Senior Localization Program Manager

Adyen•Chicago, IL

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Adyen provides payments, data, and financial products in a single solution for customers like Meta, Uber, H&M, and Microsoft - making us the financial technology platform of choice. At Adyen, everything we do is engineered for ambition. For our teams, we create an environment with opportunities for our people to succeed, backed by the culture and support to ensure they are enabled to truly own their careers. We are motivated individuals who tackle unique technical challenges at scale and solve them as a team. What you’ll be doing: Quality Strategy & Operations Data-Driven Insights: Leverage feedback loops and scorecards to identify trends, driving continuous quality uplift across all Adyen touchpoints. Customized Frameworks: Architect and deploy language-specific quality plans tailored to different content streams, ensuring teams are equipped for high-performance output. Risk Mitigation: Proactively hunt for quality bottlenecks; conduct deep-dive root cause analyses (RCA) and implement scalable preventive measures. Issue Resolution: Act as the final line of defense for linguistic bugs, investigating reports and ensuring rapid, high-quality resolution. Linguistic Asset Strategy Brand Guardianship: Lead the evolution of glossaries and style guides, ensuring Adyen’s unique tone of voice remains consistent globally. Version Control: Oversee the lifecycle of linguistic assets to ensure all partners are working from a single, up-to-date source of truth. Innovation & Scalability Process Engineering: Constantly challenge the status quo by identifying automation opportunities within our workflows and dashboards. Define success metrics aligned with product/business goals. AI Integration: Act as a champion for AI-assisted quality workflows, testing and adopting new tech to scale our operations without sacrificing precision. Workflow Automation: Partner with Engineering and Product teams to integrate localization workflows into the CI/CD pipeline, leveraging TMS (Translation Management Systems) and API integrations. Vendor Ecosystem & Performance Strategic Sourcing: Build a world-class network of linguistic talent. You’ll lead the hunt for top-tier translators and reviewers, managing everything from initial outreach to skill assessment. Commercial Ownership: Manage negotiations for rates and project scopes, ensuring we balance cost-efficiency with premium quality. Performance Management: Hold our partners to high standards by tracking KPIs and SLAs, fostering long-term relationships that align with Adyen’s growth trajectory. Strategic Quality Assurance Tiered Workflows: Design a multi-layered QA strategy that intelligently allocates resources based on content impact and business priority. Hybrid Resourcing: Balance internal expertise with external vendor support to create a flexible, bulletproof quality model.

Requirements

5+ years of experience in localization program management, project management, vendor management, quality management or a hybrid operations role.
Experience working with AI and MT models and workflows
Demonstrated expertise managing external linguists, language service providers, or global linguistic talent.
Solid understanding of quality frameworks, QA methodologies, and continuous improvement practices.
Hands-on experience in linguistic asset creation and maintenance (terminology, style guides).
Deep proficiency with TMS tools (e.g., Phrase, Lokalise, Smartling, or Memsource) and project management software (Jira, Asana).
Ability to collaborate cross-functionally and influence quality outcomes at scale.
Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret quality data and act on insights.
High attention to detail and strong organizational skills.
Excellent communication and relationship-building skills, especially with external partners.
Professional fluency in English and fluency in at least one additional language.
Adapts quickly to evolving environments by influencing across Engineering, Legal, Marketing, and Ops; experienced in managing the unique requirements of diverse functional teams to deliver high-impact global products.

Nice To Haves

At least 2 years in Fintech, Banking, or a highly regulated industry (InsurTech, HealthTech)
Experience with Machine Translation Post-Editing (MTPE) workflows.
A solid understanding of internationalization principles (e.g., Unicode, pluralization, right-to-left support).

Responsibilities

Leverage feedback loops and scorecards to identify trends, driving continuous quality uplift across all Adyen touchpoints.
Architect and deploy language-specific quality plans tailored to different content streams, ensuring teams are equipped for high-performance output.
Proactively hunt for quality bottlenecks; conduct deep-dive root cause analyses (RCA) and implement scalable preventive measures.
Act as the final line of defense for linguistic bugs, investigating reports and ensuring rapid, high-quality resolution.
Lead the evolution of glossaries and style guides, ensuring Adyen’s unique tone of voice remains consistent globally.
Oversee the lifecycle of linguistic assets to ensure all partners are working from a single, up-to-date source of truth.
Constantly challenge the status quo by identifying automation opportunities within our workflows and dashboards. Define success metrics aligned with product/business goals.
Act as a champion for AI-assisted quality workflows, testing and adopting new tech to scale our operations without sacrificing precision.
Partner with Engineering and Product teams to integrate localization workflows into the CI/CD pipeline, leveraging TMS (Translation Management Systems) and API integrations.
Build a world-class network of linguistic talent. You’ll lead the hunt for top-tier translators and reviewers, managing everything from initial outreach to skill assessment.
Manage negotiations for rates and project scopes, ensuring we balance cost-efficiency with premium quality.
Hold our partners to high standards by tracking KPIs and SLAs, fostering long-term relationships that align with Adyen’s growth trajectory.
Design a multi-layered QA strategy that intelligently allocates resources based on content impact and business priority.
Balance internal expertise with external vendor support to create a flexible, bulletproof quality model.