Catalog Strategist & Taxonomist

About the Role

Parachute Health is building the most complete and accurate catalog of home medical equipment and supplies in the industry, and that catalog is at the heart of our entire platform. Over the last few months, a consultant improved our in-house design standards, style guide, review practices, and an early set of universal merchandising attributes. We are now hiring someone in-house to take that work over and grow it for the long term.

As our Catalog Strategist & Taxonomist, you will be the expert on our taxonomy, information architecture, and catalog data model. You will serve as the catalog administrator, set and enforce catalog standards, and own catalog functionality enhancements from requirements definition and justification all the way through operational implementation. Reporting to the SVP of Merchandising Operations, you will partner closely with Operations, Product, Design, and Engineering, to make sure the catalog stays accurate, scalable, and easy to work in as we expand into new categories.

The groundwork is fairly new, so you will have a solid base to start from and real room to decide where it goes next. You get to grow the skills of an already highly-motivated Merchandising team and make the group even stronger. You will also influence R&D strategy as we build and enhance our catalog software capabilities. You will work closely with the Cat Crew R&D/engineering team, and partner with our clinical division as we launch new categories together.

This role is posted as a 90-day contract with the intent to convert to a full-time employee.

What You'll Do

• Own the standards and structure of the global product taxonomy, category hierarchy, and catalog data model, and evolve them as we expand into new categories.
• Maintain and evolve core catalog assets, including the global catalog style guide, training about existing and new functionality, glossary, and design review guide.
• Serve as the catalog administrator: govern attributes, values, naming conventions, and data-quality standards across the catalog.
• Interview category managers and subject-matter experts to learn each category's ideal state, balanced with a curiosity about current state workarounds and platform limitations.
• Lead design reviews for category managers and analysts and provide effective feedback.
• Up-level the merchandising team's catalog and taxonomy skills, continuing the trajectory started with the contract taxonomist.
• Drive the standardized identification of sourcing/provenance attributes, including manufacturer, brand, and product line.
• Set the long-term strategic direction for catalog data management, quality, and governance, and act as the senior authority the organization consults on catalog and taxonomy decisions.
• Partner closely with R&D teams to shape near-term catalog software capabilities. Own catalog functionality enhancement requirements end to end, including definition, business justification, and the case for prioritization, then partner with the Catalog Product Manager and Engineering through development and delivery.
• Collaborate with our clinical division to launch new categories, making sure the catalog and taxonomy support new clinical use cases.
• Advance AI-assisted catalog tooling and workflows, such as Claude skills for catalog building and quality monitoring, and codify repeatable processes.

About You

• Deep expertise in taxonomy, information architecture, and metadata or attribute modeling, ideally for a large, complex product catalog.
• Hands-on experience administering catalog or product information management (PIM) systems and defining data-quality standards.
• A track record of turning ambiguous catalog problems into clear requirements, and of justifying and prioritizing enhancement work against business impact.
• Strong cross-functional partnership skills, and comfort being the in-house authority who sets standards and makes the final call on catalog structure.
• Systems thinking and a bias to build durable processes, documentation, and tooling rather than one-off fixes.
• Motivated to up-level a team that is early in building these skills, and open to direct or dotted-line management as the function matures.
• Healthcare, DME, or medical supplies domain experience is a plus, not a requirement.
• Knowledge of or experience in semantic web standards OWL and SKOS is a bonus.