AI Program Director

AI Program Director

The AI Program Director functions as a Customer- facing, results-driven, and innovative AI leader. The role will have accountability for new opportunities, on-boarding and customer relationships for AI services and offerings.

The AI Program Director will also lead internal AI strategy, collaborating with all functions to efficiently operationalize AI Services and Offerings.  This role will have responsibility for building mutually beneficial Business relationships with our Customers, which help them solve their Business challenges and allow Lionbridge to grow its own business by providing expert advice on integrating ML models with Lionbridge technologies.

Customer Engagement – The role requires class-leading customer engagement involving strong written and verbal communication skills, ability to empathize with and respond to customers’ needs, problem-solving skills and the ability to function effectively in a fast-moving, rapidly-changing environment. The Global Program Director will take the lead in business discussions with customers covering operational and commercial topics. These discussions will take place in full partnership / collaboration with Lionbridge’s Sales team.

Customer Satisfaction – Leads the way to create exceptional Customer experiences and delivers results in Customer satisfaction. Acts as overall escalation point for customer account(s) as it relates to quality management. Proactively monitors and shares customer feedback through the Customer Care Database ensuring that appropriate actions are taken and shared with customers in a timely manner.

Operational Excellence – Leads in defining, rolling out, and measuring processes for all Lionbridge services. The Global Program Director will lead and certify for operational readiness, manage hiring, and will focus on lowering costs related to Customer solutions and services. Collaboration with multi-location, cross-functional teams is key, particularly with offshore delivery facilities, technology services and management teams to maintain and improve customer satisfaction, revenue and margin.

Business & Financial – The Global Program Director owns the overall financial health of their assigned account(s). They will advocate and drive the identification and successful delivery of new services to meet customer needs and Lionbridge margin targets. They will work with site, GDC and SBU leadership in driving teams to improve processes as well as implementing and refining the deployment of technology. They will support and develop people.  Monitoring outsourcing performance including vendor selection and quality of deliverables is also within the scope of this role.  The GPD will have an input into the maintenance, updating and renewal of commercial contracts (e.g. MSAs, Confidentiality Agreements, SOWs etc.)

What you will do:

• Personally engage with customers as senior leader: understand customers’ business, AI & Localization needs and challenges: lead global teams to execute on defined solutions across all service offerings.
• Communicate directly with the customer team on AI and Localization topics, along with providing education on key topics as required.
• Personally engage with customers, understand their business needs and challenges. Provide expert advice on integrating ML models with Lionbridge technologies.
• Recognize customer needs and proactively focus on fulfilling these needs through innovative thinking and collaboration with internal technical, production, community, and management teams.
• Provide training and guidance to internal teams on AI-related concepts and processes.
• Work with operations leadership, Lionbridge’s Sales team and GDC teams to ensure customer satisfaction and implement continual process improvement, measurement/benchmarking, and automation across all lines of service delivery.
• Review and report on all AI services and offerings monthly. Along with providing efficiency gains.
• Track, monitor and improve performance of team and external suppliers to achieve high levels of customer satisfaction, quality, and profitability.  Drive root cause analysis and program solutioning with the team, ensure teams have relevant training and support to achieve goals.
• Regularly review program financial data and decide how to ensure financial targets are achieved. Ensure that financial reports reflect appropriate KPIs to show performance.
• Through customer engagements, be aware of, and actively seek out opportunities for increasing revenue from existing and potentially new business streams.
• Recognize Customer needs and proactively focus on fulfilling these needs through innovative thinking and collaboration with internal technical, production, quality, Community and management teams.
• Full ownership and accountability for a single Program or group of Programs, in relation to customer CSAT, financial optimization, continuous improvement, resourcing, team management, operational excellence etc.
• Proactively manage margin and other KPIs on assigned program(s) in line with corporate performance and profitability goals. Lead team members in the achievement of these goals.
• Collaborate with and support Lionbridge Sales teams to fully exploit revenue growth opportunities.
• Manage operational revenue forecasts and partner with Sales teams on the development of and delivery against sales forecasts.
• Provide support as a key interface with Customers at the last stage of the sales cycle, through the provision of thought leadership as solutions are being crafted.
• Drive onboarding of new Customers or new business streams with existing Customers as appropriate.Be the primary communication link and escalation path across assigned customer program(s)
• Manage program workflows including financial processes, technical solutions and headcount planning
• Provide timely and accurate forecasts of our expected revenue with appropriate highlighting of risk
• Provide guidance and direction to global operations teams for owned account(s)
• Consistently drive excellent Customer experience and service
• Establish and monitor KPIs and QBR processes internally and with customer(s)
• Provide executive updates and overviews on overall health of customer accounts to local and regional Lionbridge management as required.

To be successful you will have:

• This position requires extensive inter-personal skills, excellent business planning skills, cross-group coordination at all levels, business acumen, and the ability to work on several diverse projects at the same time
• 5-8 years’ experience in the Localization business
• 6 years’ experience in a position managing localization, data science or NLP projects
• 1 year experience in a research role in linguistic, social sciences or computer science
• Working experience with translation tools and management platforms required
• Prior role in a consultancy or advisory capacity is desirable
• Knowledge of key sales processes and tools
• Passion for our customers, technology and people
• Strong team management, experience mentoring local and remote teams, ability to drive ownership at every level.
• Strong analytical/problem solving skills, demonstrated success in driving complex programs, outstanding organizational skills and agility, strong communication skills (verbal and written), proven project management skills and be a motivated self-starter.
• Superior judgment, team building, budgeting, and the ability to work under continual deadline pressure required.
• Experience in effecting change i.e. driving institutional change through effective cross-group collaboration and group evangelization.
• Strong oral and written communication skills, including slide concept creation, requirements documents and presentation-building.
• Adaptability, flexibility, and the ability to deal with ambiguity and juggle multiple assignments and deadlines associated with working in a fast-paced and changing environment.
• Strong project management and negotiation skills while working within established business priorities and constraints.
• Innovative and creative.
• Able to establish instant credibility and be a leader who both speaks and acts with confidence.
• A consistent, "can do" attitude, and will act quickly to rally individuals and teams around a common vision.
• 8- years’ experience in project management, program management, finance or marketing, prior agency, entertainment/gaming industry experience a plus
  - BA/BS required. Advanced business degree preferred.

Our People are Our Pride – Benefits and Perks

• Competitive pay based on the work you’ll do here and not your previous salary.  Expected Compensation: $140,000 USD/year dependent on experience.
• Health Coverage for you and your family with multiple plan options:  Health, Vision, Dental; as well as HSA and FSA eligible programs
• Generous Paid-Time-Off and 10 Company Paid Holidays, as well as Floating Holidays, Paid Volunteer Days and an additional Paid Day Off for your Birthday!
• 401k with company match
• Free access to Lionbridge’s Employee Wellness Platform and Employee Assistance Program to support both physical and mental health
• Earn extra money in your HSA for completing Wellness Incentive goals through employer contributions
• Career guidance with learning and development opportunities along the way, backed by Lionbridge’s Internal Mobility and Referral Bonus programs

 About Us

Lionbridge partners with brands to break barriers and build bridges all over the world. For over 25 years, we have helped companies connect with their global customers and employees by delivering translation and localization solutions in 350+ languages. Through our world-class platform, we orchestrate a network of passionate experts across the globe who partner with brands to create culturally rich experiences. Relentless in our love of linguistics, we use the best of human and machine intelligence to forge understanding that resonates with our customers’ clients. Based in Waltham, Massachusetts, Lionbridge maintains solution centers in 24 countries.

 All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

 Breaking Barriers.  Building Bridges.