Knowledge Graph / Ontology Engineer
This role helps build Lucy, the proactive AI coach from Lucy Labs that lives on your desktop as a cloud-backed app, while the product is in development with design partners.
Owns the task, tool, skill and workflow model Lucy reasons over.
About the role
At Lucy Labs, this role owns the purpose described below.
The Knowledge Graph / Ontology Engineer owns Lucy's task, tool, skill, workflow, and customer-vocabulary model. This role designs the ontology and graph update rules that let Lucy connect observed work to capabilities, coaching, tool routing, and organizational workflows without turning weak evidence into false certainty.
The staffing research is explicit: do not bury this inside backend. Tool routing and workflow understanding depend on a real ontology and taxonomy function.
The mission
At Lucy Labs, this role's mission is defined by the outcome and work below.
Build the knowledge platform that:
- Represents tasks, goals, tools, skills, workflows, and customer-specific terms
- Extends O*NET/DWA and internal taxonomies into Lucy's Work Modeling layer
- Supports evidence-backed graph updates with provenance and review state
- Gives behavior inference and product surfaces stable vocabulary
- Makes tool/workflow mapping explainable and correctable
What you'd own
At Lucy Labs, this role turns its mission into concrete responsibilities in each area.
1. Ontology and Taxonomy Design
For 1. Ontology and Taxonomy Design, Lucy Labs expects this role to own the responsibilities below.
- Define task, goal, skill, tool, workflow, and opportunity entity models
- Design relationship types, lifecycle states, and governance rules
- Extend external taxonomies where useful without letting them dominate Lucy-specific work understanding
- Keep customer-specific vocabularies separated from global ontology unless promoted deliberately
2. Knowledge Graph Engineering
For 2. Knowledge Graph Engineering, Lucy Labs expects this role to own the responsibilities below.
- Build graph schemas, ingestion/update flows, validation checks, and migration paths
- Define provenance and confidence rules for graph edges
- Partner with Backend/Data Platform on identifiers, lineage, and deletion propagation
- Support GraphRAG/search surfaces without creating a parallel source of truth
3. Tool and Workflow Mapping
For 3. Tool and Workflow Mapping, Lucy Labs expects this role to own the responsibilities below.
- Map tools to capabilities, user skills, approved actions, risk levels, and validation requirements
- Help define workflow candidates from repeated behavior and user corrections
- Design taxonomy QA so labels and relationships remain navigable and useful
- Support TTR and internal tool/workflow mapping integrations
4. Cross-Functional Partnership
For 4. Cross-Functional Partnership, Lucy Labs expects this role to own the responsibilities below.
- Work with Applied Behavior Inference on candidate Tasks, Goals, and Workflows
- Work with Product Research on observed work language and ambiguity
- Work with Privacy/Trust on policy-sensitive relationships and derived data
- Work with Coaching/Product Engineering on explainable feedback loops
What success looks like
Lucy Labs defines these milestones as role outcomes, not metrics for measuring the person.
- 60 days
- Core Work Modeling ontology and graph schema are drafted and reviewed
- 90 days
- First evidence-backed task/tool/workflow mappings are queryable and correctable
- 6 months
- Customer-specific vocabularies can be added without polluting global canon
- 12 months
- Knowledge Platform is a distinct function supporting inference, coaching, and routing
Experience and fit
Lucy Labs looks for the essential experience listed here and treats the rest as helpful, not an automatic barrier.
Must have
- 4+ years data modeling, ontology, knowledge graph, semantic systems, or taxonomy engineering experience
- Strong data modeling and software engineering ability
- Experience designing schemas that evolve under real product usage
- Ability to reason about provenance, confidence, lifecycle, and governance state
- Clear writing and documentation discipline
Nice to have
- Experience with graph databases, RDF/OWL, property graphs, or GraphRAG
- Experience with O*NET, DWA, skills taxonomies, workflow catalogs, or tool taxonomies
- Process mining, task mining, or enterprise workflow modeling experience
- Experience with productized taxonomy review and curation loops
How you work
Lucy Labs looks for these working traits alongside technical experience.
Role DNA
Lucy Labs evaluates these traits as part of the fit for this role.
- Precise modeler
- Practical taxonomist
- Strong ambiguity tolerance
- Governance-aware
- Collaborative with product and ML teams
Apply for this role
The Lucy Labs application form opens with this role already selected. You can review the message before sending it.
Apply for this roleFrequently asked questions
Is this role open at Lucy Labs?
Yes. Lucy Labs confirmed this role is open on 25 August 2026.
Where does Lucy Labs base this role?
Lucy Labs bases this role in Madrid, Spain. The exact working arrangement is confirmed during the application conversation.
What does this role own at Lucy Labs?
At Lucy Labs, this role has one central responsibility: Owns the task, tool, skill and workflow model Lucy reasons over. The full description sets out the mission, responsibilities, and relevant experience.
How do I apply to Lucy Labs?
At Lucy Labs, use the application form. The role is selected automatically, and you can review it before sending.