Taxonomist / Ontologist

About Gusto

At Gusto, we're on a mission to grow the small business economy. We handle the hard stuff—like payroll, health insurance, 401(k)s, and HR—so owners can focus on their craft and customers. With teams in Denver, San Francisco, and New York, we’re proud to support more than 400,000 small businesses across the country, and we’re building a workplace that represents and celebrates the customers we serve. Learn more about our Total Rewards philosophy .

About the Role:

Gusto is seeking an experienced ontologist and taxonomist who will be a key collaborator in building next-generation, AI-powered knowledge systems, enhancing how knowledge is created, delivered, and experienced by our customers and internal teams (Gusties). You will design, implement, and maintain the semantic structures that train, guide, and give context to AI tools, ensuring our content is accurate and personalized. Your work will accelerate our mission to ensure each Gustie is AI native through key initiatives that scale the business.

About the Team:

This role is a strategic partner for leadership across Content, CX, Product Management, Engineering, and Data Science. You will be responsible for identifying, planning, and executing a roadmap that leverages AI for content automation and intelligent service delivery inclusive of creating AI agents to amplify efficiency, scale, and impact. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure our taxonomies and ontologies are the foundation of our AI content strategy, enabling enhanced data interoperability, automated content workflows, and sophisticated knowledge discovery.

Here’s what you’ll do day-to-day:

• Lead Gusto’s efforts in building an enterprise taxonomy and ontology management platform from RFP to implementation, focusing specifically on enablement for knowledge graph capabilities and integration with related semantic systems (Schema App, Neo4j, Cube, etc.)
• Design, develop, and maintain scalable taxonomies and ontologies that serve as the backbone for AI content generation, personalization, and retrieval systems.
• Create and implement intuitive taxonomy structures to train and fine-tune AI models, ensuring accurate, context-aware, and on-brand content delivery.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, Data Science, and Content teams to design and automate content workflows, integrating semantic models to power generative AI, content strategy, and intelligent automation.
• Establish governance frameworks for taxonomy, ontology, and AI-generated semantic data, providing guidance, training, and quality assurance to internal stakeholders.
• Analyze content performance and user interaction data to continuously refine and improve AI model outputs and semantic structures.
• Stay abreast of emerging trends in AI, particularly generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and semantic technologies, and incorporate cutting-edge methods to enhance Gusto’s knowledge infrastructure.

Here’s what we're looking for:

• 8+ years of experience in taxonomy development and/or ontology design, with demonstrated experience applying these skills to AI-driven systems.
• Deep understanding of AI and machine learning principles, especially in relation to Natural Language Processing (NLP), generative AI, and Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Experience using AI/ML principles to inform taxonomy and ontology development and governance.
• Hands-on experience with AI content creation, prompt engineering, and workflow automation tools (e.g., generative AI platforms, content management systems with AI integration).
• Proven ability to develop and implement content strategies that leverage AI for personalization, delivery, and optimization.
• Practical knowledge of customer support processes and the ability to translate business needs into scalable semantic data solutions.
• Experience with Semantic Web technologies (RDF, OWL, SKOS), query languages (SPARQL), and ontology editing tools, with a clear understanding of how they power AI reasoning and knowledge graphs.
• Strong problem-solving capabilities, attention to detail, and the ability to work effectively across departments, balancing technical precision with practical application.
• Outstanding communication and storytelling skills for translating complex technical work into actionable insights for diverse stakeholders.
• Proficiency in data analysis and a strong understanding of user experience principles.

Our cash compensation amount for this role is $157,000/yearly to $187,000/yearly in Denver & most major metro locations, and $185,000/yearly to $220,000/yearly for San Francisco & New York. Final offer amounts are determined by multiple factors including candidate location, experience and expertise and may vary from the amounts listed above.

Gusto has physical office spaces in Denver, San Francisco, and New York City. Employees who are based in those locations will be expected to work from the office on designated days approximately 2-3 days per week (or more depending on role). The same office expectations apply to all Symmetry roles, Gusto's subsidiary, whose physical office is in Scottsdale.

Note: The San Francisco office expectations encompass both the San Francisco and San Jose metro areas.

When approved to work from a location other than a Gusto office, a secure, reliable, and consistent internet connection is required. This includes non-office days for hybrid employees.

Our customers come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds, not just because it's the right thing to do, but because it makes our company stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for small businesses, you will find a home at Gusto.

Gusto is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate in hiring or any employment decision based on race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. Gusto considers qualified applicants with criminal histories, consistent with applicable federal, state and local law. Gusto is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities and disabled veterans in our job application procedures. We want to see our candidates perform to the best of their ability. If you require a medical or religious accommodation at any time throughout your candidate journey, please fill out this form and a member of our team will get in touch with you.

Gusto takes security and protection of your personal information very seriously. Please review our Fraudulent Activity Disclaimer .

Personal information collected and processed as part of your Gusto application will be subject to Gusto's Applicant Privacy Notice .