Ontology Engineer-Knowledge Graph & Identity

Samba; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 165,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Samba seeks a hands-on Ontologist/Data Scientist to build and extend the knowledge graph schemas, derivation pipelines, and graph data models behind our measurement and audience intelligence products. You will own scoped work streams and grow your depth in semantic modeling under the Senior Ontologist.

Responsibilities include implementing ontology schemas (RDF/RDFS/OWL), validating graphs with SHACL, building PySpark and Databricks pipelines, writing production Python code, and applying

Qualifications

• 2+ years of hands-on knowledge graph development and semantic data modeling.
• Proficient in RDF/RDFS/OWL vocabularies and graph databases.
• Strong Python, PySpark, and Databricks experience.
• Experience with entity resolution and data quality checks.

Responsibilities

• Implement ontology schemas and manage versioning.
• Build SHACL validation shapes to ensure data quality.
• Develop PySpark and Databricks pipelines for graph attributes with incremental refresh.
• Write production-ready SPARQL and Python code.
• Collaborate with data engineering, product, and operations on schema updates.

Skills

Knowledge graph development

Semantic data modeling

Ontology engineering

Python

PySpark

Databricks

Entity resolution / data matching

SPARQL

RDF/RDFS/OWL

Graph databases

Embedding models / vector search

QA / data quality awareness

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Science, Mathematics, or related field

Tools

RDF

RDFS

OWL

SPARQL

Databricks

PySpark

Amazon Neptune or Stardog

Job description

Samba connects the advertising industry. Today, a trillion dollars of media flows through platforms that don’t talk to each other, and each one measures its own results. We built the independent alternative: consented first-party data and AI that give the world’s biggest advertisers, publishers, and platforms one clear view across all of it.

The next era of advertising will run on AI agents, and those agents will need data they can trust. We’re building that foundation, and the agents that act on it. Join us and help build what the industry runs on.

About the Role

You build and extend the knowledge graph schemas, derivation pipelines, and graph data models behind Samba's measurement and audience intelligence products, working with the Senior Ontologist and peer data scientists. It's a hands-on role: you own well-scoped work streams and grow your depth in semantic modeling.

What You’ll Do

• Implement Ontology Schemas: Implement and extend RDF, RDFS, and OWL ontology schemas under the Senior Ontologist's direction, adding classes, properties, and constraints, and support versioning and consistency checks.
• Validate the Graph: Build and maintain SHACL validation shapes, validating derivation outputs before graph load, and triage data quality issues and schema violations.
• Build Derivation Pipelines: Build PySpark and Databricks pipelines that aggregate raw TV viewership and web events into graph attributes such as genre, brand, and topic affinity, with incremental refresh.
• Write Production Code: Write efficient SPARQL queries and graph traversals and clean, tested, reusable Python, contributing to team tooling and documentation.
• Match and Align Entities: Apply embedding-based approaches, including semantic similarity and vector search, to entity matching and ontology alignment tasks.
• Partner Across Teams: Partner with data engineering on pipeline design and data quality, work with product and operations to turn use cases into schema updates, and join ontology design reviews.
• Grow Your Expertise: Develop expertise in World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) semantic web standards, RDF-native graph databases, and entity resolution under the Senior Ontologist's guidance.

What You Bring

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Science, Mathematics, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience; a Master's is preferred.
• 2+ years of hands-on experience in knowledge graph development, semantic data modeling, ontology engineering, or a closely related field.
• Working knowledge of W3C semantic web standards (RDF, RDFS, OWL, SPARQL) with practical experience in at least one triplestore or graph database, and familiarity with SHACL or equivalent validation frameworks.
• Strong Python skills with clean, production-quality code, testing, and documentation, plus solid data modeling fundamentals: entity-relationship design, taxonomies, and hierarchies.
• Familiarity with entity resolution and data matching concepts, and a detail-oriented, proactive approach to flagging data quality issues and schema inconsistencies.
• Strongly preferred: hands-on experience with Amazon Neptune, Stardog, or an equivalent RDF-native triplestore (data virtualization a plus), PySpark and Databricks, and embedding models or vector search.
• Also strongly preferred: large language model (LLM) or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) experience for information extraction or entity disambiguation, media or adtech domain knowledge, and exposure to identity resolution or device graphs.

Compensation

$150,000 - $180,000 a year

Samba expects to offer a base salary of $150,000 - $180,000 per year for roles to be performed in New York; actual base salary offered will depend on various factors, including but not limited to, location, experience, and performance. Base salary is just one component of Samba's total compensation package for employees. Other rewards may include bonuses, short-term incentives, and long-term incentives. In addition, Samba provides health insurance, wellness offerings, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and paid time off (PTO), and other employee benefits.

Samba is an equal opportunity employer.

Your personal information

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