Book a time
Knowledge Graph Engineer
Also called Graph Data Engineer
A Knowledge Graph Engineer builds linked records of the people, products and things a business cares about, each traced to its source. It gives AI systems facts they can retrieve, check and explain.
What they do
They decide what counts as an entity in the data and how entities relate. They write ingestion rules that pull records from databases, documents and feeds into a graph. They match duplicates, so one customer or part does not appear five times. They model constraints, such as which relationships are allowed. They attach a source to every fact. They build the query interface that applications and retrieval systems use. They test results against known answers, trace errors back to the rule that caused them, and fix the rule rather than the single record.
What a strong hire delivers
In the first months, a strong hire delivers a working graph for one well-chosen domain, with a clear model that others can read. Ingestion rules run repeatedly and their output can be checked. Most facts link back to a source. A query interface is in use by a real application or team. They also leave a short measure of entity accuracy that the team trusts.
How you can tell they are good
Ask them to walk through a graph they built, from first model to live use. Good candidates explain why they modelled it that way, what they got wrong, and how they measured accuracy. Ask how they handled two records that might be the same entity. Worry if they only talk about tools, never mention provenance, or cannot say who used the graph.
Why it is hard to fill
The title varies a lot. Similar work appears under data engineer, ontologist, information architect and search engineer. Few people have both the modelling discipline and the engineering habits to run pipelines at scale. Many graph database users have never done serious entity resolution. Ontology specialists can lack production experience. Candidates who have both are rarely on the market for long, and job titles hide them.
Where to find them
Look in teams that have long managed messy, linked data: publishers, libraries and archives, life sciences, financial data providers, enterprise search teams and e-commerce catalogue groups. Titles include knowledge engineer, ontologist, taxonomist, data engineer, search engineer and information scientist. Some come from database backgrounds and have moved towards semantic modelling. Others come from ontology design and have learned to ship code.
Indicative pay
Not enough published evidence yet to give a fair range for this role, which is common for work this new. We benchmark it for you as part of a search.
Interview questions for a Knowledge Graph Engineer
- Tell me about a knowledge graph you built. What was it for, and who used it?
A strong answer names a real use, the data sources and the people relying on it. They describe trade-offs and mistakes. Worry if the story is all technology, with no users, no measure of usefulness, or no sign it ran beyond a demo.
- How do you decide whether two records refer to the same entity?
Good answers cover matching on several attributes, thresholds, review of uncertain cases and keeping the merge reversible. They mention measuring errors both ways. Worry about one-rule matching, or a belief that matching can ever be finished.
4 more questions, with what a strong answer covers, are in the Role Kit.
Job description you can post
We are building products that depend on accurate, traceable facts about the entities our customers care about. We need a Knowledge Graph Engineer to design and run the graph behind them, from the data model and ingestion through to the query interface our applications and retrieval systems use.
What you will do
- Design and maintain the graph model for entities, relationships and constraints
- Write and test ingestion rules for structured and unstructured sources
- Build and tune entity resolution, including review of uncertain matches
- Record provenance for every fact and keep it queryable
- Build and support a query interface for application teams
- Measure entity accuracy and query usefulness, and report on them
- Work with data owners to fix quality problems at the source
What you will bring
- Built and run a knowledge graph or similar linked data system in production
- Demonstrated entity resolution work, with a way of measuring its accuracy
- Strong SQL and experience with at least one graph database
- Practical knowledge representation, such as RDF/OWL or property graph modelling
- Clear approach to data quality and provenance
- Ability to explain modelling choices to engineers and non-specialists
Nice to have
- Experience supporting retrieval or search systems built on a graph
- Ontology design or taxonomy work
- Experience with text extraction pipelines that feed a graph
Free to use and adapt. If it saves you time, a link back to this page is appreciated.
Skills that matter
- Knowledge representationAdvancedRepresent facts, relations and constraints explicitly
- Information retrievalAdvancedRetrieve and rank relevant documents or entities
- Data quality and provenanceWorkingTrack dataset origin, validity and transformations
- SQLWorkingQuery and validate relational data
Other roles in knowledge graphs and semantic systems
Related roles in other families
How we wrote this
Role definitions are our own editorial work, checked against occupational classifications, standards, research and employer pages. Titles vary by company, and this is a description of the work, not a job advert.
- Computer and Information Research Scientists, 15-1221.00, O*NET / US Department of Labor
- Transformers documentation, Hugging Face
Start a search
Hiring a Knowledge Graph Engineer?
Tell us the work. We find the people already doing it, whatever their job title says, and you meet them already interviewed for your role.
Role Kit
Knowledge Graph Engineer: the Role Kit
- What the role is and what a strong hire delivers
- Every interview question, with what a strong answer covers
- A ready-to-post job description
- Where to find the people, and the other titles they use
We email you a copy too. You are only added to Insights if you tick the box.
It is downloading now.
A copy is on its way to your inbox. If you are hiring for this, we would be glad to help.
Meet Beth
Tell Beth who you're hiring. She'll show you how we'd approach it.
Beth knows how we work inside out and keeps up with your market as it moves: who's raising, who's hiring, what roles pay. Ask her anything, right here. In a few minutes you'll know how we'd go about your hire, and you'll have a time in the diary to start it.
Hi, I'm Beth. Hiring a Knowledge Graph Engineer? Tell me what you need them to do and I'll show you how we'd find the people already doing it.
- Answers day or night
- Knows your market this week
- No fee unless you hire
- Books your call there and then
- Type or talk, your choice