Arabic Linguist AI & TTS

About UNIFONIC

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

The Role of Part-Time Arabic Linguist – AI & TTS

UNIFONIC is seeking a Part-Time Arabic Linguist – AI & TTS to join its Engineering team in Riyadh. This role involves supporting the Text-to-Speech (TTS) team with linguistic analysis, Arabic dialect expertise, pronunciation and speech-quality evaluation, and various voice-related projects. The ideal candidate will possess strong expertise in Saudi Arabic dialects, with a preference for native or near-native proficiency in the Najdi dialect. The position requires 2-5 years of relevant experience.

Key Responsibilities

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

Qualifications and Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Linguistics, Arabic Language and Literature, Translation and Interpreting, or a related field.
• Native proficiency in Arabic, with a strong command of MSA and Saudi Arabic dialects. Native or near-native proficiency in the Najdi dialect is strongly preferred.
• Familiarity with Arabic dialects beyond Saudi Arabic is also preferred.
• Strong knowledge of Arabic phonology and morphology, and familiarity with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
• Good command of English, as it will be the working language with the R&D / AI team.
• Strong communication skills and comfort working with technical, non-linguist colleagues.
• Familiarity with speech technologies (TTS/ASR), voice data collection, or NLP is a plus.
• Experience working with Saudi Arabic dialects, particularly the Najdi dialect, is highly preferred.
• Ability to work on a part-time basis and collaborate remotely with teams based in Türkiye and Saudi Arabia.

Work Environment

This is a part-time position based in Riyadh, requiring collaboration with teams located in Türkiye and Saudi Arabia. The role offers an opportunity to contribute linguistic expertise to production projects and enhance the quality of Arabic speech technology.