Senior/Principal Ontology Engineer

Senior Ontology Engineer

Remote Saint Louis, MO Springfield, VA Denver, CO Top Secret/SCI CI Polygraph Senior Level Career (10+ yrs experience) $250,000 - $320,000

Job Description

Pavati Solutions supports national security customers by bringing commercial best practices in AI into mission environments, helping agencies integrate, operationalize, and scale advanced capabilities securely and effectively. We are seeking a Senior Ontology Engineer to support high impact programs across the Intelligence Community and DoW. In this role, you will design and implement the semantic foundations that enable complex, multi-source data to be understood, integrated, and acted on in mission critical contexts.

What You'll Do:

• Architect and implement ontologies and knowledge graphs to represent mission-relevant entities, events, and relationships
• Translate operational requirements into scalable, interoperable data models
• Develop and apply RDF, OWL, SPARQL, and SHACL to enable consistent data understanding across systems
• Evaluate and improve data modeling and metadata standards to support cross-agency interoperability
• Partner with AI and software teams to integrate semantic models into operational systems and workflows
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship, supporting delivery across complex programs

What You Bring:

• 9–13 years of experience in ontology engineering, semantic technologies, or advanced data modeling
• Strong expertise in RDF, OWL, SPARQL, and graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, Stardog)
• Experience working within IC or DoW environments, with an understanding of mission data challenges
• Ability to translate complex domains (e.g., ISR, logistics, signals intelligence) into usable, scalable models
• Experience leading technical workstreams and engaging with senior mission stakeholders
• Active TS/SCI clearance required

Why Pavati:

• Work on mission critical programs supporting national security priorities
• Apply cutting edge AI and data capabilities in real operational environments
• Help shape how data is structured, shared, and used across the IC and DoD
• Highly competitive compensation — aligned to top-tier engineering roles
• Join a growing team focused on delivering practical, high impact outcomes
• Less bureaucracy. More ownership. Real mission impact.

About Pavati:

Pavati is focused on closing the gap between commercial innovation and government adoption, helping advanced technologies move quickly and securely into operational use. We work alongside government and academic partners to deliver AI capabilities through iterative, mission focused development, ensuring solutions are both effective and deployable.