The disclosed embodiments provide a system for processing data. During operation, the system obtains a hierarchical representation containing a set of namespaces of a set of features shared by a set of statistical models. Next, the system uses the hierarchical representation to obtain, from one or more execution environments, a subset of the features for use in calculating the derived feature. The system then applies a formula from the hierarchical representation to the subset of the features to produce the derived feature. Finally, the system provides the derived feature for use by one or more of the statistical models.