Principal Knowledge & Data Architect

Primary Work Address: 4000 Jones Bridge Road, Chevy Chase, MD, 20815

HHMI is focused on supporting and moving science forward in a
variety of different ways ranging from conducting basic biomedical research, empowering educators, inspiring students, developing the next
generation of scientists – even stretching into film and media production. Our Headquarters is in the greater Washington, DC metro area and
is home to over 300 employees with expertise in investments, communications, digital production, biomedical sciences, and everything in
between. The work housed here supports and augments the groundbreaking research conducted in HHMI labs across the nation. As HHMI scientists
continue to push boundaries in laboratories and classrooms, you can be sure that your contributions while working here are making a
difference.

The EverydayAI Accelerator exists to turn generative AI into daily reality across HHMI’s administrative and operational
functions. This role owns HHMI’s knowledge management layer for AI: the discipline of turning institutional information (documents, records,
policies, scientific content, operational data) into structured, retrievable, trustworthy knowledge that AI systems can actually use.

The work is technical and grounded. You will design and operate the retrieval-augmented generation pipelines that every Accelerator
project depends on: the chunking, embedding, indexing, and retrieval patterns that turn HHMI’s content into something AI can find and reason
over. For use cases where a graph representation is the right tool (complex entity relationships, lineage, multi-hop reasoning), the
knowledge graph gets built and operated alongside it. This work happens in partnership with the Principal AI Architect, who owns the AI
platform and engineering foundation, and the Technology and Systems Management (TSM) Data Integrations team, who owns the data pipelines
from source systems. Whoever holds this role designs the knowledge architecture and is accountable for operating it.

Why this
role matters

HHMI’s scientific, financial, and operational knowledge lives scattered across documents, databases, and systems
never built to talk to AI. Without someone accountable for turning that information into something structured and trustworthy, every AI
initiative at HHMI either repeats the same expensive groundwork or surfaces answers no one can stand behind. This role solves that problem
once so that every Accelerator project and future AI effort can build on a governed, reliable knowledge foundation instead of reinventing
it.

What you will actually do

• Own HHMI’s knowledge management architecture. Design how institutional content
  is captured, structured, classified, retrieved, and maintained over time. Make the calls on representation (chunked text, embeddings,
  structured records, knowledge graphs, or hybrid) for each kind of content and each kind of use case, and own the consequences.

• Build and operate the RAG pipelines. Design and run the retrieval-augmented generation systems that every AI product at HHMI
  consumes, including document processing, chunking, embedding, indexing, hybrid retrieval, re-ranking, query rewriting. New projects inherit
  proven patterns; they do not roll their own.

• Build knowledge graphs where the use case requires it. For problems
  where graph representation is the right tool (complex entity resolution, multi-hop reasoning, lineage and provenance, relationship-heavy
  queries), design the data model, stand up the graph store, and operate it.

• Extract structure from unstructured content.
  Build the pipelines that turn HHMI’s documents (policies, applications, financial records, scientific content) into something AI can
  consume. Use the right mix of LLM-based extraction, classical NLP, and rule-based methods for each source, and be able to explain
  why.

• Solve entity resolution. The same person, fund, application, or concept appears across many systems with many
  representations. Build the deduplication, linking, and canonicalization that lets the institution rely on a single, defensible
  truth.

• Govern knowledge classification and lineage. Sit in the AI governance group as the technical voice on
  knowledge sensitivity, provenance, and retention.

• Partner with Data Integrations and the AI platform team. TSM Data
  Integrations owns the plumbing across HHMI’s source systems, and you define what AI needs from it while co-building the contracts that
  connect the two layers. The Principal AI Architect owns the AI platform; the knowledge layer it reasons over comes from this seat.

• Communicate across the altitude range. Translate knowledge-architecture trade-offs for engineering teams, then turn around
  and explain the same decisions to a business leader or executive in terms that actually land. Expect to do both regularly.

What
we are looking for

• Real production RAG experience. Proven experience shipping retrieval-augmented systems and
  running in production, with failures debugged back through the pipeline and the broken step rebuilt. Hybrid retrieval, chunking strategy,
  query understanding, and re-ranking used as working tools, not just concepts. This is the core of the role.

• Knowledge
  management and data modeling. A librarian’s instinct for content (what’s authoritative, what’s stale, who can see it), plus the ability
  to look at an unfamiliar domain and identify the right entities, relationships, and representation, defending why an attribute is a node, an
  edge, or not modeled at all.

• Knowledge graph and entity resolution experience. At least one knowledge graph
  designed, built, and operated in production, with a clear sense of when a graph beats a vector store or document chunk. Deduplication and
  linking problems solved where the same thing has seven names across four systems and none of them are wrong.

• Information extraction and production rigor. Extraction pipelines built to turn unstructured text into structured knowledge
  using a mix of LLMs, classical NLP, and rule-based methods, treating embedding versioning, retrieval evaluation, corpus drift, and
  re-indexing as first-class engineering concerns. “The model gave the wrong answer” is a debuggable system, not a shrug.

• Data engineering, security, and range. Fluency in a data integration team’s tools (SQL, Databricks, dbt, ETL patterns) pairs
  with designing around data classification, access controls, and PII handling from the first conversation rather than as a final review.
  Ability to lead engineers technically without a reporting line, and to explain the same decision to a non-technical stakeholder in terms
  that help them choose.

• Technical range to operate at this level. Strong proficiency in Python and SQL. Production
  experience with vector databases (Postgres pgvector, Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant, or comparable) and embedding pipelines. Production
  experience with at least one graph database (Neo4j, AWS Neptune, JanusGraph, TigerGraph, Stardog, or comparable) and graph query languages
  (Cypher, SPARQL, or Gremlin). Working knowledge of modern NLP and information extraction. Fluency in the modern data stack (Databricks, dbt,
  or comparable).

• Education and experience. Bachelor’s degree or equivalent, plus at least eight years of hands-on
  experience across data engineering, information retrieval, and applied machine learning, with at least three years focused on production
  knowledge management for AI systems (retrieval-augmented generation, knowledge graphs, or both).

Nice to have

• Background in library or information science, formal ontology, or semantic web technologies (RDFS, OWL, SKOS).

• Experience with hybrid retrieval (graph + vector) and GraphRAG patterns.

• Familiarity with MCP, structured-output
  patterns, and AI agent tool design.

• Experience with master data management, data catalogs, or lineage tooling at
  enterprise scale.

• Prior experience in research, academic, or mission-driven institutional environments.

What
this role is not

• A data engineering role. This role partners with TSM’s Data Integrations team on source-system pipelines and
  the data warehouse, but doesn’t own that plumbing; it owns the knowledge layer that sits on top of it.

• An AI platform or
  AI infrastructure role. The Principal AI Architect owns the AI engineering foundation, the platform services, the reference architectures,
  and the production deployment patterns. Your job is to ensure there is structured, retrievable, trustworthy knowledge for that platform to
  reason over.

• A pure research role. Staying current on the field (RAG, knowledge representation, GraphRAG, neuro-symbolic
  methods) matters, but the work is building and operating production knowledge systems, not publishing about them.

• A role
  for someone whose RAG or graph experience is only academic or prototype-scale. You need production scars: systems that have handled real
  users, real failure modes, and real corpus evolution over time.

Practical details

This role is hybrid, with 3 days
per week in-person at HHMI’s offices in Chevy Chase, MD. It reports to the Director, AI Enablement.

We encourage qualified
candidates who are eligible to work in the United States to apply. Please note, we are not able to sponsor a visa for this position at
this time.

#LI-EG1

Compensation and Benefits

Our employees are compensated from a total rewards
perspective in many ways for their contributions to our mission, including competitive pay, exceptional health benefits, retirement plans,
time off, and a range of recognition and wellness programs. Visit our Benefits at HHMI site to learn more.

Compensation Range
$174,770.40
(minimum) – $218,463.00 (midpoint) – $284,001.90 (maximum)

Pay Type:
Annual

HHMI’s salary structure is developed based on
relevant job market data. HHMI considers a candidate’s education, previous experiences, knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as internal
consistency when making job offers. Typically, a new hire for this position in this location is compensated between the minimum and the
midpoint of the salary range.

HHMI is an Equal Opportunity Employer

We use E-Verify to confirm the identity and employment eligibility of all new hires.

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