Linguistics Expert

Linguists to build the language analysis scenarios frontier AI labs use to test model judgment on syntax, semantics, and phonology.

AfterQuery builds the expert evaluation data that frontier AI labs use to measure and improve their models. We're hiring linguists as contractors to author and grade the language analysis scenarios those evaluations run on. Models are made of language, and linguists are unusually well placed to find where their command of it breaks.

What you'll actually do

• Author linguistic scenarios that test real analysis, from syntactic ambiguity to semantic entailment to phonological pattern.

• Write reference analyses with the argumentation behind each judgment, the data, the generalization, the exceptions.

• Grade model output for analytical accuracy and honest handling of the data.

• Flag analyses that read plausible but misparse the sentence or mislabel the phenomenon.

Who this is for

• Linguists with an advanced degree and at least two years of research, teaching, or applied work.

• Specialists in any subfield, syntax, semantics, phonology, morphology, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and beyond.

• Analysts who reason from data to generalization and can say what would falsify their own account.

• People with strong written English who can make technical analysis clear without flattening it.

Contract and pay

• $50 to $100/hr , paid weekly via Stripe. Your rate is set from your experience, not negotiated down after you start.

• Remote and async: fully remote, fully async. No fixed hours.

• Minimum 10 hours per week, no maximum. Scale up or down week to week.

• No screen recording, no keystroke monitoring, no idle timers.

• Independent contractor. Ongoing project work rather than single task batches.

How our hiring process works

• Apply at /apply/linguistics-expert. About five minutes. Resume plus a few structured questions.

• Resume review. Every application gets read against a published rubric and gets a decision.

• Written assessment. You may be asked to take a written assessment for further placement.

• Onboarding. Sign the contractor agreement, connect Stripe, and get platform access.

• Project match. You're matched to live work in your specialty, usually within a week of onboarding.

About AfterQuery

AfterQuery is an expert data lab. We build the evaluation and training data that frontier AI labs use to measure what their models can and can't do in real professional work. Our contributors are practicing professionals, not annotators, and the work is credited, reviewed, and paid at professional rates.

Responsibilities - Author linguistic scenarios that test analysis across syntax, semantics, and phonology - Write reference analyses with the argumentation behind each judgment - Grade model output for analytical accuracy and data handling - Flag analyses that read plausible but misparse the data or mislabel the phenomenon

Required qualifications - Advanced degree in linguistics or a closely related field - 2+ years of research, teaching, or applied linguistics work - Depth in a subfield such as syntax, semantics, phonology, or sociolinguistics - Clear written English for documenting linguistic analysis - Able to commit at least 10 hours per week

Preferred qualifications - PhD and peer reviewed publications - Computational linguistics or corpus methods experience - Fieldwork or documentation of understudied languages

Why apply - Work stays in your specialty, judged on rigor rather than output volume - Set your own hours and scale up or down week to week - Weekly pay via Stripe at a rate set from your experience - Your judgment shapes how the next generation of AI handles language itself