Arabic Linguist AI & TTS

About Unifonic

Unifonic is an AI-native customer experience platform designed for emerging markets, recognized as a Great Place to Work®. With over 25 years of conversational AI research and development, Unifonic serves more than 5,000 enterprises across MENA. The company is pioneering sovereign, agentic AI through its Agentic Studio platform, with a strategic focus on market perception.

The Role of Arabic Linguist AI & TTS

Unifonic is seeking an Arabic Linguist to support its Text-to-Speech (TTS) team. This part-time role, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, involves linguistic analysis, Arabic dialect expertise, pronunciation and speech-quality evaluation, and voice-related projects. The position requires 0-1 years of experience and offers an opportunity to contribute linguistic expertise to production projects, enhancing the quality and naturalness of Arabic speech technology.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct research on the phonological, morphological, and syntactic structures of Arabic, focusing on Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Saudi/Gulf dialects, particularly the Najdi dialect, and provide linguistic guidance for integration into Sestek products.
• Act as a linguistic point of contact for the R&D / AI team, translating linguistic requirements into actionable input for engineers.
• Analyze and review pronunciation data, including grapheme-to-phoneme mappings, diacritization/tashkeel, and lexicons, for Arabic TTS and speech recognition systems.
• Evaluate TTS output quality in terms of pronunciation accuracy, prosody, dialect authenticity, and naturalness, with a focus on Saudi Arabic.
• Provide linguistic guidance and support for Arabic voice data collection and speech synthesis projects, including identifying and onboarding suitable voice talents when needed.
• Support the coordination and review of voice recording and editing processes to ensure linguistic accuracy and consistency.
• Support the onboarding and coordination of external Arabic language consultants when needed, providing guidance on linguistic requirements.
• Review and provide linguistic feedback on data annotation activities and guidelines, ensuring quality standards for Arabic and Saudi dialect data.
• Collaborate closely with the Sestek TTS and AI Research teams, providing ongoing linguistic expertise throughout projects.

Qualifications and Requirements

• Strong expertise in Saudi Arabic dialects, with native or near-native proficiency in the Najdi dialect highly preferred.
• Strong communication skills and comfort working with technical, non-linguist colleagues.
• Ability to work on a part-time basis and collaborate remotely with teams based in Türkiye and Saudi Arabia.

Required Character Traits

• Analytical thinking and problem-solving.
• Ownership and accountability.
• Effective communication.
• Collaboration.
• Adaptability and continuous learning.
• Mentorship and knowledge sharing.
• Resilience under pressure.
• Commitment to quality and attention to detail.
• Advocacy for best practices and innovation.

Work Environment

The Engineering team at Unifonic is responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining the systems and technologies that drive Unifonic’s solutions. This role involves close collaboration with other departments to ensure products and services meet customer needs. The position is part-time and requires remote collaboration with teams in Türkiye and Saudi Arabia.