Taxonomy and Metadata
Specialist
Scholastic Inc. is currently seeking a
Taxonomy and Metadata Specialist to join the Software and Technology Services’ Taxonomy
and Metadata Services Group (TMSG) to support channel-specific and enterprise-level
initiatives. This is a full-time, permanent position located in Scholastic’s
New York City offices.
Job Description
The person filling this position joins
the TMSG with responsibility for designing and implementing taxonomies and
metadata structures for a variety of applications with a high degree of
usability for both internal and external Scholastic clients.
Responsibilities include, but are not
limited to:
•
Develop,
refine, and implement multi-faceted taxonomies and thesauri to enable
consistent description, discovery, and reuse of company assets.
•
Collaboratively develop and implement an
Instructional taxonomy that aligns with Common Core State Standards and Scholastic
skills vocabularies.
•
Conduct
iterative evaluations of taxonomy design based on feedback from internal users
and external customers.
•
Assist
with the definition and modeling of structural and descriptive metadata
frameworks for content management (CMS), digital asset management (DAM), and
centralized book marketing systems.
•
Support
on-going enhancements to CMS, DAM, and centralized book marketing systems to
include automated metadata feed rules, data transformation and normalization,
classification and enrichment, and search and discovery.
•
Create
tagging workflows and documentation.
•
Coordinate,
assemble, and maintain business metadata across a variety of product and asset
types, to include books, articles, videos, instructional collateral.
•
Lead and
support tagging projects staffed with both internal and remote tagging teams.
•
Advise on
search and navigation projects.
•
Educate
stakeholders and advocate for taxonomy and metadata best practices.
•
Participate
in and oversee data governance at both a business and enterprise level.
•
Work
collaboratively, plan, and lead meetings and working sessions across all parts
of the organization including, but not limited to: TMSG team, DAMs and CMS
teams, Technology support (development and QA), eScholastic (customer-facing
website), Education Group (Instructional taxonomy development), and other lines
of business such as Trade, Reading Clubs, and Classroom Magazines.
Qualifications
•
Strong
understanding and experience with taxonomy and thesaurus standards and best
practices; information organization and architecture; content classification
and enrichment; metadata modeling, mapping, and transformation; and, digital
asset management and/or content management.
•
Demonstrated
initiative and flexibility to work both independently and as part of teams to
develop new strategies and improve existing strategies for information
organization, management, and retrieval.
•
Excellent
interpersonal skills with ability to clearly articulate strategies, benefits,
and requirements to both technical staff and business, always reflecting and
promoting customer service and professionalism.
•
Comfortable
working through ambiguity to assist businesses in understanding and defining
their requirements.
•
Comfortable
working on multiple projects simultaneously across a complex organization and
product/content base.
Requirements
•
Library
Science degree or equivalent education and experience
•
Minimum
of 4 years’ experience and demonstrated success with taxonomy, thesaurus, and
metadata framework development, using standards and best practices
•
Experience
working with digital asset management or content management systems
•
Subject
indexing (tagging) and cataloging experience
•
Detail-oriented,
decisive, self-motivated, and calm under pressure
•
Ability
to handle multiple tasks and meet deadlines
•
Strong
ability to build credibility with business leaders
•
Excellent
analytical and communication skills
•
Ability
to quickly understand complex ideas and communicate them in simple language
•
Advanced
Microsoft Excel skills
•
Background
in publishing is a plus
•
Understanding
of K-12 instructional materials is a plus
For consideration, please send resume
and cover letter with salary requirements to rgrossman@scholastic.com.
