Apple ($AAPL) faced heavy scrutiny earlier this month for the way it used non-employee contractors to monitor and "grade" customer interactions with Siri, its digital assistant. While the concern was less that Apple was going through the data in the first place — software user agreements imply that interaction data can be used to improve product — it was more the fact that the data was being shared with third-party companies via contractor labor that perturbed both customers and journalists.
Apple quickly issued a software update to allow customers to opt out of Siri interaction grading, and said it would bring the practice completely in-house.
Hiring data shows the company is making good on its promise, as a new Siri "Grading Team" began appearing on Apple's careers sites via job listings.
On September 3 — right around when Apple came under fire — 3 positions showed up on Apple's "Jobs at Apple" site. As of this week, there are 15 such jobs across the globe for Apple's various localized Siri teams.
In total, 19 localized Siri Grading jobs listings have appeared at the various offices, with Grading Analysts being the most common, with the Cork, Ireland, office seeing the most hiring activity so far. That office is where Apple recently laid off 300 Siri Grading contractors.
|
Title |
Location |
Listings |
|---|---|---|
|
Grading Analyst, Siri Team |
Cork |
16 |
|
Grading Analyst, Siri Team |
Austin |
14 |
|
Grading Analyst, Siri Team |
Hyderabad |
14 |
|
Grading Analyst, Siri Team - Spanish Language Specialist |
Austin |
14 |
|
Grading Quality Analyst, Siri Team |
Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino) |
14 |
|
Siri Grading Team Lead |
Austin |
14 |
|
Siri Grading Team Lead |
Hyderabad |
14 |
|
Grading Analyst, Siri Team |
Singapore |
12 |
|
Siri Grading Team Lead |
Singapore |
12 |
|
Grading Quality Analyst, Siri Team |
Cork |
6 |
|
Siri Grading Team Lead |
Cork |
6 |
|
French speaking Grading Analyst - Siri Team |
France |
4 |
|
French speaking Grading Analyst - Siri Team |
Ireland |
4 |
|
Senior Team Lead - Siri Grading Team |
Hyderabad |
4 |
|
Senior Team Lead - Siri Grading Team |
Singapore |
4 |
|
Siri Grading Analyst - Dutch Speaking |
Ireland |
3 |
|
Siri Grading Analyst - Dutch Speaking |
Netherlands |
3 |
|
Grading Analyst, Siri Team |
Shenzhen |
2 |
|
Siri Grading Team Lead |
Shenzhen |
2 |
The Grading Analyst job looks to be directly related to the in-housing effort, noting that the position will "listen and translate Siri audio files and rank levels of Siri response, from customers who have opted-in to the grading program."
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
Further Reading:
- Apple hiring for Siri at an all-time high with focus on studying customers' voice files
- Apple is hiring hundreds of engineers to make Siri smarter
- Apple hiring for Siri AI team hits all-time high with focus on natural-language processing
