Expert Audio Transcriber, Swahili

THE ROLE

We are hiring expert Swahili transcribers to convert audio recordings of native speakers into precise, conventionally formatted written transcripts. The work powers speech recognition, dialogue, and evaluation systems for major AI labs. Audio ranges from clean studio recordings to natural conversational speech in real-world acoustic conditions.

You will be working at the level of expert linguistic judgment. This is not data entry. Decisions about orthography, code-switching, speaker attribution, disfluencies, and non-speech events shape the quality of every model trained on your output.

Kiswahili in its main standard form (Kiswahili sanifu) and regional variants across East Africa, including the Tanzanian standard, Kenyan Swahili, and urban varieties such as Sheng. Project audio includes formal and informal registers with natural English borrowing.

Primary speaker regions: Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, eastern DRC.

• Transcribe audio recordings into accurate, time-aligned written text following Perle’s project-specific style guide
• Apply correct conventions for speaker identification, overlapping speech, disfluencies, fillers, false starts, and non-speech events such as laughter, background noise, and music
• Make principled orthographic decisions for dialectal, colloquial, and code-switched speech
• Flag ambiguous segments, uncertain speakers, and audio quality issues using project conventions
• Self-review every submission against Perle’s quality bar before delivery
• Engage with QA reviewers on edge cases, calibration sessions, and style guide updates

• Native fluency in Swahili with lifelong residence or deep immersion in an East African country
• Mastery of standard Swahili orthography
• Ability to distinguish Tanzanian, Kenyan, and other regional Swahili varieties
• Comfortable transcribing Swahili-English code-switching including Sheng where it appears
• At least two years of professional transcription, captioning, court reporting, broadcast, translation, or linguistic annotation experience
• Demonstrated accuracy at the word level under deadline pressure
• Comfortable with web-based annotation platforms and variable-speed audio playback
• Reliable high-speed internet, quality headphones, and a quiet workspace
• Ability to commit to defined volume per week during active project phases

• Background in Swahili linguistics, journalism, translation, or education
• Prior experience annotating Swahili or other African-language speech data
• Working knowledge of regional Bantu languages or Arabic loanword conventions
• Familiarity with IPA or other phonetic transcription systems
• Experience with verbatim versus clean-verbatim transcription conventions

• Paid pilot task before full onboarding so both sides can calibrate
• Per-task or per-minute compensation, with rates tied to audio complexity and turnaround
• Flexible scheduling, with volume scaling up and down based on active client projects
• Direct working relationship with Perle’s linguistic leads and QA team
• Eligible for invitation to additional Perle expert projects across related domains

Perle hires experts on the basis of skill, language proficiency, and demonstrated quality. We welcome applicants from every background and every region where our target languages are spoken.