Head, Translation and Terminology Section

Position Title

Head, Translation and Terminology Section (-)

Location:

CH-Geneva

Publication date: 19-Dec‑2025
Final date to receive applications: 19-Jan‑2026 5:59:00 PM (local time)

Head of the Translation and Terminology Section in the Madrid Operations Support Service, Madrid Operations Division of the Madrid Registry of the Brands and Designs Sector. The section delivers translations for international applications filed under the Madrid, Hague and Lisbon Systems. Working languages are English, French and Spanish.

Purpose Statement
The incumbent leads strategic transformation in translation services, advancing the adoption of technology and AI tools to deliver timely, high‑quality, future‑ready translations to customers. Responsibilities include overseeing production, revision and validation of complex translations, guiding the team through digital adoption, and managing external vendors for continuous process improvement.

Reporting Line
Under the supervision of the Continuous Improvement Manager, Madrid Operations Support Service.

• Lead the digital transformation of the section by ensuring effective utilization of translation technologies, AI and machine‑translation tools, and define requirements for future technological solutions with the Translation and Terminology Technology Section, ATAC, and central IT.
• Drive continuous improvement of efficiency by leading process optimization initiatives, implementing policy and practice changes, fostering innovation, and promoting the effective use of advanced translation technologies.
• Manage and supervise staff, including planning, prioritising, and allocating resources to ensure timely delivery of high‑quality translations; analyse and report on workload and performance metrics; foster collaboration with related business lines.
• Oversee translation quality assurance, reviewing outputs generated by technology and ensuring compliance with standards, guidelines and procedures.
• Manage external translation vendors, contribute to outsourcing policies, prepare tender documentation, evaluate bids, and monitor vendor performance.
• Oversee development and maintenance of translation resources (term bases, translation memories, corpora and tools).
• Coordinate staff development and professional growth by implementing training initiatives, providing guidance, evaluating performance, and organising capacity‑building activities for external providers.
• Perform other related duties as required.

Education (Essential)

• Advanced university degree in translation technology or an equivalent technical field such as computational linguistics or information technology, OR advanced degree in translation, modern languages or linguistics with a substantial translation‑technology component.
• A first‑level university degree plus two years of relevant professional experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced degree.

Experience (Essential)

• At least seven years of progressively responsible experience in translation, revision and terminology work, including technical texts, with three years managing translation teams.
• Proven track record in leading the implementation of translation technologies (AI, machine translation) and driving teams to improve quality and efficiency through process optimisation and digital transformation.
• Solid supervisory experience, including mentoring and developing staff.
• Experience in successfully managing external translation providers for quality and efficient services.

Experience (Desirable)

• Practical experience leading the rollout of new translation technologies within a team, including training users, monitoring adoption and optimizing workflows.
• Experience in AI‑driven transformation projects such as piloting neural machine translation, integrating large language models or deploying custom AI solutions for QA.

Language (Essential)

• Excellent level of spoken and written English and excellent knowledge of French or Spanish.

Language (Desirable)

• Excellent knowledge of other UN languages.

Job Related Competencies (Essential)

• Advanced translation,…