Senior Sign Language Specialist

Benefits

• Paid Vacation Time and Paid Sick Time and Paid Holidays
• 401k 6% match with immediate vesting
• Nationwide Medical Insurance plans and coverage (Medical, Dental/Orthodontia, Vision)
  • Tele Doc
  • HSA company match
  • 3 Medical plan options including a Low Deductible PPO Medical Plan Offering
• Employee Assistance Program
• Engaged Employee Resource Groups
• Outstanding Learning and Career Development Opportunities

Actual pay may vary up or down depending on job-related factors which may include knowledge, skills, experience, and location. In addition, this position may be eligible for incentive compensation.

Applicants must be legally eligible to work in the United States to be considered. Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

• Maintain and expand Sorenson's ASL sign dictionary — author new entries, review and update existing entries, document regional and register variants, and resolve disputed entries with the Lead.
• Annotate ASL video using advanced gloss conventions, including classifier predicates (locative, instrument, semantic, body-part, and element classifiers), non-manual markers, role shift, and prosody.
• Partner with AI/ML engineering teams to clarify linguistic requirements for training data, review model outputs for linguistic accuracy, and provide feedback on edge cases.
• Review text-to-sign avatar output for ASL grammatical accuracy, naturalness, and cultural appropriateness; document issues using standardized rubrics.
• Lead weekly linguistic calibration sessions; own gloss and classifier convention documentation and decision logs.
• Mentor Sign Language Specialists during cross-functional rotations.
• Maintain accurate records of annotation work, decisions, and edge cases in team tooling and documentation systems.

This position has no supervisory responsibilities.

Less than 25% travel.

Minimum of 4 Year / Bachelors Degree In ASL Linguistics, Deaf Studies, ASL Studies, Interpreting, Deaf Education, or related fields.

Preferred Graduate Degree In ASL Linguistics, Linguistics, Deaf Studies, Interpreting, Deaf Education, or a related field.

3 Years of substantive professional ASL work (annotation, linguistics, interpreting, Deaf education, or comparable).

• Required
• Bilingual in ASL and English, with the ability to produce and quality‑assure professional English transcriptions from ASL source content.
• Deep working knowledge of ASL linguistics — gloss conventions, non-manual markers, classifier predicates, role shift, and ASL grammar.
• Active and informed participant in the Deaf community, with awareness of regional and generational ASL variation.
• Experience producing or annotating ASL content for instructional, research, interpreting, or media purposes.
• Strong written English for documentation, task specifications, and cross-team collaboration.
• Comfortable working with computer-based annotation tools and learning new software.
• Attention to detail, consistency, and a willingness to follow and improve standardized conventions.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively with peer Specialists, the Lead, and engineering teams.
• Proficiency with standard productivity and collaboration tools (Microsoft Office, Confluence, JIRA, or equivalent).
• Positive attitude, team player, strong interpersonal communication skills, and able to work across research, engineering, and business departments.
• Preferred
• American Sign Language as a primary or native language.
• Prior experience with annotation tools such as ELAN, CVAT, or comparable platforms.
• Experience working with AI/ML teams, technology companies, or research groups that produce sign language data.
• Experience reviewing or evaluating signed avatars, animations, or generated ASL content.
• Experience writing or reviewing annotation guidelines, style guides, or convention documentation.
• Familiarity with sign language corpora, lexicography, or dictionary projects.
• Experience mentoring or training other annotators or linguists.
• Familiarity with PSE, SEE, and other North American signing varieties.

• Able to travel up to 5% of the time.
• Able to sit/stand for long periods of time in an office or remote work environment.
• Dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard, mouse, and related tools.
• Regular and predictable attendance required.
• Positive attitude, team player, strong interpersonal communication skills, and able to work across research, engineering, and business departments.

Sorenson Communications is an EOE, Disability/Age Employer.