Audio Engineering Expert (SME) - Freelance Project

Purpose

We are seeking a highly experienced Audio professional consultant to serve as a consultant on AI training data projects for leading AI model builders and enterprises. Your focus will be to define success criteria, review outputs, and provide targeted guidance to improve quality and speed — directly contributing to the successful delivery of domain-specific annotated datasets that meet the highest technical standards. You will be engaged on specific projects with clearly defined deliverables, milestones, and end dates.

Components

Technical Standard Setting, Quality Control, and Process Improvement

• Define domain-specific quality success metrics (e.g., 48 kHz sample rate, 24-bit depth, mono per talent, uncompressed WAV/Linear PCM).

• Develop project-specific SOPs, QA rubrics, and reference materials for the specific purpose of meeting client technical standards.

• Review project outputs (recordings, annotations) against technical standards, flagging and correcting defects before client delivery.

• Perform structured QA passes on daily/weekly drops; flag, track, and resolve defects quickly to hit delivery deadlines.

• Return files to contractors with precise remediation notes.

• Provide advisory input on recording pipelines, mic requirements, and room treatment to meet quality benchmarks.

• Handle spec changes and edge-case scenarios — e.g., evaluation of new client codec/format requests — drafting acceptance criteria or workarounds.

• Curate example libraries of “gold standard” clips to calibrate the team and assess comparability to agreed sample references.

Talent Vetting & Output Improvement

• Participate in vetting and assessing technical contractor talent for specific projects.

• Review sample work from contractors and provide precise, actionable written feedback to improve outputs.

• Create targeted training or calibration resources — e.g., mic technique, gain staging, room treatment, and noise mitigation.

Project Delivery Support

• Advise on technical scoping and requirements during project setup.

• Provide expert guidance for edge cases, technical exceptions, and specification changes.

• Contribute to post-project reviews to capture lessons learned and improve future standards.

• Identify and summarize client model observations and insights.

• Build dashboards or trackers with defect categories and recurrence to surface production insights that improve project outcomes.

• Conduct post-mortems, analyze defect trends, and propose process tweaks or training refreshers.

Target Profile

• Deep technical expertise and 3+ years professional experience in audio engineering, dialog/voice recording, or post-production QA.

• Mastery of digital audio standards (48 kHz, 24-bit, mono, uncompressed WAV/Linear PCM).

• Proven ability to set, enforce, and maintain high technical standards in audio production and QA.

• Strong communication skills for delivering clear technical guidance.

• Experience producing technical documentation, quality rubrics, or training resources.

• Ability to work within fixed project timelines and scope.

• Strong attention to detail, documentation discipline, and commitment to accuracy and consistency.

• Fluency in spoken and written English, with clear and concise writing skills.

Example Data Annotation - Potential Scope

Field of Study

Agent Task Specialty

Audio Engineering

Audio cleaning, restoration, denoising, EQ matching

Digital Signal Processing (DSP)

Signal filtering, time/frequency domain analysis

Music Technology

Audio synthesis, MIDI generation, instrument simulation

Speech Processing

Speech-to-text, voice separation, speech enhancement

Psychoacoustics

Perceptual tuning, masking modeling, loudness normalization

Acoustics

Room response modeling, impulse response simulation

Machine Learning for Audio

Sound event classification, speaker diarization, pitch detection

Sound Design

Foley effect generation, cinematic audio layering

Mixing and Mastering

Level balancing, compression/limiting simulation, mastering chain

Audio UX / Accessibility

Voice interface optimization, assistive audio task simulation

We offer a pay range of $25-to- $100 per hour, with the exact rate determined after evaluating your experience, expertise, and geographic location. Final offer amounts may vary from the pay range listed above. As a contractor you’ll supply a secure computer and high‑speed internet; company‑sponsored benefits such as health insurance and PTO do not apply.

Job title: Audio Engineering Expert (SME)
Employment type: Contract
Workplace type: Remote
Seniority level: Senior Level