Spanish Translation Manager - Zearn

The purpose of Zearn

Zearn is the nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to inspire all kids to love learning math. Everything we do is driven by our belief that every kid is a math kid.

Our top-rated learning platform is designed to catch kids up and move them forward in grade-level math. And it works. Large-scale efficacy research shows students who use Zearn make significant gains in math proficiency, including the students who start multiple grade levels behind.

The vital importance of learning math today is hard to understate, and yet today, it is common to think that only some are born to achieve in math. Math learning is often disparaged and feared (e.g. I'd rather go to the dentist than do algebra) or viewed as a special interest or luxury (e.g. if kids don't have a passion for math that is okay, maybe they have a passion for pottery). We don't look at learning to read the same way. 

Zearn exists to help create a world where all children love learning math. 

As a nonprofit, all of our work is driven by what is best for kids. At the same time, we operate as an intense and fast-moving technology company, inclusively solving hard problems that will impact current and future generations. The problems we solve require expertise in pedagogy, software development, persuasion, psychology, design, writing, video production, problem solving, and countless other disciplines. As an organization that is always stretching to get to the next level of impact, every single person owns mission critical work.

If you’re ready to join our Team of problem solvers, and own work that will drive us to achieve impact at scale, we are looking for you.

Learn more about us at https://about.zearn.org/.

The purpose of the Spanish Translation Manager role at Zearn is to manage the translation of our existing English digital content into Spanish, for Spanish speaking math learners in the U.S. education system.  This is achieved by:

Preparing digital lessons for translation into Spanish, ensuring Multilingual Learners (MLLs) have access to high quality math education:  

• Maintain processes to ensure that the most up-to-date English video scripts and source files are ready for Spanish translation
• Review the various elements of Spanish digital lessons (videos, audio files, art, worksheets, interactive activities, etc.) at multiple stages in the development process
• Continued maintenance of Zearn’s Spanish translation style guide and glossary

Acting as an expert project manager to ensure project goals are achieved on time:

• Maintain the Spanish translations calendar through understanding deadlines, and ensuring daily operations run smoothly
• Manage internal associates and external partners with the goal of allocating the workload appropriately to meet deadlines
• Identify issues that have the ability to impact timeline or quality, and propose solutions in advance to the Customizations Director

Leading the quality assurance and review process of Spanish translations to ensure we are maintaining the same high quality standards in Spanish as we do in English:

• Lead the internal review processes for each independent digital lesson from start to finish, including reviews of scripts, video, and interactive lessons in Zearn’s platform
• Identify patterns and repeated issues, communicate these to internal teams and external partners, and update documentation and processes to address them early in the workflow
• Review the translated scripts with one of our state partners, to ensure approval before product launch

Providing the vision, leadership, and tools necessary to guide the Zearn team in building a coherent Spanish experience cross-functionally across print and digital:

• Continuously improve Spanish translation processes and collaborate on special projects as they arise
• Collaborate with Production, Product, and Engineering Directors to ensure content is created intentionally according to best practices

Problems someone in this role can be expected to solve:

• Is there a more efficient way to prepare our files for Spanish translation?  
• How do I prepare for the unexpected (i.e. teammate life events and time off) and how it might affect the timeline for delivery?
• How do I identify and propose solutions for the most efficient distribution of tasks across stakeholders (internal and external)? 
• How can we identify patterns and improve our internal review processes so that the team is better equipped to identify errors earlier in the process?
• How do we balance an aggressive project schedule with ensuring that Spanish lessons are consistent and high quality?
• How do we ensure the latest translation decisions are applied consistently across our cross-functional teams (academic, product, and engineering) and vendors? 
• How can we most effectively understand the instructional rationale of decisions made in existing programs and contribute to future improvements?

SKILLS: Below are the skills we believe would be impactful for this role.  We certainly do not expect a candidate to be fluent in any more than five to eight of these skills, we would expect a candidate to be excited to learn many of the others through continuous coaching and on-the-job apprenticeship.

Personal Organization:

• Setting your own goals and priorities
• Keeping your tools and materials organized
• Managing time and commitments

Project Management:

• Organizing and leading meetings
• Deadline-oriented execution
• Managing projects for a group

Process Management:

• Organizing your team’s knowledge and ideas
• Continuously improving your team’s workflow and processes
• Proactively learning and using team processes

Written and Verbal Communication:

• Critical reading
• Sharing your perspective productively

Quality Management:

• Pressure testing written work
• Pressure testing workflows and processes

Leading Individuals:

• Keeping a team well-organized

POTENTIAL MARKERS OF THESE SKILLS:

• Advanced native level fluency in Spanish (written and spoken)  
• 3+ years of translation experience (from English to Spanish)
• Translation and editorial experience in the K-8 education space strongly preferred (from English to Spanish)
• Experience with software localization and audio-visual translation is a plus
• Experience managing large projects with varied stakeholders and several moving parts strongly preferred 
• 2+ years of people management experience
• Bachelor’s Degree required, MA in Education preferred

This role is a Managerial role with 1-2 direct reports, and reports to our Program Director, Customizations.

HOW WE WORK:

• We aim to create a numeracy movement. This is no easy feat, and no one of us can solve this on our own.  Given that, Zearn is a transparent, collaborative, and open-to-feedback culture. 
• Our work is often collaborative in nature:
• Our daily work is highly execution and detail-oriented. 
• We meet weekly as a team to share context and solve problems related to translation and QA tasks
• We seek ways to create and improve systems and work with each other to contribute thinking in both asynchronous and synchronous discussions.
• We have shared guidelines in place to help support you when needed.

LOCATION:

This role is remote, however you may be required to travel for business and team building meetings.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS:

The compensation range for this role is $85,000 - $100,000 per year.

We offer a competitive benefits package, including comprehensive medical, dental and vision plans, short- and long-term disability, life insurance, 401K matching, parental leave, and a flexible PTO policy. We also offer a collegial and passionate culture and the potential to positively impact the lives of millions of children.

TO APPLY: https://apply.workable.com/j/353DC3B82B

Zearn is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.