Applied AI Engineer, Knowledge Graph at Opengov

OpenGov is the leader in AI and ERP solutions for local and state governments in the U.S. More than 2,000 cities, counties, state agencies, school districts, and special districts rely on the OpenGov Public Service Platform to operate efficiently, adapt to change, and strengthen the public trust. Category-leading products include enterprise asset management, procurement and contract management, accounting and budgeting, billing and revenue management, permitting and licensing, and transparency and open data. These solutions come together in the OpenGov ERP, allowing public sector organizations to focus on priorities and deliver maximum ROI with every dollar and decision in sync. Learn about OpenGov’s mission to power more effective and accountable government and the vision of high-performance government for every community at OpenGov.com [Upgrade to PRO to see link] JOB SUMMARY OpenGov is seeking an Applied AI Engineer, Knowledge Graph to design and evolve the semantic data layer that gives our AI systems a structured, relationship-aware understanding of government data. You will be among the first members of our Pune AI engineering team, working at the intersection of data modeling, semantic engineering, and applied AI. This role centers on graph database engineering and semantic data modeling. You think in relationships and meaning—not just rows and columns—and you have the technical depth to translate complex business domains into well-structured, maintainable graph schemas. You may not have deep AI-specific experience coming in, and that is by design: what this role requires most is strong graph fundamentals, business semantic understanding, and the communication skills to bridge technical and non-technical stakeholders with precision. Communication is a core technical competency for this role, not a soft skill. You will work across engineers, analysts, product managers, and business domain experts. Your ability to translate between them—accurately and clearly—is what makes the knowledge graph actually useful. Candidates who prefer to model schemas in a task-oriented way, or in isolation, will not thrive here. CORE RESPONSIBILITIES - Design, build, and maintain the knowledge graph structures that represent OpenGov’s enterprise data domains, internal (employee) and external (customer) entities, relationships, and product events across areas such as budgeting, procurement, permitting, and finance. - Model semantic relationships within and across workflows to reflect real-world business logic, not just technical convenience, and keep those models accurate as business requirements evolve. - Collaborate closely with OpenGov’s Data Engineering and R&D/Product Engineering teams to align graph schemas with production data models, data lineage, and evolving ontologies. - Work directly with product owners, domain experts, and non-technical stakeholders to understand business semantics and translate them into accurate, queryable graph structures. - Document schema decisions, ontology changes, and data lineage in language accessible to both engineers and business stakeholders as shared organizational knowledge, not just internal notes. - Contribute to the integration of the knowledge graph with AI systems: enabling graph-grounded retrieval, entity resolution, and structured context injection for LLM workflows. - Identify and resolve inconsistencies between the graph layer and upstream data sources before they propagate into AI outputs or user-facing features. - Partner with senior AI Engineer and AI Architect resources to ensure the knowledge graph is queryable, performant, and integrated into AI pipelines in a maintainable way. REQUIRED EXPERIENCE - Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a related field. - 3–6 years of hands-on experience with graph databases (Neo4j, Amazon Neptune, TigerGraph, ArangoDB, or similar) in a production or near-production context. - Proficiency with Cypher or Gremlin for graph querying and traversal beyond basic pattern matching - Strong semantic data modeling skills: entities, relationships, ontologies, taxonomies, and the discipline to keep them business-aligned and maintainable over time. - Experience working with operational data in PostgresDB - Exceptional communication skills. This is a hard requirement. You can explain graph schema decisions and tradeoffs to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders, and you actively seek input from domain experts rather than modeling in isolation. - Demonstrated ability to translate complex, ambiguous business requirements into well-structured graph schemas with clear documentation. - Collaborative by nature: you seek cross-functional input early, surface tradeoffs clearly, and build shared understanding rather than siloed expertise. - Comfort working with structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data, including understanding of how relational or warehouse data maps to graph structures. - Growth orientation: motivated to learn how knowledge graphs power AI applications and to expand AI integration skills on the job. NICE TO HAVE - Experience integrating knowledge graphs with LLM applications: GraphRAG, LightRAG, entity-aware retrieval, or structured context injection. - Familiarity with RDF, OWL, SPARQL, or Linked Data and Semantic Web standards. - Prior exposure to RevOps systems such as Salesforce, Gong, or Outreach - Experience with graph query optimization and performance tuning for large-scale workloads. - Familiarity with Snowflake data architecture/data warehouse environments. - Understanding of data governance, lineage tracking, and/or metadata management practices. - Experience working in compliance-heavy or public sector environments. - Prior exposure to AI engineering, even at a conceptual or adjacent level, with clear motivation to develop deeper AI skills. WHY OPENGOV? A Mission That Matters. At OpenGov, public service is personal. We are passionate about our mission to power more effective and accountable government. Government that operates efficiently, adapts to change, and strengthens public trust.  Some people say this is boring.  We think it’s the core of our democracy. Opportunity to Innovate The next great wave of innovation is unfolding with AI, and it will impact everything—from the way we work to the way governments interact with their residents. Join a trusted team with the passion, technology, and expertise to drive innovation and bring AI to local government. We’ve touched 2,000 communities so far, and we’re just getting started. A Team of Passionate, Driven People This isn’t your typical 9-to-5 job; we operate in a fast-paced, results-driven environment where impact matters more than simply clocking in and out. Our global team of 800+ employees is united in our commitment to challenge the status quo. OpenGov is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Atlanta, Boston, Buenos Aires, Chicago, Dubuque, Plano, and Pune. A Place to Make Your Mark We pride ourselves on our performance-based culture, where every employee is encouraged to jump in head-first and take action to help us improve. If you have a great idea, we want to hear it. Excellent performance is recognized and rewarded, and we love to promote from within. Benefits That Work for You Enjoy an award-winning workplace with the benefits to match, including: - Comprehensive healthcare options for individuals and families - Flexible vacation policy and paid company holidays - 401(k) with company match - Paid parental leave, wellness stipends, and HSA contributions - Professional development and growth opportunities - A collaborative office environment with weekly catered lunches.