Job Details

Data Analyst - Sr Specialist
$65-69hr
Looking for your next career move in the Financial Services arena? We are hiring for a Data Analyst - Sr Specialist in our Milwaukee, WI office. This can also be a REMOTE role. We are an HR team defining AI solutions for the home office workforce. This role will start off as a contract till December 2026 and could be extended, or hired on perm. 8am - 5pm CT, 5 days a week

JOB DESCRIPTION
Taxonomist/Metadata Specialist
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.

Top 3-4 must-have skills

• Hands-on taxonomy/metadata development across enterprise platforms (scope, design, validation, launch) especially to improve findability and reuse for AI/search experiences
• Metadata governance design & operationalization (standards, templates, approval workflows, and rules to maintain integrity over time)
• Stakeholder facilitation and alignment (eliciting domain knowledge, reconciling competing mental models)
• Independent, delivery-oriented execution in a greenfield/less mature environment driving production-ready outcomes

Top 3-4 nice-to-have skills

• Familiarity with knowledge graph and graph databases, semantic technologies
• Experience with metadata management/governance processes and tools (e.g., Collibra, Informatica, Atlan) and enterprise search/content management system ecosystems
• Data management fundamentals (catalog/inventory, lineage concepts, classification practices) and comfort advising on enabling technologies to support metadata standards
• Measurement/optimization mindset using search logs, content audits, and consumption analytics to refine metadata models

Key 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.

Key Deliverables

• A fully documented, unified HR-wide standardized metadata framework.
• Operational governance guidelines, standards, and workflows for maintaining and evolving metadata.
• Training materials and stakeholder education sessions on tagging and metadata usage.
• Workshop outcomes, including documented stakeholder feedback on gaps, overlaps, and concerns.
• An HR ontology developed in collaboration with key stakeholders.
• A roadmap for implementation of metadata standardization and ongoing refinement and adaptation of taxonomy to future AI initiatives to ensure sustainability.
• A documented technology advisory report outlining recommended tools or platforms to support metadata standardization.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in information science, library science, semantics/ontology, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 3+ 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.

Preferred Qualifications

• 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).

Benefit offerings include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short-term disability, additional voluntary benefits, EAP program, commuter benefits and a 401k plan. Our program provides employees the flexibility to choose the type of coverage that meets their individual needs. Available paid leave may include Paid Sick Leave, where required by law; any other paid leave required by Federal, State, or local law; and Holiday pay upon meeting eligibility criteria.

Pay Details: $65.00 to $69.00 per hour

Benefit offerings available for our associates include medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short-term disability, additional voluntary benefits, EAP program, commuter benefits and a 401K plan. Our benefit offerings provide employees the flexibility to choose the type of coverage that meets their individual needs. In addition, our associates may be eligible for paid leave including Paid Sick Leave or any other paid leave required by Federal, State, or local law, as well as Holiday pay where applicable.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled

Military connected talent encouraged to apply

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The Company will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with federal, state, and local laws and/or security clearance requirements, including, as applicable:

• The California Fair Chance Act
• Los Angeles City Fair Chance Ordinance
• Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers
• San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

Massachusetts Candidates Only: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.