PDF Annotation & Transcription Expert – Telugu

Contract · Remote · India

Hourly Rate: $12.68/hour

Fluent Language Skills Required: Telugu

About the Role

This contract role is for native Telugu speakers with a strong command of Telugu script, orthography, diacritics, and conjunct forms. You’ll create high-quality document annotation and transcription data from publicly available PDF pages to support the development of document understanding and vision-language AI systems.

The work focuses on Telugu documents with diverse and challenging layouts, including handwriting, dense multi-column pages, tables, diagrams, examinations, newspapers, textbooks, forms, flyers, manuals, menus, brochures, notices, and worksheets.

All annotation and transcription is completed manually by human experts. No document-sourcing or automated parsing is required.

What You’ll Do

• Review assigned PDF pages before starting annotation to confirm they are in Telugu, contain legible content, and do not include personal details.

• Identify and accurately bound every meaningful region on a page, including titles, headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, figures, diagrams, captions, formulas, questions, and answer fields.

• Assign the appropriate component type and reading-order index to each identified region.

• Record relationships between page components by linking regions to their associated figures or tables using parent component identifiers.

• Transcribe all visible text exactly as it appears in the original Telugu script, including handwritten content.

• Flag text or regions that cannot be read reliably rather than guessing.

• Capture required page metadata, including language, document type, source, page dimensions, and indicators for tables, formulas, and handwriting.

• Review completed annotation work from other Telugu experts for accuracy, completeness, structure, and transcription quality.

Requirements

• Native-level Telugu fluency.

• Full command of Telugu script, including diacritics, conjunct forms, orthography, and character-level distinctions.

• Professional experience working with documents through annotation, transcription, translation, localization, subtitling, proofreading, journalism, digitization, or regional-language data review.

• Exceptional attention to detail, with the ability to maintain character-level transcription accuracy.

• Ability to consistently apply an established annotation taxonomy across large numbers of documents.

• Comfortable working with unfamiliar and complex document layouts, including multi-column publications, examination papers, tables, diagrams, and handwritten forms.

• Ability to accurately reproduce Telugu text without relying on transliteration.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with regional-language AI data annotation, labeling, grading, or bilingual evaluation.

• Experience with transcription, localization, machine translation post-editing, subtitling, bilingual quality assurance, OCR correction, or post-editing.

• Experience with Telugu-language typesetting, copy-editing, proofreading, or document digitization.

• Familiarity with Unicode normalization, Telugu input methods, and character or numeral-form accuracy.

• Previous experience reviewing annotation work or performing quality assurance on language datasets.

Who Should Apply

This role is suited to Telugu language professionals who are exceptionally precise and comfortable working systematically across large volumes of varied documents.

You should be able to distinguish subtle character and diacritic differences, accurately follow reading order across complex layouts, identify document structures consistently, and flag illegible or unsuitable content rather than making assumptions.

Quality Expectations

Successful work should meet the following standards:

• Every meaningful page region is identified, correctly bounded, and correctly classified.

• Reading order accurately reflects how the document should be read, including across multiple columns.

• Transcriptions match the source text character for character in Telugu script.

• Annotation tasks pass second-expert review with minimal corrections.

• Pages that are unsuitable for annotation are identified before significant work is performed.

• Accuracy takes priority over speed, while handling time is monitored alongside quality.

Compensation & Engagement

• Hourly rate: $12.68/hour.

• Independent contractor engagement.

• Fully remote.

• Expected work can be completed on your own schedule.

• Actual earnings depend on hours worked and project availability.

• Projects may be extended, shortened, or concluded early depending on project requirements and performance.

Payment Terms

• Weekly payments through Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.

• Work will not require access to confidential or proprietary information belonging to an employer, client, or institution.

• H-1B and STEM OPT candidates are not supported for this opportunity.