Computational Linguist - 12 month FTC

Job Description

Joining Busuu means being part of one of the top EdTech companies in the world, a multiple award-winner recognised for its innovation and impact in language learning.

Busuu’s vision is to empower people through languages. We are the world’s largest online community for language learning, with 120+ million registered users. We make learning a language easy by combining AI-powered courses with feedback from our global community of native speakers and lesson content designed for real life.

Busuu is part of the global Chegg family. Chegg is the leading student-first connected learning platform and a NYSE listed company.

What does a Computational Linguist do at Busuu?

You’ll work at the heart of how we build language learning at scale, combining linguistic expertise with data and technology, shaping an impactful language learning experience for over 120+ million learners in over 190 countries. You will be contributing to the pedagogical integrity of our AI-powered features, and maintaining and managing our prompt library to ensure consistency and quality. You will bring your knowledge of language systems, second language acquisition and computational methods to help us build a smarter, more effective learning experience. On a day-to-day basis, your responsibilities are likely to include:

• Working with Learning Designers and AI Engineers to design prompts for our new AI-powered features 

• Running evaluations on existing prompts to ensure ongoing quality, iterating on prompts and updating models as necessary

• Implementing effective benchmarking systems for new languages and feature prompts 

• Expanding out efficient and robust evaluation processes and systems 

• Helping to tag content for use in new systems 

Essential skills and experience 

• Masters-level qualification in computational linguistics, applied linguistics or cognitive science and/or natural language processing 

• Proficiency (C1) in either French, Spanish or German 

• Solid knowledge in all core linguistics subfields (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics)

• CEFR proficiency framework and second language acquisition principles

• Deep understanding of language systems

• Interest in and / or experience with AI in education

• Data-driven mindset, using learner data to form hypothesis and make decisions  

• C2 level in English required 

Bonus skills and experience

• Experience working in an Edtech company 

• Experience learning a foreign language

• Experience in using a Content Management system

• Experience in prompt writing for Large Language Models such as ChatGPT for educational purposes 

At Busuu we want to ensure that you have access to some great benefits:

• Our centrally located offices are well-equipped with free breakfast, plenty of snacks, fresh fruit

• You get 2 free lunches per week at our office that you can choose out of a wide selection of restaurants in the area

• Busuu offers a great Private Health Insurance scheme

• Wellness platform (Wellhub) with access to wide range of fitness and wellbeing resources

• There is a personal training budget just for you, so you can learn more in your field to ensure our employees can continuously grow and progress in their careers

• We like to support our teams with their work-life balance so we offer flexible working hours and a hybrid model of working

• We offer enhanced maternity and paternity leave (depending on location)

• Staying connected as a team is very important to us, so we have lots of social activities for you to join such a team lunches, Friday socials, quarterly team, and company events

What happens next?

We aim to have a simple and speedy hiring process and we want to make sure that we are right for you as much as the other way around. The hiring process for this role has the following 4 steps:

CV application review - We will review it as quickly as possible and update you on the next steps

Let’s chat  - Quick chat with a member of our team about your experience and the role 

Interview - With the Hiring Manager

Test - You will be asked to complete a 90-minute home test to see your language skills & pedagogic approach 

Interview and Meet the team - Interview to review the task and speak with other colleagues in the team

Our platform is for everyone, and so is our workplace. We pride ourselves on embracing our differences, whether they're cultural, racial, religious or otherwise. This means each one of us comes to work knowing that we have a voice – and a safe, judgment-free zone to speak freely.