Lead Localization Program Manager, APAC & CHINA

The Community You Will Join: 

No global movement springs from individuals. It takes an entire team united behind something big. Airbnb helps anyone belong anywhere as the world’s largest community-driven hospitality company. Every day, we connect thousands of guests and hosts online, leading to meaningful experiences in the real world. We’re helping people live like locals in parts unknown while breaking down cultural barriers and bringing people together. 

Do you wake up everyday asking yourself how you can impact the creation of a truly local experience that delights global users? Are you comfortable with change management? Are you a self-driven globalization program manager? Do you love working with content, design, marketing and engineering teams? Do you want to be part of one of the teams that is actively working on bringing to life Airbnb’s mission, where everyone can belong anywhere? Do you love to work in a fast-paced, fun, fast-growing company? Do you like to work in a multicultural team? Do you love owning the localization strategy for your product portfolio?

If you answered yes to all the questions above, we would love to talk to you, as the Localization team at Airbnb is looking for a highly experienced Localization Program Manager to own all APAC initiatives.

The Difference You Will Make:

Airbnb is expecting the biggest travel rebound of the century with COVID receding world wide and fully reopening cross-border travel. Airbnb has been reinventing itself as a consequence of IPO and the post pandemic world. Airbnb Marketing and Product strategy has evolved and is becoming more sophisticated and demanding. As a consequence the Localization team has been growing fast with the company and steadily evolving and increasing our scope, impact and influence. 

Localization at Airbnb has fast evolved from being managers of translation services to be international product PMs, partners with launching teams across all content at Airbnb, and have also launched complex core product capabilities like Translation Engine (Airbnb specialized machine translation service) across all product flows with user generated content.

We are continuing our investment in hiring internationalization experts that can sit at the table with product teams PMs across Airbnb, Data Scientists, Product and Internationalization Engineering, vendor program managers, senior leaders to plan and design internationalized and localizable products beside supporting their translation needs.

As the APAC Localization Program Manager you coordinate all APAC initiatives in partnership with the local teams and stakeholders. You manage the localization success of prioritized core product teams and marketing campaign initiatives and their international launches.

A Typical Day: 

• The Airbnb LPM role & responsibility goes beyond the traditional focus of translating content:
• You proactively partner with all internal Airbnb teams and functions to deliver world-class globalized product features, community support content and marketing campaigns that are culturally-relevant and linguistically-appropriate. 
• Your influence covers content, design and internationalization: all these aspects need to be ready for the target markets. You will be an active player with the cross-functional launching teams and will bring the perspective of the APAC world.
• You offer your expertise to help cross functional launching teams recognize and integrate international requirements from the start by partnering with the existing network of in-country Language Managers, local Marketing Managers and Sales Operations points of contact.
• You own the local product experience and remove all risks from international launches. You are the go-to person for internationalization requirements. 
• You coordinate with internationalization engineering when stakeholders need guidance on coding world-ready features or consuming our translation pipeline.
• You advise and agree on the most appropriate localization strategy for each launch with Airbnb cross functional launching teams and continuously promote best practices. You partner with the launching team PM and TPM or creative producers (for marketing campaigns) to integrate the Localization milestones on the launch schedule.  
• You are accountable for all localization deliverables to all requesting teams in your portfolio. You coordinate Localization QAs with our Localization QA team and Language Managers for every launch.
• You behave like an owner and entrepreneur. You are not just a point of contact that people reach out to, you are driving, you are propositive and action oriented.
• You have a passion for continuously improving processes and services across the Localization team functions, our translation vendor, and all other internal Airbnb functions in collaboration with the Internationalization engineering team to deliver high quality, cost-effective and time efficient product localization.
• You will flex your process optimization and organizational muscle driving cross-functional initiatives.
• You facilitate strategic meetings including preparing agendas, keeping conversation on-track and establishing action items and owners.

• You ensure pertinent information is communicated and understood throughout the global team and relevant product development teams.
• You own the creation and management of high level Localization project & program timelines.
• You provide up-to-date visibility into large projects, and progress against our team goals.

Your Expertise:

• The ideal candidate has a multi-year experience as a full-time employee at the Client side. Agency side-only experience is not a qualifying criteria for this role.
• Previous experience with new products, new features launches and with launches that expand the language/market scope for your product/company or projects that scale large campaigns to new markets/languages is a requirement.
• 10+ years in Localization Program Management, International Product Management, or equivalent roles, helping core product and marketing teams to successfully launch internationally.
• Track record of managing and releasing complex and high-quality globalized products and marketing campaigns beyond just as a content translation service manager.
• Knowledgeable about internationalization requirements, comfortable to review product design in Figma and recommend best fit for the localized product. 
• Knowledge of the localization process and what it takes to create product features and campaigns that can be recognized as truly local experiences by our Hosts and Guests.
• Experience in establishing processes, developing relationships, and managing end-to-end for a portfolio of concurrent programs.
• Track record of being a self-starter, self-motivated and outcome-oriented individual who seeks ownership and accountability.
• Comfortable with ambiguity in a fluid organization where not every step is documented.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal. Concise, fact-based and informative. Able to convey complex information simply.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Must be able to prioritize and manage conflicting demands.
• Passionate and enthusiastic about excellence and attention to detail.
• Thrives in a highly collaborative environment.
• The ideal candidate is fluent in English and Mandarin.

Your Location

This position is China - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed to with your manager. Your recruiter will inform you what cities you are able to work from depending on your personal legal working identity and Airbnb internal policies.

Our Commitment to Inclusion & Belonging:

Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.