Career paths and roles in the localization industry
In general roles in the industry fall into the following categories:
Linguistic
- Interpreters, translators, editors, language coordinators or reviewers, proofreaders.
Technical
- QA, internationalisation engineers, Loc engineers, solutions architects, technical managers.
Business roles
- Executive C-Level positions CSO, CEO, COO, CTO, CIO etc.
- Operations manager/production manager or Group Manager. This can be the same position with any of these titles and typically involves heading up a group of project managers and leads.
- Project managers – client and vendor side.
Sales
- Business development managers, business development directors, Account Managers,
- Regional sales managers
- Localization Strategist (This is a client-side role similar to vendor-side solution architect).
- Procurement manager – client-side role.
- Vendor manager and resources.
- Supply chain manager.
Career paths in Localization
In the localization industry there is a natural progression from one role to another, such as:
- The linguist role can develop into a project manager or localization QA. You could also work freelance and develop your own business.
- Project managers typically move on to senior PM or operations manager, procurement manager, solutions architect or strategist.
- Vendor manager will progress to HR, recruitment or group HR manager or possibly supply chain director.
- Localization QA professionals will progress to localization engineer or internationalisation engineer.
- Operations managers can develop into executive or strategist roles.
- Sales executive can move on to senior sales executive, sales manager or executive.
