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Ontologist (BFO/CCO)

  • On-site, Hybrid
    • Herndon, Virginia, United States
  • IT

Job description

BasisPath is seeking a highly skilled Ontologist to join our semantic technology team in support of enterprise knowledge representation, data integration, and AI-enablement initiatives. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in formal ontology development grounded in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO 2020) and operational knowledge of the Common Core Ontologies (CCO). This role involves designing, extending, and curating ontological models to enhance semantic interoperability, enable knowledge graph construction, and support reasoning over complex, multi-domain datasets. The ideal candidate will have deep expertise in formal ontology development grounded in Basic Formal Ontology (BFO 2020) and operational knowledge of the Common Core Ontologies (CCO). This role involves designing, extending, and curating ontological models to enhance semantic interoperability, enable knowledge graph construction, and support reasoning over complex, multi-domain datasets.

About BasisPath:

BasisPath, a rapidly growing woman and veteran-owned small business, is actively seeking talented candidates to support our expanding business commitments. We offer a comprehensive benefits package, including signing bonuses, relocation assistance, expense reimbursement, 100% paid health insurance, competitive compensation, growth opportunities, profit sharing, relevant training, and generous PTO.

At BasisPath, we prioritize our employees' well-being and professional development. Join us and become part of our dedicated team!

Job requirements

Key Responsibilities:

  • Design and maintain formal ontologies using BFO-compliant structures and CCO.

  • Extend existing ontological frameworks by modeling domain-specific content using realist ontology principles.

  • Align and map external ontologies, taxonomies, and schemas to BFO and CCO structures to ensure semantic integration.

  • Collaborate with data engineers, knowledge graph architects, and subject matter experts to translate domain knowledge into ontological models.

  • Develop OWL ontologies and SHACL constraints to enforce data validation and reasoning.

  • Contribute to ontology documentation, naming conventions, and governance artifacts.

  • Participate in cross-agency ontology working groups, providing authoritative input on alignment, best practices, and formalization.

  • Support use cases in AI/ML explainability, decision support, and automated reasoning.

Minimum Qualifications:

  • Master’s or PhD in Philosophy, Computer Science, Information Science, Cognitive Science, or a related field.

  • 3+ years of experience in applied ontology development.

  • Strong knowledge of BFO 2020

  • Familiarity with the CCO suite 

  • Proficiency in OWL, RDF, Protégé, and ontology modeling tools.

  • Demonstrated ability to design ontologies for mission-aligned use cases.

  • Strong communication skills, particularly in explaining ontological concepts to non-experts.

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Experience integrating ontologies into knowledge graphs 

  • Background in IC/DoD data modeling or participation community governance working groups.

  • Experience developing competency questions, SPARQL queries, or semantic rule sets.

  • Familiarity with ontology-based reasoning engines or semantic AI systems.

Work Environment:

  • Hybrid or remote, depending on program needs.

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