Language Service Specialist

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) contributes to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda through the FAO Strategic Framework by supporting the transformation to MORE efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agrifood systems, for better production, better nutrition, a better environment, and a better life, leaving no one behind.

The Governing Bodies Servicing Division (CSG) provides the Secretariat of the Conference and Council, supports all Governing and Statutory Bodies of FAO and all Corporate events and meetings with Permanent Representatives as well as external meetings hosted by the Organization. It houses the multilingualism expertise of the Organization, delivering corporate language goods and services. CSG also provides Protocol and Meeting services to the Organization.

The Language Services Branch (CSGL) enables multilingualism in the Organization by providing interpretation, translation and terminology goods and services in all FAO languages across the span of corporate governance, normative, operational and communication functions. CSGL also supports the provision of FAO products in local languages and is responsible for language quality assurance within the Organization. 

Reporting Lines:

The Language Service Specialist reports to the Senior Reviser of the relevant translation group. The incumbent operates independently and exercises initiative for dealing with specific cases that deviate from standard assignments. Supervision received focuses on methodological and procedural matters and the quality of work outputs. 

Technical Focus: 

The role of the Language Service Specialist is to check the quality of translated documents; ensure proper formatting of documents according to the FAO Style guide for the relevant language; bring to the attention of their supervisor any doubts related to the original documents or the translations; liaise with CSGL’s Programming, Terminology and Reference teams in order to point out possible errors in the original documents or obtain any clarifications, additional information or files/material necessary to finalize the documents assigned to him/her. 

Tasks and responsibilities:

The Language Service Specialist works closely with a wide range of colleagues in the Division, performing translation-related tasks and providing procedural guidance and information. 

• Perform quality control of external translations, correcting errors (style, spelling, grammar or punctuation), and bring to the attention of the Supervisor any inconsistencies both in translated documents and original texts.
• Liaise with Programming Team and/or document originators to request clarifications or additional material needed to complete the jobs.
• Perform quality checks to ensure proper usage of terminology and consistency across texts.
• Ensure adherence in documents and publications to the FAO Style guide for the relevant language.
• Create complex tabular material and graphs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) for official meeting documents and for publications.
• Check for file name accuracy and adherence to the file-naming convention and upload completed and finalized translations to the eDPR.
• Using the computer-assisted translation (CAT) corporate software, pre-process original documents for translation, carry out alignments of previously translated documents, and import alignments into the appropriate translation memory (TM).
• Insert in the bilingual (xliff) files corrections made in translations and import xliff files into the appropriate TM.
• Process urgent documents and in-session translations, working outside of regular working hours if necessary.
• Perform other duties as required.

The incumbent’s work impacts directly on the smooth and efficient working of the Division. He/She plays a critical role in the timely processing, issuance and distribution of documentation. 

Candidates Will Be Assessed Against The Following:

Minimum Requirements:

• University degree in Linguistic or related field, or in one of FAO’s fields of activity with a specialization in languages
• One year of relevant experience in translation or translation support work and documentation processing.
• Working knowledge of English and of one or more of the following; Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish.

Source: https://jobs.fao.org/careersection/fao_external/jobdetail.ftl?job=2402344