Speech Processing and Language Accessibility Unit - Post A: Speech Technology

The Directorate-General for Translation and Clear Language (DG TRAD) provides the European Parliament with translation and other linguistic services in all official and working languages of the European Union.

Our mission is:

• To support the Members and administration of the European Parliament by making all content related to Parliament’s legislative, budgetary and scrutiny activities accessible in all official and working languages, ensuring transparency and legitimacy in these core functions;
• To uphold the European Parliament’s commitment to multilingualism, enabling equal treatment of all official and working languages and ensuring that all EU citizens can access and communicate with Parliament in these languages;
• To deliver high-quality multilingual communication services to the Members and administration of the European Parliament in text, audio and video formats, in a manner that is clear, inclusive and accessible to all citizens, including those with disabilities;
• To ensure that all language services provided by DG TRAD are delivered efficiently and sustainably, integrating innovative technologies while upholding our professional standards to meet the evolving needs of the European Parliament.

As a trainee in the Speech Processing and Language Accessibility Unit, you will:

• Have the opportunity to work on real-world accessibility projects and contribute to services that have a positive social impact;
• Gain practical experience in speech-to-text technology and engage with state-of-the-art speech‑processing and other adaptive solutions;
• Assist the Unit's members in liaising with clients requesting the services, including committee secretariats and major event organisers;
• Support the Unit's work to improve its services, contribute to machine translation evaluations and trainings of language models, and communicate with internal and external stakeholders.

The Unit works primarily on the provision of real-time transcription and translation of parliamentary debates, meetings and events in all 24 official languages of the EU. Its objective is ambitious: developing and implementing ready-to-use speech-to-text applications inside the most multilingual parliament in the world.

As a prospective trainee, you:

• Have experience with natural language processing (i.e., automatic speech recognition and machine translation), artificial intelligence and/or computational linguistics;
• Are passionate about accessibility and inclusive technology, in particular user / language / digital accessibility;
• Are familiar with recording, subtitling or audio editing tools;
• Possess strong communication skills enabling you to work well as part of a team and engage with important stakeholders, i.e., organisers of EP committee meetings and events;
• Have a very good knowledge of English and a good knowledge of at least one other official EU language, and have obtained/will obtain a university degree (level 6 of EQF or higher) at least three months before the starting date of the traineeship.

If you are interested in this offer, please upload the following: 

• A copy of your CV in English;
• A motivation letter in English stating your reasons for applying for this traineeship. The motivation letter should not exceed 600 words;
• Your university diploma(s) and transcript(s) of records. 

The motivation letter, diplomas and transcripts must be combined into a single PDF file.

The CV must be a separate attachment.

The European Parliament is dedicated to fostering an inclusive and equitable workplace. We welcome all candidates, regardless of their geographical, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, civil status, or family situation.