Description
Hybrid Work Model
Job Summary
We are seeking a talented and motivated Localization Engineer to join our Localization team, part of Global Product Operations. In this technical role, you’ll design, develop, and maintain tools, pipelines, and automation to support the translation and global adaptation of our games and related content. You’ll have the opportunity to work across all studios and franchises such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Persona, Yakuza/Like a Dragon, Total War, Alien Isolation, and Football Manager.
In this role, you’ll collaborate closely with localization managers, translators, QA, and developers to ensure high technical quality and timely delivery of localized products for worldwide audiences. This role reports into our Localization Engineering group, part of Global Product Operations.
Duties And Responsibilities
- Build & Maintain Localization Tools: Develop, optimize, and support custom scripts and utilities to extract, process, validate, and re-integrate localization assets.
- Command-Line Automation: Automate repetitive localization engineering processes via command-line interfaces and automation scripts.
- Structured File Handling: Work extensively with Excel, CSV, JSON, and XML files—defining schemas, transforming data, and troubleshooting issues.
- Support Localization Pipelines: Collaborate cross-functionally with localization project managers and development teams to ensure the timely flow of information, data integrity, and efficiency.
- QA & Bug Fixing: Analyze and resolve localization bugs related to encoding, file structure, string formatting, and integration.
- Documentation: Create and maintain technical documentation for tools, workflows, and best practices.
- Other duties as assigned
- Working in-office: is an essential function of this position. This requirement of face-to-face interaction is in place to ensure effective supervision, collaboration, and teamwork. In-office attendance is required for the following reasons:
- For effective supervision of employees and our work product, which includes ensuring all employees have the necessary oversight of their work and access to supervisory assistance, which includes meetings to review work product, deadlines, and status.
- To foster communication and collaboration among team members, which includes the following: allowing for spontaneous brainstorming sessions and exchanges of ideas, quick access to team members to enable collaborative problem-solving, and stronger cohesion among co-workers and within teams.
- To enhance the sharing of information necessary to effective job performance and product creation.
- To enhance understanding of our stakeholders’ work and business needs, facilitate a more seamless and organic workflow, and ultimately increase efficiency and successful outcomes.
Qualifications
Qualifications and Skills:
Must-Haves
- 2-3 years proficiency with Python or C# for scripting and tool development.
- Understanding of standard localization and localization workflows.
- Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills.
- Excellent communication and documentation skills.
- Detail-oriented with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
- Enthusiastic gamer or passion for games and localization is a big plus.
- This role will be required to work on-site in our Irvine office at least 3 days a week.
Plus
- Front-end development skills (HTML5/CSS/React/Angular).
- Experience with CMS or TMS/CAT tools—especially memoQ.
- Familiarity with REST APIs for automation and integrations.
- Experience with version control systems such as SVN, Git, GitHub.
- Data wrangling and transformation skills (large-scale string handling).
- Understanding of string encoding, including Unicode, and RegEx for complex data validation.
- Familiarity with cloud platforms (Google Cloud, AWS, Azure).
- Familiarity with project management tools such as JIRA or Redmine.