Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Written Translation Supervisor

🎯 Role Definition

The Written Translation Supervisor leads and mentors a team of translators and linguists to deliver accurate, culturally appropriate, and on-brand written translations across multiple languages and channels. This role blends hands-on linguistic expertise, operational coordination, and quality assurance to ensure consistent, high-quality multilingual content. Ideal candidates combine deep knowledge of CAT tools and translation workflows with strong people-management and process-improvement skills.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Translator / Senior Linguist with subject-matter expertise
Linguistic QA Lead or Localization QA Analyst
Localization Project Manager or Localization Coordinator

Advancement To:

Localization Manager / Head of Localization
Director of Global Content or Director of Language Services
Global Content Operations Lead or Localization Operations Director

Lateral Moves:

Localization Project Manager
Terminology & Glossary Manager
MT Post-Editing Lead / Machine Translation Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Oversee day-to-day operations of the written translation team, assigning projects, balancing workloads, and ensuring on-time delivery while maintaining high linguistic quality across all language pairs.
Develop, maintain and enforce translation style guides, brand tone-of-voice documents, and client-specific instructions to ensure consistency and adherence to company and client standards.
Conduct and supervise linguistic reviews and multi-stage quality assurance (QA) workflows, including pre-delivery checks, in-line editing, and final sign-off for high-risk or high-visibility content.
Manage translation memory (TM) and glossary maintenance: review matches, merge and clean TMs, enforce terminology decisions, and ensure assets are accessible and used consistently by the team and vendors.
Lead vendor and freelance translator recruitment, evaluation, onboarding and performance management; establish SLAs and KPIs for external suppliers and maintain a qualified vendor roster.
Set measurable team KPIs (accuracy rates, revision counts, on-time delivery, productivity metrics) and routinely report performance to stakeholders using dashboards and executive summaries.
Supervise machine translation (MT) integration and post-editing workflows; define MT quality targets, post-editor guidelines, and escalation paths for MT failure cases.
Implement and optimize CAT tool workflows (e.g., SDL Trados, MemoQ, Memsource, Smartling, Across) including segmentation rules, QA checks, and automated pre-delivery validations.
Provide actionable feedback and coaching to translators and editors through regular one-on-ones, performance reviews, and mentoring programs to grow in-house capabilities.
Serve as the primary escalation point for complex linguistic issues, ambiguous source content, client complaints, legal/regulated translation questions, and cultural sensitivity concerns.
Coordinate cross-functional reviews with product, legal, marketing, and engineering teams to ensure translated content aligns with product functionality, compliance requirements, and marketing campaigns.
Create and maintain documented processes and SOPs for translation workflows, handoffs between localization and PM teams, version control, and asset archiving.
Review and validate localization engineering outputs (pseudo-localization, in-context checks, Android/iOS string handling) to prevent truncation, encoding and layout issues in localized UI/UX.
Manage scheduling and resource allocation for peak cycles, global launches, and time-sensitive releases; make trade-off decisions to meet deadlines without sacrificing quality.
Lead root-cause analysis and continuous improvement projects for recurring linguistic mistakes, tooling inefficiencies, or process bottlenecks; implement corrective actions and measure impact.
Ensure compliance with industry standards (ISO 17100/9001 when applicable), data protection and confidentiality policies, and client-specific regulatory requirements for translated material.
Deliver client- or stakeholder-facing communications on translation status, risks, quality metrics, and post-launch insights; prepare and present translation quality reports and recommendations.
Oversee cost controls related to translation spend: monitor vendor rates, negotiate contracts, recommend use of TM leverage, and advise on scope vs. quality trade-offs.
Create training curricula and conduct onboarding for new translators on style guides, tools, QA processes, and client expectations; maintain regular training cadence for continuing education.
Run or coordinate linguistic in-context QA and user acceptance testing (UAT) to validate translations in product builds, marketing collateral, or documentation before public release.
Champion cultural adaptation initiatives, advising content authors on source-language simplification and localization-friendly content creation to reduce rework and semantic errors.
Curate and triage complex terminology and reference queries from translators; maintain a central glossary and publish authoritative decisions with rationale for future reference.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc translation and localization analytics: generate language-level cost and quality reports, trend analyses, and capacity forecasts to inform resourcing decisions.
Assist procurement and legal in vendor RFPs, contract reviews, and compliance checks for language services contracts and NDAs.
Maintain and enrich linguistic assets (translation memories, style guides, termbases, QA rule sets) and coordinate synchronization across TMS/CMS platforms.
Help coordinate multilingual SEO for translated web content, supervising keyword research adaptations and hreflang implementations with SEO and content teams.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies with product and content teams to prioritize localization tasks and clarify scope.
Facilitate linguistic risk assessment for new markets, providing go/no-go recommendations and mitigation plans for high-sensitivity content (legal, safety, financial).
Conduct periodic quality calibration sessions with PMs, translators and stakeholders to align expectations and tighten quality control.
Provide backup translation and high-priority editing coverage when required to meet tight deadlines or during staffing gaps.
Coordinate with engineering on API/TMS integrations, export/import processes, and bug triage related to localization pipelines.
Maintain a knowledge base of best practices, lessons learned, and case studies to improve cross-team knowledge sharing.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Proficiency with industry CAT/TMS platforms such as SDL Trados, MemoQ, Memsource (now Phrase), Smartling, Across or similar tools.
Practical experience managing and optimizing Translation Memories (TM) and terminology databases (TDB/termbase) for multi-language projects.
Strong knowledge of linguistic QA tools and methodologies (Xbench, QA Distiller, QA checks scripting) and ability to create automated QA rule sets.
Familiarity with machine translation (MT) engines (Neural MT like Google, AWS, DeepL) and experience designing MT post-editing workflows and quality thresholds.
Hands-on experience with localization engineering basics: string extraction, placeholder handling, pseudo-localization, encoding (UTF-8), and resource bundle management.
Experience with localization/project management tools and integrations (JIRA, Git, Bitbucket, CMS connectors, REST APIs).
Competence in producing and interpreting translation KPIs, quality scorecards, cost-per-word analysis and vendor performance dashboards using Excel/Google Sheets or BI tools.
Knowledge of multilingual SEO practices (keyword localization, hreflang, meta translation) and their impact on translated content performance.
Familiarity with regulatory and compliance requirements for localized content in domains such as legal, medical, financial, or technical fields.
Proven ability to author and maintain style guides, client-specific glossaries and translation SOPs in clear, accessible formats.
Experience with bilingual review processes, in-context QA/UAT, and coordinating linguistic testing across platforms (web, mobile, documentation).
Basic understanding of project budgeting, vendor contract negotiation, and cost-control strategies for language services procurement.

Soft Skills

Strong leadership and people-management skills: mentoring, coaching, performance feedback and conflict resolution.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills in source language and deep familiarity with target language nuances or the ability to evaluate them.
High attention to detail and commitment to linguistic accuracy, consistency, and cultural appropriateness.
Strong organizational and time-management skills with the ability to prioritize competing deadlines in fast-paced environments.
Analytical mindset with the ability to diagnose root causes and implement process improvements.
Client-facing professionalism: ability to manage expectations, present data-driven recommendations, and handle sensitive escalations.
Collaborative team player who can work cross-functionally with product, marketing, legal and engineering teams.
Adaptability and resilience when implementing new tools, processes, or rapid scaling of localization operations.
Teaching and documentation skills: able to create clear training materials and run effective workshops.
Decision-making under uncertainty, balancing quality, cost and time-to-market trade-offs.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Translation, Linguistics, Applied Languages, Communication, or a related field; OR equivalent professional experience in translation/localization.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree in Translation Studies, Computational Linguistics, Localization Management, or an industry certification (ATA, ITI, Chartered Institute of Linguists).
Formal certifications in CAT tools or project management (PMP, Agile) are a plus.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Translation and Interpreting
Linguistics or Applied Linguistics
Modern Languages / Language Studies
Localization / Computational Linguistics
Communication, Technical Writing or Information Design

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

5 to 10+ years in professional translation and localization roles, including hands-on translator/editor experience.

Preferred:

Minimum 2–4 years in a supervisory, lead or managerial position overseeing translators, MT post-editing teams or linguistic QA.
Demonstrated experience with enterprise CAT/TMS platforms, TM/terminology management, vendor management, and cross-functional localization projects.
Experience in the industry vertical relevant to the employer (e.g., legal, medical, technical, marketing) is highly desirable.