Taxonomy Strategist - Editorial Descriptive Lead

Netflix is one of the world's leading entertainment services, with over 300 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, films and games across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can play, pause and resume watching as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, and can change their plans at any time.

We have many workstreams at Netflix that require robust data, and data governance to help us manage operations.  In this role, you will be responsible for driving the strategy, construction, adoption, and governance of taxonomies that support the growing volume of core content data through dozens of applications and multiple workflows, across domains and stakeholders, to support the lifecycle of content at Netflix.

As the Lead Taxonomy Strategist for the Editorial Descriptive space, you will manage the core taxonomies for the Editorial Descriptive metadata we use to describe our content.
 

We are seeking a senior-level Taxonomy Strategist who has experience with and passion for bringing structure to large-scale, disparate databases and vocabularies. You will be responsible for scoping, creating, maintaining and governing taxonomies and ontologies while employing, modeling and enforcing data integrity best practices.

Ideal Candidates:

Highly regarded as an expert in taxonomy and ontology, you excel in collaborating with cross-functional teams. Your strong communication skills enable you to effectively advocate for and align stakeholders with new taxonomy and ontology processes and governance policies. You bring valuable experience in developing both product-facing and internal taxonomies and ontologies for the subjective and objective description of content, with a preference for applications within the entertainment industry

As a Taxonomy Strategist Lead, you will be responsible for the orchestration of data design updates.  You will work closely with subject matter experts and cross functional teams, including but not limited to Product, Program Management, Design, Engineering, Catalog Insights and Data Science teams to define, develop, maintain, and govern related taxonomies and ontologies. You have worked to create ontologies both from scratch, and from existing taxonomies. You find creative solutions to complex problems that balance the need for holistic design with swift delivery.  In collaboration with your stakeholders, you excel at setting clear goals and understanding when to prioritize speed over robustness, ensuring that all parties are aligned and working efficiently towards shared objectives. You provide options and are clear about the pros and cons of each potential data design, defining risks, rewards, and understanding and being able to articulate the technical implications to both technical and non technical stakeholders.

Reporting to the Product Metadata & Ratings Taxonomy & Governance Manager, this is an exempt role. Preferred location is Los Gatos or Los Angeles, but will consider US Remote, with some required travel to California. 

Responsibilities include:

• Independently manages and prioritizes work intake and prioritization for a team of taxonomists and contractors. Responsible for delivering data designs and design implementation within established timelines.

• Drives right-sizing, roadmapping and long term vision for implementing requested data changes across enterprise data models 

• Defines and develops enterprise wide taxonomies, ontologies and data dictionaries related to the technical and creative attributes and categorization that support the Netflix content pipeline.

• Identifies several options for data designs to support problem statements for business needs, articulating and advocating for when the solution would be better served by an Ontology, Taxonomy or other solution.  

• Proactively accelerates data development through multiple means, such as optimizing for synergies, updating workflows, improving communication pipelines or programmatic enhancements.

• Closely partners with key PgMs and collaborates with senior and director level stakeholders to create and implement an enterprise wide taxonomy & ontology data program, including end to end cohesive data strategy across the lifecycle of content.

• Co-leads complex changes and/or data migrations required for the implementation and ingestion of the data model or changes to it.

• Anticipates, communicates and mitigates long term issues, tradeoffs and potential data collisions 

• Works within technical limitations, delivering functional feasible data designs and guiding cross functional teams leading to optimal short and longer term solutions

• Articulates clear requirements & problem statements that drive feature requests to both tooling and product functionality while effectively influencing product and engineering roadmaps to implement necessary product enhancements.

• Influences leaders and cross functional teams as to the importance of adopting taxonomies and ontologies.

• Co-develops taxonomy and ontology data quality metrics, collaborating with Eng and Product to create and implement monitoring and feedback loops

• Prioritizes and is generous with knowledge sharing and design collaboration with best in class taxonomy and ontology experts, for the team's continued growth of domain expertise.

Requirements:

• Direct experience acting as an individual contributor team lead, encouraging collaboration, coordinating the prioritization, development and release of complimentary, entertwined data models 

• Deep experience creating and maintaining complex, interconnected taxonomies and ontologies leveraged by multiple disparate teams for multiple disparate purposes

• Deep experience improving foundational, legacy data for increased business value

• Proven ability to drive the change management process, coordination and alignment of partners, and stakeholders, from IC to Director, for scoping, planning, designing and publishing data designs, setting expectations across multiple technical and non-technical stakeholders, influencing across various function groups and levels

• Leverages contextual fluency between teams, domains, and across individual colleagues at various levels, to influence and communicate the need and business value for both new taxonomies and ontologies as well as updates to existing taxonomies and ontologies.

• Direct experience partnering with engineers and data scientists developing data models for workflows, and AI usage.

• Direct experience establishing and maintaining a governance system to ensure data hygiene and ensure smooth change management that functions across multiple domains and disciplines.

• Ability to set goals and work independently in a highly cross-functional, non-hierarchical workplace.

• Excellent communication skills: written, verbal and presentation.

• Excel at working with stakeholders, partners and co-workers to create order out of vague and/or ambiguous requirements

• Experience working in a global context, sensitive to regional requirements.

Nice to Have:

• Masters degree in related fields: Data Management, Computer Science, Library & Information Science

• Passion for films, shows and entertainment media

• Experience working with a global catalog, consumer-facing experiences, and creative content. 

• Interest in and exposure to Machine Learning and/or Artificial Intelligence capabilities

• Experience with Multilingual Taxonomies.

• Familiarity with legal compliance and the changing landscape of data regulations around the world.

Generally, our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options. To determine your personal top of market compensation, we rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to determine your compensation in the market range. The range for this role is $275,000 - $400,000.

Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs.  Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more detail about our Benefits here.

Netflix is a unique culture and environment.  Learn more here.

Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.

Job is open for no less than 7 days and will be removed when the position is filled.