Terms of Reference: User Researcher for CLEAR Global’s Voice Data Collection Initiative and Platform “TWB Voice”

Location: Home-based (working hours UTC ±2)

Travel: None

Reporting to: Program Tech Lead

Timeframe: October-December 2025

Maximum available budget for assignment: USD 9,000

Application deadline: September 18th 2025

CLEAR Global is an equal opportunity employer, committed to having a diverse team where individuals of all backgrounds collaborate and learn from one another. We believe we can be most effective with diverse experience and expertise in our team. We recruit on merit, actively seek diverse applicant pools and encourage candidates of all backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of disability, age, gender identity and expression, national origin, race and ethnicity, religious beliefs, marital or parental status, or sexual orientation, and welcome all types of diversity.

Background

Speech technology holds significant promise for broad societal impact, and in improving access to information and services for marginalized populations, including those with limited literacy, digital access, and disabilities. However, current voice-enabled tools predominantly support a small number of globally dominant languages. High-performing speech systems rely on the availability of annotated voice data, which is scarce or altogether for the 3.7 billion people who do not speak a “power language”.

To address this data gap at scale, CLEAR Global launched a voice data collection platform, “TWB Voice”, in December 2024 with functionality to create and validate high-quality, diverse voice datasets in low-resource languages to support the development of speech technologies for social impact. The next phase of CLEAR Global’s development of the TWB Voice Platform and its voice data initiatives aims to roll out the platform to social impact organizations and community partners and test its viability as SaaS (software-as-a-service). It will do this through gathering (primarily) evidence to understand the potential B2B (organizational) users of the TWB Voice Platform, their needs, motivations and use cases, as well as capturing the same for the community of voice contributors. CLEAR Global will subsequently work closely with two partners to co-design and develop features in the platform which meet these needs before delivering two pilot voice data collection projects to validate the partner-facing features, tools, and workflows developed.

The role

The user research will refine and validate the potential users as well as the use cases relevant to TWB Voice as a tool for voice data collection. The researcher will gather insights into selected stakeholder interests, user needs, pain points, and motivations, and help frame the product-level problems these insights reveal. This framing will provide an evidence-based foundation to guide the design of additional features or improvements to existing functionality.

The user research is anticipated to run between October and December 2025, in close coordination with market research and stakeholder mapping activities being carried out in parallel by CLEAR Global internal colleagues. Together, these activities will provide an evidence base for the co-design of platform features and workflows that respond to partner and community needs.

Key questions which the user research will answer are (open for review and discussion based on inception):

• Who are the primary and secondary users?
  Which groups are most relevant, and how should they be segmented (e.g., by role, level of engagement, digital skills, literacy level, access to technology, etc.)?
• What are their needs, pain points, and motivations?
  What challenges do they face in relation to the problem we are addressing, what goals do they want to achieve, and what would motivate or discourage them from engaging?
• What product-level problems emerge from these insights?
  How can user and stakeholder evidence be synthesized into clear problem statements that define the most pressing barriers and opportunities for TWB Voice?
• What does their journey look like?
  How do users currently engage with relevant services, products, tools, or information, and where are the gaps or friction points?
• What design implications arise from these insights?
  Based on users’ needs, journeys, and problem framing, what features, functions, or design priorities would have the most impact for engagement, usability, and adoption?
• How can we prioritize user segments and features?
  Which users and features should be prioritized to maximize value and ensure inclusivity, given resource and time constraints?

Responsibilities

• Inception: Review relevant resources such as stakeholder mapping, product and project objectives, and the current functionality offered through TWB Voice Platform and produce a brief inception report
• Plan: 
  • Design a user research plan based on this desk review including methodology, activities and list of tools necessary to execute the plan.
  • Develop research tools (e.g. interview guides, ideation workshop material, templates etc relevant to the chosen methodology) and incorporate feedback from CLEAR Global colleagues
  • Attend a training session with CLEAR Global on research SOP and ethical considerations
  • Coordinate with CLEAR Global’s Program Technology Lead and Project Manager around logistics of the data collection  such as scheduling sessions, sourcing participants etc. 
  • CLEAR Global will lead participant identification, but the User Researcher is encouraged to advise on prioritization, identify gaps, suggest additional identification  avenues or recommend additional contacts
• Execute:
  • Conduct the research activities (e.g. interviews, testing sessions, co-creation workshops) engaging approx. 10–20 participants (agreed on with CLEAR Global)
  • The User Researcher will advise on the most appropriate methodologies, formats, and facilitation approaches to meet the research objectives.
• Analyze the data collected and write a user research report, including key findings, evidence-based problem statements, and recommendations for design implications and feature priorities
• Develop relevant user personas and user journeys, highlighting needs, pain points, and motivations, to inform prioritization of user segments and features
• Create user stories that will help guide the final design of the high priority features. 
• Follow up with participants to share results, as requested
• Respond to questions from and be available for calls or to exchange emails with the CLEAR Global team throughout the process
• Attend regular debriefing session(s) during data collection

Deliverables

• Brief inception report
• Reviewed user research plan
• Reviewed research tools and templates
• Recordings, screen shots (when applicable) and transcriptions, notes and data from all activities with participants
• All other documents and data related to this research project, including consent forms and observational notes
• User research report, including summary of findings, use cases, problem statements
• User personas and journeys
• A prioritized feature list for TWB Voice Platform development, informed by research findings
• Recommendations of potential partners (specific organizations and/or partner types) to involve in the subsequent co-design and validation of platform features and pilot voice data collection projects

Deliverables will be considered finalized only after approval by CLEAR Global commissioning manager.

Requirements

The researcher must have a background in User research and Human-centered design process, preferably within the context of SaaS and inclusive digital tools for social impact. 

Other relevant experience (evidenced) includes: product management, market research, UX design, and qualitative social science research. It will be considered a plus if the candidate has interest in areas such as language inclusion, and digital communication in low-resource settings.

Terms and conditions

Payments will be made as follows:

• An advance of 20% of the total contract value within 30 days of the signature of the contract
• An interim payment of 20% of the total contract value based on deliverables
• A final installment of 60% of the total contract value payable on satisfactory completion of the work and presentation of all user research deliverables.

Deliverables will be considered as finalized only after approval by the CLEAR Global team.

The researcher will be expected to provide their own equipment and supplies (laptop etc.) and have a reliable internet connection.

How to apply

CLEAR Global will accept offers from individual consultants and consulting firms.

To apply for this consultancy please send the following documents:

1- A technical and financial offer to include:

• a brief description (no more than two sides of A4) of how you would tackle this role, including a proposed work plan (including the number of days required for each task)
• a financial offer, specifying daily fees in USD (please also indicate this in the 'desired pay' field of the application)
• examples and descriptions of relevant similar work are welcome.

2- Curriculum vitae highlighting experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of at least three professional references.

Please upload the technical and financial offer as one document under “cover letter” and present the CV(s) of the expert(s) proposed in one document under “CV”.

About CLEAR Global

CLEAR Global helps people get vital information, and be heard, whatever language they speak. We believe that everyone has the right to give and receive information in a language and format they understand. We work with nonprofit partners and a global community of language professionals to build local language translation capacity, and raise awareness of language barriers. Our network of over 100,000 community members translate millions of words of life-saving and life-changing information a year. 

Core values

CLEAR Global employees and volunteers passionately believe in the value of this work and take personal responsibility for achieving the mission. CLEAR Global’s mission and organizational spirit embody the core values established in its strategic framework:

• Excellence: In communicating humanitarian information in the right language, CLEAR Global is a leader in the translation industry and in the non-profit sector.
• Integrity: In believing that every person, whether it’s the people who we serve, our volunteers or our staff, has value, deserves respect and has inherent dignity.
• Empowerment: In using language to empower people around the world to control their own development and destiny.
• Innovation: In recognizing and celebrating the power of innovation to address humanitarian and crisis issues around the world.
• Sustainability: In recognizing that meeting our mission requires the establishment and maintenance of a solid financial and organizational infrastructure.
• Tolerance: In that our staff and volunteers value each other, our partners and our end users, create a supportive work environment, and conduct themselves professionally at all times.