Language Lead – Japanese (Contract)

About This Opportunity

We are representing a confidential AI technology company in their search for a Language Lead - Japanese (Contract) to work remotely. This is a specialized linguistics role focused on voice AI quality and language-specific resource management.

In this position, you will serve as the primary Japanese language authority for voice AI products, owning quality assurance, data auditing, annotator management, and linguistic investigations end-to-end. This is not standard annotation work—you will operate independently across multiple workstreams and serve as the go-to expert for all Japanese language matters.

Responsibilities

• Answer annotator questions about guidelines, edge cases, and language-specific issues through project communication channels
• Listen to annotator-rated audio files and verify that ratings and written feedback align with established rubrics
• Prepare written quality assessments for annotators with specific examples and recommendations
• Evaluate text-to-speech output and provide ground truth assessments of pronunciation, prosody, and naturalness in Japanese
• Update and expand annotation guidelines when gaps or edge cases are identified
• Prepare and run calibration meetings with annotators
• Hold office hours during active studies so annotators can ask questions in real time
• Develop onboarding materials and resources for new annotators
• Write quality assurance reports on annotation quality and calibration outcomes
• Review production audio in Japanese and flag quality issues to the team
• Investigate language-specific issues reported by customers and identify root causes
• Audit datasets for linguistic accuracy, completeness, and consistency
• Cascade new feedback, instructions, and rubric updates to annotation teams

What We're Looking For

Required:

• Native-level proficiency in Japanese as spoken in Japan
• Experience with data annotation, transcription, or language quality assurance
• Strong foundation in linguistics or a related field, with ability to apply concepts like phonetics, prosody, and intonation when evaluating speech and writing annotation guidelines
• Strong written English proficiency—all guidelines, feedback, reports, and team communication are in English
• Ability to write clear, structured instructions and deliver specific, actionable feedback to annotators
• Comfortable working with data and metrics such as inter-rater agreement scores, audit spreadsheets, and structured feedback templates
• Self-directed and able to manage feedback cycles, QA reviews, and data projects without close oversight
• Authorization to work in your country of residence as a 1099 contractor

Preferred:

• Experience writing or maintaining annotation guidelines or rubrics
• Experience training, mentoring, or managing other annotators
• Experience with audio evaluation, text-to-speech, or speech-to-text systems
• Conversational spoken English proficiency for meetings and calibration syncs
• Experience working with distributed, remote teams

Commitment: Approximately 40 hours per week with scheduling flexibility. Project hours may vary depending on active studies, data projects, and product needs. Participation in periodic coordination meetings during US Pacific business hours is expected.

How We Work With You

When you apply through Get A Job.ai, our talent team will review your qualifications and conduct an initial screening. If there's a strong match, we will submit your profile to our client for consideration. Please do not attempt to contact the client directly, as all communication and coordination will be managed through our recruiting team to ensure a smooth process for everyone involved.

Pay

This is a 1099 contract position and is not eligible for employee benefits. The position is renewable by mutual agreement and offers schedule flexibility within the expected commitment.

Equal Opportunity

Get A Job.ai is committed to equal opportunity employment. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other legally protected status.