Architect, Taxonomy and Information Architecture - Starbucks Technology Starbucks
Seattle, WA

Job Description

At Starbucks, our mission is to inspire and nurture the human spirit - one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time. Starbucks Technologists work to achieve this mission using cutting-edge technology delivered to our partners, customers, stores, roasters, and global communities.

The Enterprise Information Architecture team is responsible for driving business value using a multi-disciplinary approach that includes enterprise information modeling, enterprise vocabulary development, taxonomy development, and metadata practices.

We are building our EIM foundation at Starbucks, and taxonomy is a crucial practice area to support our continuing goals for information governance, management, data democratization and quality. As we continue to expand our scope of work, we need a skilled taxonomist who is excited to work with technologists, data users, and business users to continue working towards common language around our data and information at Starbucks. You will help establish structures, taxonomies, vocabularies, master data and ontologies for business and technology capabilities to support an Enterprise view of our information.

Summary of Key Responsibilities

As a taxonomist / architect you will be part of Enterprise Information Architect Taxonomy Practice at Starbucks. You will assist the lead architect in developing the roadmap and making that roadmap a reality. You will work with the business in the development of enterprise business terms, vocabularies, master data, and taxonomies. You will also work with the EIM and Data Governance leads in the definition of the foundational structures and taxonomies for data search and understandability. This work will support our user experience for metadata and data at Starbucks.

Basic Qualifications

Program and Leadership

* Ability to work with a mixed group of partners and contracted team members
* Ability to read conceptual, logical and physical data models, working closely with data architects to challenge and revise structures based on ontological needs
* Experience translating taxonomy and metadata expertise into actionable business capabilities
* Ability to engage with users and elicit basic needs and requirements in a dynamic and occasionally ambiguous environment
* Ability to create and maintain relationships with business and IT
* Self-directed and able to make impact in a short time.

Metadata Focus

* Experience with metadata architecture and design, and metadata implementation
* Experience with metadata implementation, maintenance, and automation
* Ability to map various standard metadata models to Starbucks requirements

Taxonomy Focus

* Deep understanding of taxonomy, ontology, and vocabulary construction and maintenance
* Strong familiarity with semantic web standards and technology
* Ability to investigate and analyze complex and ambiguous information issues, and synthesize a taxonomy-based solution
* Working Knowledge of RDF and OWL
* Knowledge of basic SQL, SPARQL, and other contemporary query languages

Education

Master's degree in Library and Information Science, Knowledge Management, Information Management, or equivalent professional experience

* Overall experience - 7
* Data retrieval - 5 years
* Catalog and classification systems - 5 years
* Thesauri creation and application - 3 years
* Systems design and configuration - 1 years
* Systems modeling or knowledge graph/ontology engineering - 1 years

Preferred Qualifications

* Experience in building a taxonomy practice in a commercial environment
* Experience with working in an agile environment with tools such as Jira and VSO
* Experience rolling out and administering taxonomy/ontology platforms such as Pool Party
* Experience developing integration strategies for taxonomy/ontology platforms
* Candidates with library backgrounds should have technical services experience
* Ability to understand complex business and technical issues and influence decision making in project efforts
* Strong communications skills, ability to quickly master new systems and/or processes, capacity to stay organized while managing competing priorities.
* Knowledge of PoolParty, SmartLogic, Protégé, or similar ontology management technology

All Starbucks Job Descriptions are confidential and proprietary and are to be handled in accordance with the Starbucks Standards of Business Conduct. Accordingly, job descriptions cannot be shared with individuals outside of the company without the written permission of a partner resources vice president or higher.