Data Annotation Specialist

Semantic Scholar (semanticscholar.org) is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature. We have grown from a groundbreaking research project at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence to a product millions of scholars use every week. Semantic Scholar uses artificial intelligence to extract the semantics, or meaning, of scientific literature and surface it to our users through a discovery experience that helps them understand science more effectively than any other tool.

Since our launch in 2015, we have indexed more than 200 million research papers and built a user base of millions of scholars in over 100 countries. Our work has been featured in the New York Times, Wired, Nature, Science, and many other publications. 

Who You Are:

The Allen Institute of Artificial Intelligence (AI2) is looking for a talented Data Annotation Specialist with experience in scientific research to work alongside our research and engineering teams to annotate, curate and analyze data produced by the machine learning and AI models that power our academic search engine Semantic Scholar. This role is for a term of six months.

Your Next Challenge:

Your work as a highly motivated Data Annotation Specialist will directly contribute to research focused on improving the productivity and discovery experience of millions of scholars who use Semantic Scholar (semanticscholar.org).

• The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:
• Create annotations from research papers to build large datasets that power our machine learning and AI models.
• Work with Research to understand project scope and define annotation and evaluation requirements.
• Evaluate model output and manage data quality to ensure that the data can be used by our research team to develop high-performing models.
• Produce and document insights from annotations to support error analysis and recommend model improvements.

What You’ll Need:

• In-depth background and understanding of one or more scientific domains.
• Experience reading and evaluating research papers.
• Enjoy working collaboratively with researchers.
• Strong attention to detail, self-organized and focused on speed and quality.
• Proficiency with text editing tools and spreadsheets.
• Strong analytical skills and an interest in artificial intelligence.

Education

• Bachelor of Science or related degree.

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Occasionally required to remain seated in a normal position for long periods of time.
• While performing the duties of this job, the employee routinely is required to sit; walk; talk and hear; use hands to keyboard, handle, and feel; stoop, kneel, crouch, twist, crawl, reach, and stretch.
• The employee is occasionally required to move short distances.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.
• Can work under deadlines.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

Who We Are:

The Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence is a non-profit research institute in Seattle founded by Paul Allen and headed by Professor Oren Etzioni. The core mission of AI2 is to contribute to humanity through high-impact research in artificial intelligence. 

In addition to AI2’s core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the AI2 Team. Some highlights are:

• We are a learning organization – because everything AI2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. Similarly, through weekly AI2 Academy lectures, a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal on-going education, AI2 is place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers. 
• We value diversity - We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind. 
• We value inclusion - We understand the value that people's individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered.
• We emphasize a healthy work/life balance – we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave.
• We are collaborative and transparent – we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures.
• We are in Seattle – and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We even have kayaks for you to paddle right outside our front door. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States.
• We are friendly– chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do. 

AI2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. 

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at hr@allenai.org  or you may call us at 206-548-5600.