Localization Program Manager

Shopify’s mission is to make commerce better for everyone. From building a new product feature for our commerce platform, to helping a merchant troubleshoot an issue over the phone, we want to empower our ecosystem through our work.

Having a unified vision, a north star, is vitally important to ensure that we are all headed in the same direction. No matter the size or experience, we want to power every merchant’s experience. This is why we’re all here.

Shopify is now permanently remote, and we’re working towards a future that is digital by design. That location you see above? Consider it merely an example of hundreds of potential locations across North America where Shopify is hiring. Learn more here: https://www.shopify.com/careers/work-anywhere

International content and localization efforts at Shopify are centered around linguistic excellence, teamwork, and cutting-edge technology. We are responsible for the translation and cultural adaptation of a broad catalog of customer-facing content, from performance-based marketing collateral to original training programs and international brand awareness campaigns. We operate with the mandate that hyper-local content, innovative marketing campaigns, relevant product communications, and press releases that appear in the biggest media outlets around the world are the mediums through which we can grow the Shopify business at scale globally. Our work is not just about translation and localization; it is about providing our users with an experience that feels locally and topically relevant and fuels international growth with an ever-expanding base of empowered partners and merchants.

A successful candidate for this role is a highly motivated individual who works autonomously in a fast-paced environment. You have a demonstrated ability to manage priorities and projects with the right mix of organizational and communication skills and the ability to nurture relationships with a broad set of internal stakeholders and partners. You have experience working as a member of an internationally dispersed team, and hold a high bar for exceeding customer expectations. You navigate ambiguity with grace and dive deep to resolve blockers. You have a flexible approach that allows you to understand when to adhere to established processes and when we can instead make an exception to benefit the business and the case use, paired with a growth mindset that allows you to unlearn how things were done where you were before, in order to embrace how we operate here. “Done is better than perfect” is a concept you can get behind.

As a Localization Program Manager, you will partner with source content teams, project stakeholders, and internal clients to deliver quality, localized deliverables that represent the Shopify brand in numerous international markets. As components of the end-to-end content lifecycle, you will be responsible for assessing the scope, providing timelines, and communicating risks to internal stakeholders. You will build relationships with translation service providers and resources to ensure timely, high-quality global content. You will be responsible for educating our internal stakeholders on the benefits of systematic localization workflows and providing guidance to development teams to successfully onboard new tools, systems and processes to our localization technology stack.

Responsibilities:

• Manage localization projects and requirements from early scope to final delivery across internal teams and external suppliers 

• Engage and build relationships with cross-functional teams and stakeholders (product, engineering, marketing) to ensure localization requirements are implemented, and the localization process is well understood

• Work cross-functionally with Shopify stakeholders to identify critical business blockers and collaborate to solve and optimize workflows as necessary

• Oversee end-to-end localization workflows using our translation management tools and systems

• Identify and manage project risk through prioritization, bug management, and any other means necessary to ensure quality deliveries that also perform well in market where relevant

• Drive and ensure consistent high-quality output from localization vendors & freelancers

• Own project kick-offs & vertical meetings with cross-functional groups for planning

• Evangelize globalization and internationalization best practices to stakeholders

• Partner with technology teams to drive globalization of internal tools and systems.

• Maintain clear and consistent project status reporting for project partners and leadership across multiple teams and programs.

• Bachelor's or Master’s degree in localization, translation, international studies, project management or relevant work experience

• Experience managing projects that involve language launches, software, creative content and subtitle/voice-over localization

• Working knowledge of industry-standard localization tools

• Experience with TMS and/or CAT tools is a plus

• Must be able to travel globally on occasion

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills. You express yourself with clarity in English at all times.

• Strong analytical problem-solving skills and the ability to work within ambiguity with little guidance

• Bias to action, proactive & innovative by nature; not dogmatic. There are many ways to achieve a result and you’re not married to any one way.

• Strong attention to detail

• Comfortable in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment and able to manage multiple and shifting priorities well. Comfortable with a hyper-active Slack environment. You don’t get distracted easily, even in a noisy (metaphorically speaking) environment.

• Knowledge of additional languages other than English

At Shopify, we are committed to building and fostering an environment where our employees feel included, valued, and heard. Our belief is that a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion enables us to truly make commerce better for everyone. We strongly encourage applications from Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities and/or people with intersectional identities. Please take a look at our 2020 Sustainability Report to learn more about Shopify's commitments.