Taxonomist / Ontologist

Gusto • Denver, CO;San Francisco, CA;New York, NY • 4d ago

Why This Job is Featured on The SaaS Jobs

This Taxonomist and Ontologist role sits at a growing intersection in SaaS: using semantic structure to make AI systems dependable at scale. In a product-led environment with multiple internal stakeholders, taxonomy and ontology work becomes infrastructure, shaping how knowledge is created, retrieved, and personalized across customer experiences and internal operations. The remit signals a mature SaaS organization investing in durable knowledge systems rather than one-off AI features.

For a SaaS career, the value is in owning foundational primitives that other teams build on. Designing governance, interoperability, and measurement around semantic data translates well across SaaS companies adopting LLMs for support, content, and workflow automation. Experience selecting and implementing platforms, aligning schemas across tools, and partnering with Product, Engineering, Data Science, and CX builds a portfolio that maps to broader knowledge architecture and applied AI enablement roles.

This position best fits someone who enjoys turning ambiguous language and content domains into precise models, then socializing those models across functions. It will suit professionals who are comfortable balancing technical rigor with practical adoption, and who prefer work where influence comes through standards, roadmaps, and enablement rather than direct feature delivery.

The section above is editorial commentary from The SaaS Jobs, provided to help SaaS professionals understand the role in a broader industry context.

Job Description

About the Role:

Gusto is seeking an experienced ontologist and taxonomist who will be a key collaborator in building next-generation, AI-powered knowledge systems, enhancing how knowledge is created, delivered, and experienced by our customers and internal teams (Gusties). You will design, implement, and maintain the semantic structures that train, guide, and give context to AI tools, ensuring our content is accurate and personalized. Your work will accelerate our mission to ensure each Gustie is AI native through key initiatives that scale the business.

About the Team:

This role is a strategic partner for leadership across Content, CX, Product Management, Engineering, and Data Science. You will be responsible for identifying, planning, and executing a roadmap that leverages AI for content automation and intelligent service delivery inclusive of creating AI agents to amplify efficiency, scale, and impact. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure our taxonomies and ontologies are the foundation of our AI content strategy, enabling enhanced data interoperability, automated content workflows, and sophisticated knowledge discovery.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

Lead Gusto’s efforts in building an enterprise taxonomy and ontology management platform from RFP to implementation, focusing specifically on enablement for knowledge graph capabilities and integration with related semantic systems (Schema App, Neo4j, Cube, etc.)
Design, develop, and maintain scalable taxonomies and ontologies that serve as the backbone for AI content generation, personalization, and retrieval systems.
Create and implement intuitive taxonomy structures to train and fine-tune AI models, ensuring accurate, context-aware, and on-brand content delivery.
Partner with Product, Engineering, Data Science, and Content teams to design and automate content workflows, integrating semantic models to power generative AI, content strategy, and intelligent automation.
Establish governance frameworks for taxonomy, ontology, and AI-generated semantic data, providing guidance, training, and quality assurance to internal stakeholders.
Analyze content performance and user interaction data to continuously refine and improve AI model outputs and semantic structures.
Stay abreast of emerging trends in AI, particularly generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and semantic technologies, and incorporate cutting-edge methods to enhance Gusto’s knowledge infrastructure.

Here’s what we're looking for:

8+ years of experience in taxonomy development and/or ontology design, with demonstrated experience applying these skills to AI-driven systems.
Deep understanding of AI and machine learning principles, especially in relation to Natural Language Processing (NLP), generative AI, and Large Language Models (LLMs).
Experience using AI/ML principles to inform taxonomy and ontology development and governance.
Hands-on experience with AI content creation, prompt engineering, and workflow automation tools (e.g., generative AI platforms, content management systems with AI integration).
Proven ability to develop and implement content strategies that leverage AI for personalization, delivery, and optimization.
Practical knowledge of customer support processes and the ability to translate business needs into scalable semantic data solutions.
Experience with Semantic Web technologies (RDF, OWL, SKOS), query languages (SPARQL), and ontology editing tools, with a clear understanding of how they power AI reasoning and knowledge graphs.
Strong problem-solving capabilities, attention to detail, and the ability to work effectively across departments, balancing technical precision with practical application.
Outstanding communication and storytelling skills for translating complex technical work into actionable insights for diverse stakeholders.
Proficiency in data analysis and a strong understanding of user experience principles.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is $157,000/yearly to $187,000/yearly in Denver & most major metro locations, and $185,000/yearly to $220,000/yearly for San Francisco & New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

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