Linguist III

Job Title: Linguist III

Location: Remote, West Coast preferred. Not eligible in TX or IL.

Duration: Contract - 3 months

Pay Range: Up to $46/hr (W2)

Job ID: 407987

About BCforward

BCforward is a leading global IT consulting and workforce solutions firm providing services and support to Fortune 500 and government clients. Founded in 1998, BCforward has grown with our customers needs into a full-service business solutions provider. With delivery centers and offices across North America and India, we take pride in building long-term relationships and delivering excellence through innovation, collaboration, and integrity.

Job Description

We are seeking a Linguist III to join our dynamic team. The ideal candidate will have strong experience in linguistic analysis, corpus linguistics, and applied NLP and a proven ability to evaluate AI model outputs, develop annotation guidelines, and communicate findings to cross-functional partners.

Responsibilities:

• Perform linguistic analyses on large datasets.


• Conduct linguistic error analysis of AI model outputs and identify frequent and severe error categories.


• Write and revise guidelines for human annotation and other AI projects, including translation tasks.


• Conduct typological and sociolinguistic research across many languages and describe similarities and differences.


• Analyze Responsible AI concerns, including toxic language, hate speech, gender bias, and cultural biases in multilingual settings.


• Perform literature reviews on NLP-adjacent topics and summarize findings.


• Compare quality across vendors, identify error patterns, and provide actionable feedback.


• Provide guidance on typology, morpho-syntax, sociolinguistics, classification, phonetics/phonology, pragmatics, and related domains.


• Engage and collaborate with native speakers in various languages.


• Communicate results of linguistic analyses to engineers and research scientists.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• Graduate degree in Linguistics or a closely related field. PhD is a plus.


• Near-native or native bilingual proficiency in a non-English language from the Dravidian or Indo-Aryan families. Candidates outside these families will not qualify.


• Ability to code in Python and query databases using SQL. Experience with additional data analysis languages is a plus.


• Firm grasp of typology, syntax, morphology, sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, writing systems, pragmatics, and phonology.


• Experience applying basic NLP techniques.


• Strong written and spoken communication for business and research contexts.


• Ability to work independently, prioritize, plan, track work, and report progress under deadlines.

Preferred Skills:

• Working knowledge of international language-classification standards.


• Background or specialization in corpus linguistics.


• Experience with linguistic field work.


• Education or training in project management.


• Working knowledge of additional languages, including low-resource languages.

Experience:

• 0-3 years of relevant experience.


• Cross-functional collaboration experience.


• Experience collaborating with machine learning, NLP, or software engineers, or data scientists.


• Experience contributing to research papers. Preference for candidates without conflicts of interest in MT, ASR, TTS, or LLM research.

Important Eligibility Notes:

• This role is remote with West Coast preference. Candidates must not reside in Texas or Illinois.


• A graduate degree in Literature or English is not a substitute. A Computer Science degree with NLP specialization is not a substitute.

Why BCforward?

At BCforward, we believe in advancing lives and careers. When you join our team, you gain access to:

• Competitive compensation and benefits.


• Opportunities for growth with global clients.


• A supportive, inclusive culture that values innovation and people.


• Exposure to cutting-edge technologies and projects.

About Our Commitment

BCforward is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status.

Fair Chance Notice

Pursuant to the California Fair Chance Act, Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, and San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, qualified applicants will be considered for assignment with arrest and conviction records. Criminal history may have a direct, adverse, and negative relationship with some material job duties, including adherence to policies, judgment, stress management, safe and respectful collaboration, trustworthiness, meeting client standards and requirements, and safeguarding operations and reputation.

Interested? Apply Now!

If this sounds like the right opportunity for you, please apply with your most recent resume.