Chief Operations Officer (COO)

Title: Chief Operations Officer (COO)
Location: Burbank, California

Job type: Full-time

Job Summary:

The Chief Operations Officer (COO) will oversee all operational functions of the localization business, ensuring optimal service delivery, profitability, and scalability. This role is responsible for driving process improvement, leading global production teams, implementing technology solutions, and aligning operations with strategic business goals.

Key Responsibilities:

Operational Leadership:

• Lead day-to-day operations of all localization services, including translation, localization engineering, QA, Dub/Sub, and project management.
• Build and scale delivery teams and vendor networks across regions.
• Maintain high-quality service levels and timely delivery of client projects.
• Strategic skills in oversight and day-to-day management of multiple Studio Operations.

Strategic Planning & Execution:

• Work with the CoS and executive team to shape and execute the company s global growth strategy.
• Identify and implement operational efficiencies and cost-saving initiatives.
• Drive standardization of workflows, tools, and best practices across departments.

Process Optimization:

• Champion the use of localization management systems (LMS), computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, translation management systems (TMS) platforms, and automation.
• Establish KPIs and performance metrics for operations and vendor management.

Technology & Innovation:

• Partner with product and engineering teams to introduce new tech-enabled solutions.
• Support the evaluation and integration of AI, machine translation (MT), and quality estimation tools.

Client & Partner Management:

• Collaborate with Sales and Account Management to align Service Delivery operations with client needs.
• Ensure excellent client satisfaction and adherence to service level agreements (SLAs).

Team Development:

• Recruit, train, and mentor operational leaders and project managers.
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, high performance, and cross-cultural collaboration.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor s degree in business, Localization, Linguistics, Technology, or related field (MBA or advanced degree and certifications preferred).
• 10+ years of experience in operations leadership within the localization, translation, or language services industry.
• Proven track record of scaling operations globally and managing distributed teams.
• Deep understanding of localization workflows, TMS, CAT tools, and vendor ecosystems.
• Experience implementing process automation, MT/AI-driven solutions, and quality management systems.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and decision-making skills.
• Excellent communication and leadership abilities.

Preferred Experience:

• Experience with agile methodologies or localization in agile environments.
• Familiarity with localization for software, games, multimedia, etc.
• Proficiency in multiple languages is a plus.