Support — Retirement support appears competitive, with a 401(k) match listed up to 4% and immediate vesting, which strengthens the long-term value of the package.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off benefits are broad on paper, including unlimited vacation and sick days, which can increase flexibility if team norms allow consistent usage.
Govini Insights
What We Do
Govini builds software to accelerate the Defense Acquisition Process. Ark, Govini’s flagship product, is a suite of AI-enabled applications, powered by integrated government and commercial data, that solves problems across the entire spectrum of Defense Acquisition, including Supply Chain, Science & Technology, Production, Sustainment, and Modernization. With Ark, the Acquisition community eliminates slow, manual processes and gains the ability to rapidly imagine, produce, and field critical warfighting capabilities. Ark transforms Defense Acquisition into a strategic advantage for the United States.
