About Pollen
Pollen Audio Group is a team of researchers, engineers and producers based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Our expertise is grounded in our deep love of sound. We are fascinated with the ways it moves and affects us, and how it drives our sense of engagement and connection with the world. We leverage our creative expertise to tackle the toughest questions of subjective sound perception and experience for our clients, which range from big tech companies to lean start-ups. Using qualitative and quantitative research methodologies, we help build excellent audio into our client’s products from square one.
Job Description
This is a project-dependent position. Pollen is assembling a remote team to evaluate and annotate a large quantity of speech samples based on their emotional qualities. Annotators will be trained to become expert-level evaluators of emotional speech, and their work will contribute to the development of more humanistic user interactions using voice technologies. Annotators will report to a Senior Producer who will provide weekly goals, guidance and feedback.
We expect annotators will work an average of 4-5 hours per week, pending project needs. Annotators’ weekly hours will fluctuate based on project milestones, and at their own discretion; however, in the aggregate, they will be expected to complete project milestones on time.
Responsibilities:
- Listen to, analyze and correctly annotate a high volume of speech samples.
- Notice and document the nuances in emotional speech, maintaining consistency in quality while performing a repetitive task.
- Given that the task is subjective, annotators will calibrate their ratings against provided anchor examples.
- Meet or exceed project milestones as outlined by the Senior Producer.
- Communicate with the Senior Producer any anticipated scheduling outages, technical issues, or questions about the audio samples.
Ideal candidates have the following qualities and experience:
- A keen attention to detail and the ability to describe subtle differences in content.
- Mental clarity and focus to process repetitive tasks independent of each other. Although the annotation process is consistent, every audio sample is unique.
- Musical training preferred (i.e. play an instrument and/or read/write music, etc.)
- Excellent listening skills
- A high degree of emotional intelligence and are willing to discuss emotional concepts with others. The ability to identify and describe what people are feeling, have empathy and sensitivity to the feelings of other people, and a strong sense of curiosity about others.
Relevant experience could come from a variety of places - please tell us how your experience might lend itself to this project. Some examples could include:
- Evaluating and comparing wine / writing wine descriptions
- Editing audio for podcasts / or mixing/mastering music
- Acting, public speaking
- Remote customer service experience (calling/resolution centers)
- Experience in mental health roles (therapy, wellness etc)
Equipment Requirements:
Annotators will need to have:
- A reliable home internet connection
- A laptop or desktop computer
- A quiet place to work
**However, Pollen will provide a set of headphones to use for the duration of the project
To apply, please submit your resume and cover letter.
Job Type: Contract
Pay: $30.00 per hour
Expected hours: 1 – 10 per week
Benefits:
Schedule:
Work setting:
People with a criminal record are encouraged to apply
Work Location: Remote