English Language Expert (Australia & New Zealand)

Role Title: English Language Expert (Australia & New Zealand)

Role Type: Contractor

Location: Australia or New Zealand, Remote

micro1 is engaging English Language Experts (Australia & New Zealand) to contribute to a dynamic linguistic project for a valued customer. In this role, you'll apply your expertise to help train next-generation AI systems. Your work will shape how models learn, reason, and perform through high-quality, real-world input.

Scope of Work

1. Listen to multi-speaker conversational audio recordings, identifying and tagging key speaker and audio metadata such as dialect, accent, audio quality, background noise, age, and speaking style.
2. Annotate and correct first-pass ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) transcripts, ensuring precise application of Australian and New Zealand English spelling, usage, and conventions.
3. Utilize your knowledge of Australian and New Zealand accents, including General, Broad, and Cultivated Australian English, Aboriginal English, Māori English, Pasifika-influenced English, and regional and community varieties such as those shaped by Italian, Greek, Vietnamese, and Lebanese heritage communities, to accurately identify and categorize dialectal features. Distinguish between Australian and New Zealand speakers, including features such as the New Zealand short-front vowel shift.
4. Apply your knowledge of Australian and New Zealand English vocabulary, idioms, slang, code-switching (such as the use of Māori words and phrases in everyday New Zealand English), and spelling to enhance the linguistic accuracy of project data.

Preferred Qualifications

1. Fluent proficiency in Australian and/or New Zealand English, with demonstrated familiarity across multiple dialects and regional accents.
2. Background in language teaching, linguistics, transcription, editing, translation, journalism, or a related discipline.
3. Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with a meticulous approach to language variation and usage.
4. Ability to distinguish subtle differences in Australian and New Zealand English pronunciation and vocabulary, including differences between the two varieties.
5. Experience working with audio data, metadata tagging, or transcription practices is beneficial.
6. Adaptable, detail-oriented, and able to manage complex annotation guidelines independently.
7. Interest in linguistic technology, AI training, or language data projects is a plus.