Ontology Data Specialist

About the role

We are seeking an Ontology Data Specialist to join a dynamic healthcare data team on a 12-month remote contract. Your work will directly influence AI and analytics systems by ensuring accurate, industry-standard data models.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain formal knowledge representations that support healthcare administrative data systems.
• Design and update ontologies using RDF, OWL, and SKOS to represent healthcare administrative concepts.
• Map internal data models to industry standards like FHIR, SNOMED, and ICD.
• Use SPARQL to query and validate knowledge graphs, refining data representations as needed.
• Collaborate with domain experts to formalize tacit business knowledge into structured models.
• Evaluate different modeling approaches, explaining tradeoffs and recommending optimal solutions.
• Contribute to graph database architecture and integration with AI systems to enhance data reasoning.
• Translate complex healthcare data into formal structures that support downstream analytics and AI.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with at least 7 years of experience in data or knowledge engineering, focusing on ontology or knowledge representation.
• Practical experience working with RDF, OWL, SKOS, or similar semantic web technologies.
• Proficiency in writing and executing SPARQL queries for data validation and manipulation.
• Hands-on experience with ontology authoring tools such as Protégé.
• Solid understanding of ontology design patterns and best practices.
• Familiarity with healthcare standards like FHIR, SNOMED, and ICD applied to administrative data.
• Experience working with graph databases such as Neo4j or TypeDB.
• Knowledge of Python programming and experience with NoSQL, SQL, and graph database systems.
• Understanding of AI frameworks and how knowledge graphs support AI reasoning.
• Ability to formalize business knowledge into structured models, translating tacit concepts into formal representations.
• Knowledge of healthcare domain complexities, including clinical and administrative data.
• Awareness of current trends in ontology and knowledge graph development, with the ability to incorporate relevant insights.
• Experience testing modeling approaches, understanding tradeoffs, and optimizing data architectures.

Preferred Qualifications

• Exposure to reasoners like HermiT, Pellet, or ELK, and validation tools such as SHACL.
• Experience with terminology services like UMLS or terminology servers.

Pay

Competitive hourly pay rate of $75-78.

Schedule

Full-time, fully remote work environment, offering flexibility and work-life balance.

Benefits

Opportunity to influence healthcare data systems and AI reasoning capabilities.
Collaborate with industry experts in a cutting-edge healthcare data environment.
Join a project with a focus on innovative data modeling that impacts healthcare analytics.

Why IDR?

• 25+ Years of Proven Industry Experience in 4 major markets
• Employee Stock Ownership Program
• Medical, Dental, Vision, and Life Insurance
• ClearlyRated's Best of Staffing® Client and Talent Award winner for 12 years in a row
• Compensation Range: $75-78/hr