Linked Data Engineer
Laurel, MD

Job Description

Introduction:

The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), a national leader in scientific research and development, located midway between Baltimore and Washington, DC is seeking an innovative, energetic semantic web / linked data engineer.

Job Summary:

Work with our multi-disciplinary team designing and implementing semantic web-based systems for ontology-centered knowledge representation and intelligence analysis.

Duties (Listed in order of importance with the estimated amount of time spent at each task):

* Work with senior software engineers, semantic web technologists, ontologists, physicists, chemists, biologists, and related field subject matter experts to implement and deploy systems for analyzing big data within the realm of intelligence analysis. (75%)
* Conceive and design innovative methods for employing semantic technologies to the counter-WMD and intelligence analysis problem sets. (10%)
* Support system deployment, troubleshooting and user training. (10%)
* Author and present papers on current research activities. (5%)

Note: This job summary and listing of duties is for the purpose of describing the position and its essential functions at time of hire and may change over time.

Required Qualifications:

B.S. or higher in Computer Science or similar academic discipline. Candidate must have strong understanding of core Computer Science academic theory regardless of degree. Strong understanding and experience with Linked Data modeling, publishing, and consumption principles. Practical experience building applications using standards and technologies falling within the semantic web stack, e.g., Jena, Sesame, triplestores. Experience with evaluating, reusing, and inter-mixing third-party Linked Data vocabularies for specific application needs. Deep understanding of database engine design, planning, and execution with ability to tailor database and query environment to fulfill performance requirements, e.g., RDF-HDT. Ability to manage enterprise service / agent behaviors using graph languages such as SHACL/ShEx, SPARQL, RDFS, OWL. Familiarity with ontology engineering practices and modeling tradeoffs. Experience with practical issues involved as Linked Data vocabularies evolve in definition or usage, and ability to create approaches to mitigate. Ability to coordinate with ontologists to align existing Linked Data vocabularies into upper ontologies such as Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). Intermediate to advanced level of proficiency in object-oriented software engineering principles and including proficiency in software development using one or more modern languages such as Java or Python.

Desired Qualifications:

Comfortable in an environment where only high-level requirements may exist in absence of a fully-defined detailed project schedule. Ability to creatively contribute towards developing new requirements by identifying customer needs and applying expertise and knowledge of available methods, tools, and concepts to those needs. Ability to own a task and take responsibility for completion with minimal supervision. Ability to clearly express oneself both orally and in writing.