Taxonomist/Metadata Specialist

Genesis10 is currently seeking a Taxonomist/Metadata Specialist - Remote based in Milwaukee, WI. This is an 8+ month contract opportunity.

Pay range: $60 - $64 per hour

Summary:

The Taxonomist/Metadata Specialist role is the lead specialist and SME for the initiative to standardize and govern metadata across strategic HR content platforms and the core HR management system. The role is responsible for ensuring a consistent, trusted data foundation for AI-driven experiences. This hands-on, execution-oriented role balances theory with delivery to define and operationalize metadata practices for the HR domain that materially improve findability, reuse, and AI and search experience outcomes in production systems.

Responsibilities:

• Analyze existing metadata structures across HR information systems and HR content platforms to identify gaps, overlaps, and inconsistencies
• Define the overall metadata, ontology, and classification strategy for HR content and data to support AI use cases and experiences
• Develop and operationalize for sustainability a comprehensive, HR-wide metadata framework tailored to AI-driven search, retrieval, and AI user experiences including future-state agentic experiences
• Define operational rules, standards, and governance processes (including approval workflows) to maintain metadata integrity over time
• Establish and govern metadata standards including catalog/inventory, lineage, and classification practices in partnership with cross-functional stakeholders
• Collaborate with content strategists, business partners, and IT teams to create and sustain classification systems and taxonomies
• Partner with technology teams to align metadata with underlying AI infrastructure and implementation needs
• Lead and/or consult on the design of activities for co-creation workshops with key stakeholders to gather input on metadata standardization and validate/refine taxonomy and metadata models
• Drive education, documentation, and best practices in partnership with change management partners on tagging practices and metadata
• Consult with technology partners to define and evolve an HR ontology for HR AI systems and experiences and advise on potential technologies (existing and emerging) that can support metadata standardization across HR platforms and systems
• Elicit domain knowledge from HR SMEs, policy owners, call center leads, and other key stakeholders to apply to the HR metadata framework
• Audit real content, search logs, and data from consumption models to apply to framework and to validate usefulness and make iterative, evidence-based adjustments
• Establish pragmatic governance that balances control with adoption, including sunset criteria and change thresholds
• Serve as a single-practitioner taxonomist/metadata lead, setting standards, templates, and repeatable processes without reliance on a large taxonomy team

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in information science, library science, semantics/ontology, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
• 2+ years of experience in a metadata-related field (taxonomy, ontology, semantics, computational linguistics), including creating, implementing, and governing taxonomies
• Demonstrated experience building and working with metadata, taxonomy, or ontologies in support of AI-enabled experiences in an enterprise environment including scoping, design, validation, and launch
• Hands-on experience implementing taxonomies or standardizing metadata in a CMS and/or enterprise search platform (not purely academic or archival work)
• Experience working directly with business SMEs to reconcile competing mental models into a single controlled vocabulary
• Ability to operate independently in a greenfield environment and drive work to tangible, production-ready outcomes
• Strong facilitation and decision-making skills to prevent analysis paralysis and over-engineering
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence and coach stakeholders on metadata standardization value and design
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to navigate organizational networks and drive alignment across teams
• Awareness of industry trends and standards (knowledge graphs, semantic technologies, graph databases) and advise on relevant applications

Desired skills:

• Experience in highly mature FAANG-style taxonomy environments is acceptable but must be paired with demonstrated success operating as a solo or small-team practitioner in less mature organizations, with limited tooling and evolving governance
• Familiarity with graph databases and semantic/knowledge graph technologies
• Ability to create processes and tools to establish, maintain, and update ontology, taxonomy, and metadata models
• Knowledge of data management principles and technology to support metadata and ontologies (e.g., Informatica, Collibra, Atlan, Microsoft Power BI) and enterprise search/content management and HR data ecosystems (e.g., Lucidworks, Optimizely, ServiceNow, Workday)
• Measurement/optimization mindset using search logs, content audits, and consumption analytics to refine metadata models

Only candidates available and ready to work directly as Genesis10 employees will be considered for this position.

If you have the described qualifications and are interested in this exciting opportunity, please apply!

About Genesis10:
Ranked a Top Staffing Firm in the U.S. by Staffing Industry Analysts for six consecutive years, Genesis10 puts thousands of consultants and employees to work across the United States every year in contract, contract-for-hire, and permanent placement roles. With more than 300 active clients, Genesis10 provides access to many of the Fortune 100 firms and a variety of mid-market organizations across the full spectrum of industry verticals.

For contract roles, Genesis10 offers the benefits listed below. If this is a perm-placement opportunity, our recruiter can talk you through the unique benefits offered for that particular client.
Benefits of Working with Genesis10:

• Access to hundreds of clients, most who have been working with Genesis10 for 5-20+ years.
• The opportunity to have a career-home in Genesis10; many of our consultants have been working exclusively with Genesis10 for years.
• Access to an experienced, caring recruiting team (more than 7 years of experience, on average.)
• Behavioral Health Platform
• Medical, Dental, Vision
• Health Savings Account
• Voluntary Hospital Indemnity (Critical Illness & Accident)
• Voluntary Term Life Insurance
• 401K
• Sick Pay (for applicable states/municipalities)
• Commuter Benefits (Dallas, NYC, SF, and Illinois)

For multiple years running, Genesis10 has been recognized as a Top Staffing Firm in the U.S., as a Best Company for Work-Life Balance, as a Best Company for Career Growth, for Diversity, and for Leadership, amongst others. To learn more and to view all our available career opportunities, please visit us at our website www.genesis10.com.

Genesis10 is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.

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