About the Role
We're hiring an Operations Manager / Multilingual Interpreter to oversee day-to-day service delivery for a growing language services company serving clients across the U.S. with a distributed, global team. You'll own the operational engine of the business — assignment fulfillment, team coordination, quality standards, and process discipline — while also being available to personally interpret sessions in your own language pair(s) when needed. This is a leadership role for someone who thrives on structure, solves problems before they escalate, and can manage people and process while still being a hands-on linguist.
What You'll Do
Operations Leadership
• Oversee daily operations across scheduling, assignment fulfillment, and service delivery, ensuring coverage targets are consistently met.
• Lead and support Team Coordinators and Interpreter Managers, setting priorities and resolving escalations.
• Own and enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs) across departments, ensuring consistent execution at every level.
• Apply a structured assignment-confirmation protocol (e.g., a 72-hour advance-confirmation window) to minimize last-minute gaps.
• Run a structured issue-response protocol for in-session problems, cancellations, and client escalations, ensuring timely resolution.
• Apply a plan → do → check → succeed review cycle to monitor team and process performance on a recurring basis.
Quality & Client Success
• Monitor service quality using standardized quality-monitoring reports, and drive corrective action where standards slip.
• Partner with Client Success to support key accounts, addressing operational needs proactively.
• Track team and process performance against KPIs, reporting trends and risks to leadership.
• Maintain accurate operational records — staffing rosters, certifications, and assignment history — for audit readiness.
• Identify recurring operational bottlenecks and lead process improvements to resolve them.
Interpreting
• Provide accurate, professional interpretation (consecutive and/or simultaneous) in your language pair(s) when called on to support coverage gaps or key assignments.
• Model the quality and professionalism standards you expect your team to uphold, following industry code of ethics and confidentiality standards.
Who You Are
• Bachelor's degree required (any field).
• 3+ years of experience in operations management, ideally in staffing, language services, healthcare, or another scheduling-intensive, client-facing industry.
• Proven experience as a professional interpreter, fluent in English and at least one additional language at a professional interpreting standard.
• C2 (proficient/mastery) level English, across speaking, reading, and listening — this role requires clear, precise communication with U.S.-based clients and staff.
• Before applying, please test your English level using the free EF SET English Test and include your score/certificate with your application.
• Resume demonstrating proven, relevant experience, plus professional references who can confirm your work.
• Reliable home office setup: a computer, one to two additional monitors, a quiet working environment, and a stable, dependable internet connection.
• Trustworthy and self-directed — able to work independently and reliably with minimal supervision, as well as collaboratively when needed.
• Energetic and engaged, bringing genuine knowledge and judgment to the business rather than just following instructions.
• Disciplined about applying SOPs and documented processes consistently, without cutting corners.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and develop a team, including setting expectations and giving constructive feedback.
• Proven experience leading a team of 5 or more staff, with the ability to delegate, set clear expectations, and hold people accountable.
• Comfortable leading and actively participating in meetings in English with partners, clients, and leadership.
• Strong organizational and analytical skills — comfortable working with KPI data to guide decisions.
• Proficient with Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Drive, Calendar) for daily operational work and team collaboration.
• Skilled at leveraging AI tools to streamline operations, reporting, and day-to-day productivity.
Nice to Have
• Experience managing multi-state or multi-region service operations.
• Experience with minority/women-owned business certifications (MWBE/WBE/MBE) or public-sector and federal contract compliance.
• Experience supporting a staffing, interpreting, translation, or other credential-heavy service industry.
• Familiarity with scheduling/dispatch platforms or operations software.
Key Performance Indicators
KPI Target Frequency
Overall assignment fill rate (confirmed coverage before session start) ≥ 98% Weekly
On-time confirmations across all teams ≥ 95% Weekly
No-show / late cancellation rate, company-wide < 2% Monthly
Average client quality score across all sessions ≥ 4.5 / 5 Monthly
Escalations resolved within defined response timelines 100% Monthly
SOP adherence across all operational functions 100% Ongoing
Staffing gaps resolved within same business day ≥ 95% Weekly
Team performance reviews completed on schedule ≥ 95% Quarterly
Average client quality score for own interpreting sessions ≥ 4.5 / 5 Monthly
Key Skills
• Operations & process management — running scheduling, fulfillment, and quality systems reliably at scale, and enforcing SOPs consistently across teams.
• Team leadership — setting priorities, resolving escalations, and coaching coordinators/managers to hit performance targets.
• Data-driven problem-solving — reading KPI trends, spotting bottlenecks early, and driving corrective action before issues reach clients.
• Multilingual interpreting — accurate, professional interpretation in your language pair(s), maintaining the same quality standard you hold your team to.