Localization Technical Program Manager

About this role

Avetta is building the largest global community of hiring clients and suppliers that are Ready to Work. Its unified platform streamlines compliance, prequalification, safety and performance benchmarking in a single, integrated experience. Trusted by 360,000 businesses across more than 120 countries, Avetta blends AI-driven insights and human expertise to close risk gaps and strengthen supplier reliability so projects start on time, risks are managed proactively and operations scale with certainty.
SUMMARY
Avetta is seeking a highly skilled Localization Technical Program Manager to set technical direction and serve as an embedded partner across Product, Engineering, UX/UI, Localization, and Localization Testing. You will make Avetta’s products globally ready by connecting product engineering, localization technology, and release delivery. This hands-on leadership role combines internationalization (i18n) engineering, localization-systems ownership, and technical program leadership to ensure Avetta’s products are designed for global markets and its localization workflows are reliable, scalable, and integrated throughout the product development lifecycle.
You will lead technical delivery across product i18n and the localization technology ecosystem, from early design through release. This includes ownership of Phrase/TMS configuration, APIs and integrations, Avetta’s central platform for AI-enabled translation, workflow automation, release readiness, and technical enablement for the localization team. You will establish standards, guide implementation, and help resolve complex technical and process issues. The role requires a highly specialized combination of deep i18n knowledge and hands-on localization systems expertise. Targeted i18n and localization quality metrics may be used to identify issues and guide improvements, but analytics and reporting are not the primary focus of the role.
If residing within commutable distance to one of our offices, a hybrid schedule would be required (3 days in office, 2 days work from home). Candidates within commutable distance are preferred, but those outside of an office area may be considered on a remote basis.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Design and implement i18n solutions within the software development lifecycle, including string externalization, resource-file architecture, Unicode and encoding support, and scalable patterns for locale-aware product behavior.

• Define and review locale behavior across products, including pluralization, grammatical variants, date, time, number, and currency formats, time zones, sorting, and other regional conventions.

• Ensure product readiness for right-to-left (RTL) languages and protect variables, placeholders, markups, and other non-translatable elements throughout content and translation workflows.

• Partner with Localization Testing to support pseudo-localization, functional validation, defect triage, and release readiness.

• Own and administer Phrase or a comparable Translation Management System (TMS), including project and workflow configuration, translation memories, termbases, quality settings, permissions, automation, and lifecycle governance.

• Design, maintain, and troubleshoot TMS/API workflows and integrations with product repositories, content systems, and delivery pipelines. Serve as the technical escalation point for localization systems and process issues.

• Serve as the technical product owner for Avetta's central platform for AI-enabled translation, defining its roadmap, architecture, capabilities, and integration strategy across TMS and localization workflows. Translate localization needs into technical requirements, user stories, and scalable solutions in partnership with Product and Engineering.

• Identify and support opportunities to streamline and automate localization workflows, including translation, review, and delivery. Lead automation of the localization defect and bug-triage process, applying AI where appropriate across these workflows.

• Lead localization technical programs from planning through release, managing scope, dependencies, risks, priorities, and regional requirements while coordinating Product, Engineering, UX/UI, Localization, and Localization Testing.

• Embed localization requirements and best practices early in product discovery, design, and development. Provide hands-on guidance during implementation and respond quickly to release critical issues.

• Help localization team members resolve technical and process issues; create practical documentation and enablement. Pull and interpret targeted i18n, localization quality, or workflow-health metrics when needed to diagnose trends and guide improvements.

IDEAL EDUCATION, TRAINING, AND EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in internationalization engineering, localization engineering, localization technology, or a closely related discipline.

• Fluency in a second language is preferred. In addition to English, preferred languages may include, but are not limited to, German, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, or other languages that support global collaboration and cross-cultural communication.

• Deep knowledge of i18n fundamentals, including string externalization, locale-aware behavior, pluralization, date/number/currency formatting, RTL support, Unicode, and placeholder or markup protection.

• Hands-on expertise configuring and administering Phrase or comparable TMS, including translation memories, termbases, workflow automation, quality controls, permissions, and troubleshooting.

• Experience building or supporting localization APIs and integrations; familiarity with formats and technologies such as JSON, XML, XLIFF, ICU MessageFormat, REST APIs, webhooks, source control, and CI/CD is strongly preferred.

• Experience designing AI-enabled…