Taxonomist

The Community You Will Join: 

As part of the Community Support team, you’ll collaborate within a dynamic group that manages foundational semantic data controls and consults with cross-functional stakeholders across Airbnb. Our team partners closely with Product, Engineering, Data, and Content teams to build, align, and refine classifications and keywords powering platforms like Atrium, Airbnb bot, Contentstack, and more. Working together, we foster an environment of ongoing learning and innovation, supporting initiatives from regulatory compliance campaigns to data platform enhancements, all while maintaining strong relationships with teams in Supply and global Community Support

The Difference You Will Make:

The Taxonomist will work with Airbnb’s Taxonomy and Ontology Manager to shape and manage scalable taxonomies, ontologies, and other structured data within Airbnb’s Community Support (CS) business. Taxonomist reports directly to Taxonomy and Ontology Manager and sits within the Content and Knowledge Management team (CKM). Working in close collaboration with cross-functional partners across CS (operations, engineering, product, research, data science and analytics, etc.), Taxonomist performs ongoing taxonomy maintenance, designs new solutions and protocols for burgeoning use cases, and supports as needed to execute strategic initiatives related to taxonomy, ontology, information architecture, and metadata management.

A Typical Day: 

• Collaborate with Airbnb’s Taxonomy and Ontology Manager in the development of long-term, sustainable semantic data strategies 
• Support day-to-day operations for ongoing taxonomy governance across Community Support use cases
• Coordinate with other Service Enablement teams (Business Process Improvement, Change Management, Service Operations) to design and maintain Taxonomy project intake for work requests and transparent change log tracking  
• Manage data sets and preparation for imports / exports / custom reporting for stakeholders 
• Create and maintain clear documentation for training and governance related to information management activities
• Work with data science, analytics, and insights teams to develop and improve machine learning models and labeling practices in support of various applications (e.g. AI tooling and issue detection) 
• Collaborate with cross-functional partners to triage data issues related to taxonomy 
• Reconcile disparate taxonomies and recommend semantic structures for unstructured data sets
• Assist CKM team across various content strategy needs related to information architecture, metadata management, indexing projects, or taxonomy management
• Work with product teams to build comprehensive frontend and backend taxonomies for cataloging assets in a natural, interpretable manner
• Collaborate with subject matter experts across various domains to define appropriate use cases for taxonomy/ontology initiatives
• Communicate complex technical information clearly and effectively to a multi-functional audience
• Identify opportunities for improvement and make recommendations to mature processes
• Foster communication, cooperation, and alignment among distributed internal stakeholders
• Evangelize the importance of semantic data work

Your Expertise:

• Experience developing taxonomies, ontologies, thesauri, and controlled vocabularies
• Experience improving, maturing, and iterating on existing information structures, including consolidation or reconciliation across data sets, crosswalking metadata schemas, and implementation of intellectual control
• Experience with large-scale data migration projects
• Ability to lead and design new projects from conception to completion, prioritizing accessible user experiences and sustainable governance
• Administrator-level experience with semantic management tools, content or collections management systems, digital asset management systems, or other relational databases used to maintain authority files and metadata
• Experience collaborating with systems administrators and/or vendors to troubleshoot issues and develop tools with end-users in mind
• Expertise in applying best practice principles of metadata, cataloging, and terminology management to real-world use cases
• Proven ability to present complex technical information in a clear and concise way to a range of technical and non-technical audiences
• Exceptional written and verbal communication and negotiation skills (English); technical writing experience a plus
• Experience with or ability to learn SQL and SPARQL queries to support data analysis
• Familiarity with XML, RDF/RDFS, SKOS, OWL, and general semantic / linked data standards
• Strong analytical thinking skills and ability to grapple with complex, open-ended challenges
• Ability to work and make decisions independently, with minimal supervision, in a fast-paced, virtual environment
• Ability to manage deadlines and expectations across multiple stakeholder groups and priorities
• 3+ years of relevant work experience in a leadership role
• Master’s Degree in Library Science or Information Management or demonstrated equivalent qualifications

Your Location:

This position is US - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed to with your manager. While the position is Remote Eligible, you must live in a state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity. Click here for the up-to-date list of excluded states. This list is continuously evolving, so please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list  If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from.

Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging:

Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.

We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: [email protected]. Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process. 

We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application.