FamilySearch Technical Historical Records Linguist II, Japanese (2-yr Fixed Term)

Job Type: Location Type: Remote: open to residents of any country

 

Job Description

This is a 2 year Fixed-Term position for an experienced detail-oriented individual with demonstrated native-level language expertise in Japanese (including Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, Furigana, and cursive scripts), and deep knowledge of historical genealogical documents to help us build high-quality training data for machine learning systems. This person’s work will help make billions of records available in FamilySearch’s automation and machine learning platform.

Responsibilities

• Exercise demonstrated expertise in paleography, linguistics, technology, and historical records to build machine learning training datasets for historical genealogical documents
• Use paleography skills to accurately decipher historical documents
• Annotate language data with linguistic information to build natural language processing (NLP) datasets
• Model how individuals naturally read historical documents by creating hierarchies of relationships between areas of text
• Precisely map the layout of historical documents
• Perform data curation and quality assurance by:
  • Curating large volumes of structured and unstructured data
  • Reviewing datasets for errors and providing timely corrections
  • Completing other data modeling activities and duties as assigned
• Enable FamilySearch’s automation efforts by meeting aggressive deadlines and delivering consistently high output, quality, and accuracy

Qualifications

Education:

• BA/BS in Computer Science, Linguistics, Family History, or other bachelor’s degree with related or equivalent experience required

Experience:

• 2 years relevant or related experience or equivalent experience

Skills & Abilities:

• Native level fluency in Japanese including:
  • Expertise in Japanese cursive scripts
  • Experience with Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji, and Furigana
• Experience with additional languages a plus
• Business level fluency in English
• Demonstrated paleography skills to accurately decipher historical documents
• Demonstrated linguistic skills to build NLP datasets
• Experience working with historical documents
• Strong technical and analytical aptitude with a passion for data, efficiency, and accuracy
• Independent worker who is self-motivated, dependable, detail oriented, responsible, self-disciplined, and a team player with a record of timely delivery of requests
• Willingness to support several projects at one time, and to accept reprioritization as necessary in a fast paced, constantly evolving environment
• Comfortable handling a high volume of work on a daily basis
• High proficiency in Microsoft Office tools including: Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
• Ability to quickly grasp technical concepts

About Us

Church employees find joy and satisfaction in using their unique talents and abilities to further the Lord’s work. From the IT professional who develops an app that sends the gospel message worldwide, to the facilities manager who maintains our buildings- giving Church members places to worship, teach, learn, and receive sacred ordinances-our employees seek innovative ways to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the world. They are literally working in His kingdom.

Only members of the Church who are worthy of a temple recommend qualify for employment. Apart from this, the Church is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate in its employment decisions on any basis that would violate U.S. or local law.

Qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, national origin, color, gender, pregnancy, marital status, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or other legally protected categories that apply to the Church. The Church will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities.