The mission of Translators without Borders is to provide people access to vital knowledge in their language through translation and interpreting, building language translation capacity at a local level, providing translation and simplification services that are culturally appropriate, accessible and open source, and raising awareness globally of language barriers.
Contract length: 2 months with possible extension, starting November 2018
Hours: Full time
Location: Home-based, flexible; (GMT to GMT+2 preferred)
Travel: Possible, but minimal
Application deadline: 5 November 2018
Due to the urgency of the vacancy, screening and interviews will commence immediately and the candidate can be selected at any stage before the closing date.
About Translators without Borders
Translators without Borders (TWB) envisions a world where knowledge knows no language barriers. The US-based non-profit provides people access to vital knowledge in their language by connecting non-profit organizations with a community of language professionals, building local language translation capacity, and raising awareness of language barriers. Originally founded in 1993 in France (as Traducteurs sans Frontières), TWB translates millions of words of life-saving and life-changing information every year.
In 2013, TWB created the first-ever crisis relief translation service, Words of Relief (WoR), an initiative that intends to improve communications between crisis-affected communities and humanitarian responders before, during, and after a crisis, by eliminating linguistic barriers that can impede vital relief efforts. Words of Relief has since been used to respond to humanitarian crises every year since.
The role
Translators without Borders is looking for a unique candidate who can help steer its new initiative focused on machine translation for marginalized languages. The initiative, which is called Gamayun: The Language Equality Initiative, is currently being prototyped with a small funded project focused on Levantine Arabic. The intent is to expand the prototype and build more partnerships and funding to expand the initiative significantly in 2019. TWB is looking for a motivated candidate who can oversee a small project and grow it into a major initiative, leading internal and external stakeholders, and bring new perspectives on language, technology, data/content development, and partnership.
Responsibilities
Project Management:
- Manage the entire lifecycle of the prototype over a two-month period. This includes overseeing the work plan and workflow in each phase.
- Clarify project parameters and negotiate deadlines with partners.
- Organize and lead internal project team that will include one language lead and assistance from the head of technology and the head of innovation.
- Organize and lead external project team, including machine translation engineer, integration engineer, Syrian Arabic refugee linguist team. Establish and maintain excellent relationships with all partners.
- Attend workshops in the Hague in November and December.
- Assure consistent and timely collaboration and communication among the team and the funder; report on progress.
- Manage the flow of information between all members of the project.
Advocacy and strategic development:
- Build awareness of the Gamayun initiative among new partners and potential funders
- Assist in developing advocacy products including a standard presentation and a white paper on the prototype.
- Work with head of innovation to develop overall plan and target budget for expansion of Gamayun in 2019.
- Research and develop compendium of competitive and complementary solutions to increased data collection in marginalized languages.
- Develop use case abstracts to be used in expanding Gamayun.
Qualifications
The Project Manager should be enthusiastic about the importance of increasing access to knowledge through language. The right candidate is an energetic team player and leader who agrees with TWB´s basic beliefs and values and who can work remotely with team members based throughout the world.
- 5+ years project management experience
- Some experience in language technologies and an awareness of innovations within the language technology industry
- Able to innovate to find creative solutions; willing to explore new technologies
- Resourceful, able to get more out of small budgets
- Proactive in identifying needs and opportunities, and leading ways to respond to them
- Analytical skills to take the project to the next level
- Demonstrated experience leading external teams for best performance
- Experience in developing new partner relationships
- Previous experience with non-profit organizations preferred, particularly in humanitarian action
- Strong writing skills
Core Values
Translators without Borders employees and volunteers are made of people who believe passionately about the value of this work and take personal responsibility for achieving the mission. Translators without Borders’ mission and organizational spirit embody the core values established in its strategic framework:
Excellence: As the leading voice for communicating humanitarian information in the right language, Translators without Borders is a leader in the translation industry and in the non-profit sector.
Integrity: Translators without Borders believes 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: Translators without Borders believes in using language to empower people around the world to control their own development and destiny.
Innovation: Translators without Borders recognizes and celebrates the power of innovation to address humanitarian and crisis issues around the world.
Sustainability: Translators without Borders recognizes that meeting our mission necessitates establishment and maintenance of a solid financial and organizational infrastructure.
Tolerance: Our staff and volunteers are highly knowledgeable and skilled; value each other, our partner and our recipients; create a supportive work environment; and, conduct themselves professionally at all times.
Translators without Borders is an equal-opportunity employer, committed to diversity and inclusion, and encourages qualified candidates of all genders and from all national, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of our organization.
