Ontology Engineer/Semantic Applications Developer

Description

Join the team advancing open source, linked data initiatives for a world-class academic research library on the beautiful Cornell University campus in Ithaca, New York.  Ithaca has been named one of the top 100 places to live, a top 10 recreation city, a best green place to live, and one of the “foodiest” towns in America.

Apply your experience and unique talents as a senior-level Ontology Engineer/Semantic Applications Developer on a team promoting innovation and quality in information technology. Develop and promote international standards and frameworks for scholarly content on the web, with frequent opportunities for engagement with the linked data and information science communities. Reinvent core library systems as networks of linked data connecting rich traditional library resources with diverse, distributed knowledge to meet the rapidly evolving needs of today’s researchers and students. Become the architect of compelling web applications and services to library, university, regional, and international projects engaged in disciplines ranging from earth systems and climate science to agricultural research in the developing world. Join the international team developing the open source VIVO-ISF ontology  and VIVO software (vivoweb.org and github.com/vivo-project) and lead the creative application of VIVO technology at Cornell.

The Ontology Engineer/ Semantic Applications Developer will:

●    Research, create, maintain, and extend ontologies, knowledge bases, and software tools in a distributed, linked data environment to support data integration, interoperability, usability, query, analysis,visualization, and dissemination
●    Provide technical leadership in ontology selection and design including evaluation for consistency, modularity, efficiency, and reasoning; develop mechanisms for ontology versioning, community-driven editing, and deployment in software applications in concert with local,national, and international collaborators
●    Support dramatically increasing the production scale of semantic web applications
●     Participate in and contribute to open source software communities
●    Prepare strategic guidance, white papers, project proposals, visualizations, presentations, technical documentation, and reports
●    Provide training and technical assistance to academic and professional staff at Cornell and partner institutions
●     Contribute to the full range of information technology services provided by the Cornell University Library (may functionally supervise the work of others and lead project teams)

Qualifications

●    Bachelor’s degree in library science, information science, computer science or other relevant discipline
●    More than 5 years of relevant experience
●    Experience designing and implementing OWL ontologies and other metadata standards
●    Experience applying semantic web and linked data standards to real-world applications
●    Expert-level Java programming; web application development experience in Java, Python, Ruby or similar language; knowledge of current database management systems, SQL, and non-relational alternatives
●    Excellent interpersonal and oral and written communication skills
●    Evidence of ability to assess, analyze, plan, and solve problems creatively and collaboratively in a complex, rapidly-changing environment

Preferred Qualifications:
●    Familiarity with principles and methodologies for applying reasoning and rules
●    Experience with agile software development, continuous integration, testing frameworks
●    A track record of contributing to open source communities
●    Experience with statistical programming and/or data mining
●    Experience working in higher education or research