Phonetician / Linguist (Spanish-US)

Omilia; Arizona; On-site; USD 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Long-term employment

Development in professional growth

Apple gear

Job summary

Omilia is seeking a linguist with expertise in phonetics to ensure the quality of its multilingual Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems. The role involves conducting phonological analysis, developing pronunciation lexicons, and collaborating with engineers to enhance TTS output for global deployments. Candidates must hold an M.Sc. or Ph.D. in Linguistics or a related field, possess experience in TTS or ASR systems, and have strong analytical skills. The position offers fixed compensation and opportunities for professional growth.

Qualifications

• Proven experience building pronunciation lexicons or G2P systems for TTS or ASR.
• Deep knowledge of phonological theory and acoustic phonetics.
• Proficiency with machine-readable phoneme notation systems.

Responsibilities

• Conduct systematic phonological and phonetic analysis of the American Spanish language.
• Produce structured language profiles for TTS model training.
• Collaborate with TTS engineers to integrate linguistic artefacts.

Skills

Phonological analysis

Lexicon development

Corpus annotation

Analytical skills

Fluency in English

Technical skills (Python, shell scripting)

Education

M.Sc. or Ph.D. in Linguistics or related field

Tools

Praat

ELAN

Audacity

Job description

Role Purpose

Ensure the linguistic and phonetic quality of Omilia's multilingual Text-to-Speech (TTS) systems by designing phoneme inventories, developing lexicons, and reviewing audio corpora to support enterprise-grade voice experiences.

Accountabilities

• Autonomy: Independently conduct phonological and phonetic analysis, design phoneme inventories, and develop lexicons for multiple languages
• Scope & Complexity: Responsible for linguistic quality across all supported languages in TTS, including handling underrepresented phenomena and complex language-specific features
• Impact: Directly influences the naturalness, accuracy, and quality of Omilia's TTS output, impacting customer experience in global contact center deployments
• Influence/Mentorship: Collaborates with TTS engineers, data scientists, and ML researchers; coordinates with native-speaker reviewers and external annotation pipelines

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct systematic phonological and phonetic analysis of the American Spanish language
• Document language-specific features (prosody, stress, tone, coarticulation, dialect variation)
• Produce structured language profiles for TTS model training and evaluation
• Define and maintain phoneme inventories; map to IPA and TTS-specific conventions
• Corpus audits and optimal audio references selections for TTS target voice tuning
• Build and maintain pronunciation lexicons, including G2P rules and exceptions
• Review and correct machine-generated G2P outputs; conduct pronunciation audits
• Annotate audio corpora, develop evaluation protocols, and produce error analyses
• Define linguistic criteria for TTS corpus selection and design prompts for data collection
• Collaborate with TTS engineers to integrate linguistic artefacts into synthesis pipelines
• Contribute to internal documentation and participate in research discussions

Requirements

• M.Sc. or Ph.D. in Linguistics, Phonetics, Computational Linguistics, or related field
• Proven experience building pronunciation lexicons or G2P systems for TTS or ASR
• Deep knowledge of phonological theory, articulatory and acoustic phonetics
• Proficiency with IPA and at least one machine-readable phoneme notation system (X-SAMPA, ARPAbet, etc.)
• Experience with corpus annotation tools (Praat, ELAN, WebAnno, etc.)
• Strong analytical and documentation skills
• Fluency in English; proficiency in at least one additional language relevant to Omilia's markets
• Technical skills: Praat, ELAN, Audacity, PLS/CMUdict/SSML lexicon formats, Phonetisaurus/Sequitur/neural G2P, basic Python or shell scripting, TTS text normalization

Benefits

• Fixed compensation
• Long-term employment with the working days vacation
• Development in professional growth (courses, training, etc.)
• Being part of successful cutting-edge technology products that are making a global impact in the service industry
• Proficient and fun-to-work-with colleagues
• Apple gear

Omilia is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and is dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We believe that embracing diversity in all its forms enriches our workplace and drives our collective success. We are committed to creating an environment where everyone feels welcomed, valued, and empowered to contribute their unique perspectives without regard to factors such as race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, heredity, disability, age, or veteran status. All eligible candidates will be given consideration for employment.