Overview

Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is working with our partner Knowledge3 (knowledge3.ai)  to search for a Lead Ontologist supporting the delivery of knowledge-first systems for one of our joint projects. We turn fragmented scientific and enterprise data into structured, reusable knowledge assets. These systems are designed to support explainable reasoning, governed analytics, and trustworthy AI. The approach starts with the questions that matter and builds toward the semantics required to address them. We define competency questions as the contract for what a system must be able to answer, design queries that satisfy those questions, and derive schema and data transformations from there. The result is modular, minimal, and grounded systems that can be explained, validated, and extended over time.

We are seeking a Lead Ontologist to execute and help shape this approach. This role sits at the boundary between business understanding and technical implementation. You will work with stakeholders to clarify use cases, define competency questions, and translate those into semantic models, schemas, and query patterns. You will design and build models using LinkML and RDF/OWL, define query skeletons, and ensure that data transformation aligns with the intent of the question. You will also play a visible role in communicating results, both internally and with clients, explaining what the system can answer and why.

This is a remote-first role, with a preference for U.S.-based candidates working East Coast hours. Travel is limited, generally no more than once per month, and focused on design workshops or key client interactions. Depending on experience, you may lead these sessions directly or work alongside senior team members..

 Duties & Responsibilities:

Overview

Black Canyon Consulting (BCC)  is searching for a Technical Lead - Program Principal Engineer to support our work for the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), an institute of the National Institutes of Health. This opportunity is full time and onsite at the NIH-NCBI in Bethesda, MD and/or remote work.

As a Program Principal Engineer, you will be directing Technical Leads and Teams to ensure architectural cohesion and collaboration within the program; for assigned projects, you will be responsible for all phases of software development, from vision, architecture, and design, to implementation, production rollout, and operations. You will collaborate with the Program Head, Technical Program Manager, and other Program Principal Engineers across programs, forming close relationships to enable effective communication, encouraging staff growth and knowledge sharing, guiding technological innovation, and ensuring sustainable software development practices and service delivery. Your contributions will have direct impact on prominent offerings, supporting researchers in finding, browsing, and downloading genomic data, such as virus and pathogen detection resources that help researchers study common diseases, combat pandemics (SARS-CoV-2, H1N1), and provide surveillance to prevent outbreaks from food-borne, hospital-acquired, and other clinically infectious pathogens.

Responsibilities include:

• Manage the efforts of the program's software development team in an Agile framework
• Work with a diverse group of scientists, bioinformaticians and other developers across the center to implement efficient bioinformatics algorithms
• Provide work estimates for development tasks
• Ensure on-schedule delivery of software solutions for the product line and organization
• Manage the development lifecycle of software for assigned products
• Research new technologies in pursuit of advancing the goals of the program and product line
• Direct and coordinate the actions of the development team
• Provide technical leadership and guidance to the development team
• Act as a liaison between the development team and program leadership
• Create and maintain technical documentation related to the product line
• Ensure high code quality for software development tasks

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate may or may not be a United States citizen and must have at least a Bachelor or Master of Science degree in Computer Science, Information Technology or Engineering or equivalent work experience.

We are looking for an individual with:

• A proven track record of managing an Agile software development team
• Experience working with highly available, high traffic web applications
• The ability to translate business requirements into executable software development tasks
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• The ability to troubleshoot technical and staffing roadblocks and mitigate resource risks

Required Skills:

• Software development experience in a Linux environment (5+ Years)
• Proficiency in at least one programming language (Java, C, C++)
• Experience working with Cloud data storage and processing platforms (AWS, GCP)
• Proficiency in at least one scripting language (BASH, Python)
• Experience working with SQL databases
• Ability to work with common structured documents (XML, JSON, CSV)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, unit tests, integration, and regression testing
• Strong presentation and collaboration skills
• Experience coaching team members

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with genetic and biological data
• Experience with software packaging and distribution, including Docker or other containerization mechanisms
• Experience with MongoDB or other NoSQL database technology
• Experience with workflow engines, particularly scientific workflows and DataOps

Overview

Black Canyon Consulting (BCC)  is searching for a Senior C++ Software Developer to support our work for the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), an institute of the National Institutes of Health. This opportunity is full time and onsite at the NIH-NCBI in Bethesda, MD and/or remote work.

NCBI, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the nation’s premier biomedical resource, is seeking a software developer to help deliver biological sequence annotation and data curation infrastructure for the nation’s foremost sequence and biomedical literature repositories. Sites at NCBI, a part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), see four million daily users searching for gene sequence data, biomedical journal citations, and a wide array of other information that directly impacts biomedical research and public health. NCBI’s annotation pipelines not only serve these diverse expert communities – they actually drive new life sciences discoveries, ranging from medical health (viruses and pandemics, genetic diseases, cancer) to public health (food safety monitoring, antimicrobial resistance, viral outbreaks), to basic research topics in computational biology, bioinformatics and microbial diversity, and many more.

Overview

Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is searching for a Sr. Software Developer in Bioinformatics and Big Data to support our work for the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), an institute of the National Institutes of Health. This opportunity is full time and onsite at the NIH-NCBI in Bethesda, MD and/or remote work. 

NCBI, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the nation’s premier biomedical resource, is seeking a software developer to help deliver biological sequence annotation and data curation infrastructure for the nation’s foremost sequence and biomedical literature repositories. Sites at NCBI, a part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), see four million daily users searching for gene sequence data, biomedical journal citations, and a wide array of other information that directly impacts biomedical research and public health. NCBI’s annotation pipelines not only serve these diverse expert communities – they actually drive new life sciences discoveries, ranging from medical health (viruses and pandemics, genetic diseases, cancer) to public health (food safety monitoring, antimicrobial resistance, viral outbreaks), to basic research topics in computational biology, bioinformatics and microbial diversity, and many more.

On a technical level, NCBI’s wide range of applications, platforms (e.g. node, Python, Django, C++), and applications and environments (petabyte-level big data, multiple cloud providers) serve more users than the US Postal Service and see more traffic than the IRS at tax time. We embrace FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and are on the cutting edge of civic tech and cloud computing.

This role calls for more than an expert coder and architect – someone who can work equally effectively with subject-matter experts, user researchers, designers, product managers, scientists, security and DevOps engineers, and more. Work with teams of dedicated, skilled developers, researchers, and product professionals as you build robust, flexible solutions serving dozens of production applications, APIs and services. Join us!

We attract the best people in the business with our competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision coverage, 401k plan with employer contribution, paid holidays, vacation, and tuition reimbursement. If you enjoy being a part of a high performing, professional service and technology focused organization, please apply today!

Overview

Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is searching for a Sr. Software Developer in Bioinformatics and Big Data to support our work for the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), an institute of the National Institutes of Health. This opportunity is full time and onsite at the NIH-NCBI in Bethesda, MD and/or remote work. 

NCBI, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the nation’s premier biomedical resource, is seeking a software developer to help deliver biological sequence annotation and data curation infrastructure for the nation’s foremost sequence and biomedical literature repositories. Sites at NCBI, a part of the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), see four million daily users searching for gene sequence data, biomedical journal citations, and a wide array of other information that directly impacts biomedical research and public health. NCBI’s annotation pipelines not only serve these diverse expert communities – they actually drive new life sciences discoveries, ranging from medical health (viruses and pandemics, genetic diseases, cancer) to public health (food safety monitoring, antimicrobial resistance, viral outbreaks), to basic research topics in computational biology, bioinformatics and microbial diversity, and many more.

On a technical level, NCBI’s wide range of applications, platforms (e.g. node, Python, Django, C++), and applications and environments (petabyte-level big data, multiple cloud providers) serve more users than the US Postal Service and see more traffic than the IRS at tax time. We embrace FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and are on the cutting edge of civic tech and cloud computing.

This role calls for more than an expert coder and architect – someone who can work equally effectively with subject-matter experts, user researchers, designers, product managers, scientists, security and DevOps engineers, and more. Work with teams of dedicated, skilled developers, researchers, and product professionals as you build robust, flexible solutions serving dozens of production applications, APIs and services. Join us!

We attract the best people in the business with our competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision coverage, 401k plan with employer contribution, paid holidays, vacation, and tuition reimbursement. If you enjoy being a part of a high performing, professional service and technology focused organization, please apply today!

Overview

Black Canyon Consulting (BCC) is actively looking for a highly technical Engineering Team Leader for the role of Technical Program Manager to support our work for the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM), an institute of the National Institutes of Health. This opportunity is full-time and onsite at the NIH-NCBI in Bethesda, MD. There is the possibility of 1 day/week as remote work. 

This position functions as a Technical Program Manager with a VERY strong engineering team management focus, responsible for leading multiple software development teams across high-performance, high-throughput data management systems within NCBI. The Technical Program Manager works closely with NCBI technical leadership to ensure mission-critical applications are reliable, scalable, and aligned with long-term modernization and data infrastructure goals. The Technical Program Manager will serve as a central integrator across engineering domains, ensuring the efficient design, development, and delivery of scalable, secure, and high-performance data systems that underpin cutting-edge biomedical research. The Technical Program Manager works closely with a Program Head to maintain and enhance data access by serving as the software development team manager and primary program operational contact for technical activities. The TPM reports to the IEB Software Development Section Head. The position is essential to ensuring that the Program under the Program Head can meet long-term program and stakeholder needs with respect to preserving and disseminating data for scientific reuse.

We attract the best people in the business with our competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental and vision coverage, 401k plan with employer contribution, paid holidays, vacation, and tuition and conference reimbursement. If you enjoy being a part of a high-performing, professional service and technology-focused organization, please apply today!