Transcription Operations Manager (Contract) at Cartesia

ABOUT CARTESIA Our mission is to architect AI that learns from and interacts with the world like humans do. We're pioneering the model architectures that will make this possible. Our founding team met as PhDs at the Stanford AI Lab, where we invented State Space Models or SSMs, a new primitive for training efficient, large-scale foundation models. Our team combines deep expertise in model innovation and systems engineering paired with a design-minded product engineering team to build and ship cutting edge models and experiences. We're funded by leading investors at Index Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, along with Factory, Conviction, A Star, General Catalyst, SV Angel, Databricks and others. We're fortunate to have the support of many amazing advisors, and 90+ angels across many industries, including the world's foremost experts in AI. About the Role We are looking for a Transcription Operations Manager to establish a transcription workflow across 30+ different locales. You will act as the single accountable owner for this critical pipeline, driving end-to-end execution from hiring and training annotators to partnering with our engineering team on tooling. Your Impact - Own day-to-day transcription operations, successfully delivering ground truth transcripts for 30+ locales. - Oversee the entire annotator lifecycle: hiring, onboarding, training, calibration, and ongoing performance management. - Create robust training materials, quizzes, and instructions to ensure annotators meet our exact standards. - Audit annotator work continuously, providing highly detailed feedback to ensure data integrity. - Partner closely with the Engineering and Product teams to coordinate requirements and iterate on our internal transcription tools. What you bring - Strong project management and operational execution skills—you know how to build a process from scratch and see it through to completion. - Experience managing and calibrating distributed teams, contractors, or annotators. - A systems-thinking mindset with the ability to translate manual workflows into product/tooling requirements. - Extreme attention to detail and a high standard for data accuracy. Nice to Have - Background in linguistics, translation, or managing high-quality transcription pipelines. - Basic technical proficiency (e.g., SQL, Python, or experience with AI coding assistants) to help streamline workflows. - Prior experience working with quality control, audio data, transcription, or linguistics. Details - Rate: $25-40/hr - Hours: 20-40 hrs a week - Duration: Initial 3 months (with potential for extension) Please Note: This position is a contractor role and is not eligible for the full-time employee (FTE) benefits listed below. Contractors are engaged on an independent basis and do not receive company-sponsored health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, or some of the other benefits outlined in this posting, which apply exclusively to permanent FTE positions MORE DETAILS 🏢 In-office policy: We’re an in-person team based out of offices in 🇺🇸 San Francisco, 🇬🇧 London and 🇮🇳 Bangalore We love being in the office, hanging out together, and learning from each other every day. 🌎 Visa sponsorship: We provide visa sponsorship support and assess each circumstance on a case-by-case basis. However, visa sponsorship is dependent on many factors, including the role you are applying for, and the location you are going to be based, and so we can't always guarantee success. Your Recruiter will work with you to understand your visa sponsorship needs from the first call. 🚢 We ship fast. All of our work is novel and cutting edge, and execution speed is paramount. We have a high bar, and we don’t sacrifice quality or design along the way. 🤝 We support each other. We have an open & inclusive culture that’s focused on giving everyone the resources they need to succeed. OUR BENEFITS 💰 Compensation. Competitive base salary alongside attractive equity package. 🚆 Commuter Allowance. A monthly stipend to help you get to and from the office. 🏖️ Flexible PTO. Take as much time as you need to recharge your batteries. 🍲 Meals & Snacks. Lunch, dinner and plenty of snacks, provided daily. 🦖 Your own personal Yoshi.