Expert Audio Transcriber, Afrikaans

Perle; United States; On-site; USD 35,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

Perle is seeking expert Afrikaans transcribers to convert audio recordings of native speakers into precise, conventionally formatted transcripts. You’ll decide orthography, handle code-switching, and tag non-speech events to support high-quality AI model training.

This role emphasizes expert linguistic judgment over data entry, with paid pilots, per-task or per-minute compensation, and collaboration with linguistic leads and QA teams. Flexible scheduling is available for active projects.

Qualifications

• Native fluency in Afrikaans with lifelong residence or deep immersion in South Africa or Namibia.
• Mastery of standard Afrikaans orthography.
• Ability to distinguish Afrikaans from Dutch in mixed audio.
• Comfortable transcribing Afrikaans-English code-switching as it occurs naturally.
• 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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills

Afrikaans fluency

Code-switching

Job description

THE ROLE

We are hiring expert Afrikaans 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.

DIALECT AND SCOPE

Afrikaans, a West Germanic language derived from Dutch, spoken across South Africa and Namibia with regional varieties including Cape, Orange River, and Eastern Border Afrikaans. Project audio reflects everyday speech with code-switching to English common in urban areas.

Primary speaker regions:

Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Stellenbosch, Windhoek.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• 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

MUST HAVE

• Native fluency in Afrikaans with lifelong residence or deep immersion in South Africa or Namibia
• Mastery of standard Afrikaans orthography
• Ability to distinguish Afrikaans from Dutch in mixed audio
• Comfortable transcribing Afrikaans-English code-switching as it occurs naturally
• 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

NICE TO HAVE

• Background in Germanic linguistics, translation, journalism, or media
• Prior experience annotating Afrikaans or Dutch speech data
• Working knowledge of Dutch, English, or regional South African languages
• Familiarity with IPA or other phonetic transcription systems
• Experience with verbatim versus clean-verbatim transcription conventions

HOW WE WORK WITH YOU

• 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.

About Perle

Perle is an AI infrastructure company building expert-driven training data, evaluation systems, and applied AI products for the world's leading labs and enterprises. Our partners include xAI, Samsung, ELM, and Unisys. Headquartered in San Francisco with experts across more than forty markets, we specialize in the work that requires real human judgment: domain expertise, linguistic nuance, and cultural fidelity that generic data vendors cannot deliver.