Sonic Audit Specialist - Japanese

Mercor; United States; Remote; USD 2,066,000 - 3,444,000; Full time

Job summary

Mercor is hiring native or near-native Japanese speakers to audit AI training data in their language, not to generate it. You will work on Multilingual Transcription Audit and Forced Alignment Audit, applying a fixed set of error codes and writing concise rationales for each judgment.

A calibration phase will precede production work. Requirements include native-level Japanese with strong English, disciplined rubric application, and careful listening to distinguish subtle speech nuances.

Qualifications

• Native or near-native command of Japanese (Japan) with five+ years in region preferred.
• Strong English reading and writing required to read rulebooks and write feedback in English.
• Ability to apply a written standard consistently across many judgments.
• Careful listening to distinguish subtle sounds and author exact feedback.

Responsibilities

• Audit AI training data in Japanese across two audit collections.
• Annotate and assign error codes with written rationales.
• Verify and adjust word-level timestamps for forced alignment segments.
• Explain clearly why judgments pass or fail and tag all applicable errors.

Skills

Native Japanese

English reading/writing

Disciplined rubric application

Careful listening

Audio annotation (added signal)

Job description

The role

We are hiring native and near-native Japanese speakers to audit AI training data in their own language, not to produce it.

You will work across two Amazon Sonic audit collections:

1. Multilingual Transcription Audit. You listen to a recording of human or agent speech, read the transcription an annotator produced, and judge whether it accurately captures what the speaker actually said. You apply a fixed set of error codes, assign a pass or fail verdict, and write a short rationale explaining the decision.
2. Forced Alignment Audit. You review audio that has already been segmented at the word level by an automated system. For each segment you verify that the start and end timestamps match where the word actually begins and ends, and that the reference transcription matches the spoken form. Where the machine got it wrong, you correct the boundary, split a segment, merge two, add a missing one, or remove one that contains no word. Both collections run at 5.00 audit hours per task. Every judgment carries a written reason, so this is careful listening work rather than volume work.

Who we are looking for

Native or near-native command of Japanese as spoken in Japan. You were either born and raised in a region where this language and variety is dominant, or you are fully fluent with five or more years of residence in such a region. This is a hard requirement.

Strong English reading and writing. All conventions, error codes, and audit rationale are written in English, so you need to read a detailed rulebook and write clear feedback in it.

Disciplined rubric application. The work rewards people who apply a written standard consistently across hundreds of judgments rather than relying on instinct. Prior transcription, subtitling, localization, linguistic annotation, or QA experience is a strong signal.

Careful listening. You can distinguish similar sounds, identify where one word ends and the next begins in continuous speech, and tell genuine acoustic ambiguity apart from a clear annotator error.

Helpful but not required: prior AI data annotation or model evaluation work, a phonetics or linguistics background, and experience with audio editing or waveform tools.

What the work looks like

You listen, judge, and submit. Where you find an error you tag every applicable error code, not just the first one, and you explain in plain language why the task passed or failed. Critical errors are called out first so the reason for a failure is obvious to the reader.

You will complete a short calibration phase before production work begins.