Senior Program Manager, Localization

About Us

We’re redefining financial services by bringing transparency, accessibility, and flexibility to consumers around the globe. As we expand our footprint into new international markets, we’re committed to delivering customer experiences that are not only translated, but truly localized—culturally relevant, regulatory compliant, and operationally seamless.

The Opportunity

We're looking for a Program Manager, Localization to own our end-to-end localization strategy. You'll be the driving force behind our global expansion, ensuring our products, services, and internal functions are perfectly adapted to the language, culture, and regulatory landscape of every new market we enter.

This is a highly cross-functional role. You'll work at the intersection of product, engineering, legal, compliance, and marketing, building and scaling the systems, processes, and governance needed to launch high-impact global products. If you're passionate about bringing a world-class user experience to a global audience, this role is for you.

What you'll do

• Own the Localization Program: Define and execute the localization strategy in alignment with our international expansion roadmap. You'll set success metrics, report on progress to leadership, and establish best practices and workflows for scaling localization.

• Drive Cross-Functional Initiatives: Partner with product, engineering, legal, marketing, and customer operations to drive and execute successful localized launches across multiple surfaces. You'll lead working groups, manage project planning cycles, and proactively identify and mitigate risks and blockers.

• Manage Tools & Vendors: Evaluate and manage third-party localization vendors and technology platforms (e.g., TMS, CAT tools). You'll establish quality standards and drive efficiency by automating workflows and integrating tools across different teams.

• Ensure Global Readiness: Work closely with legal, risk, and compliance teams to ensure all content and product elements meet local regulatory requirements. You'll also support user testing to validate the localized experience in-market.

• Champion Cultural & Linguistic Excellence: Act as an advocate for global users, ensuring our tone, messaging, and design are culturally appropriate for each locale. You'll work with regional teams to incorporate local insights into key decisions.

• Drive Efficiency and Optimization: Identify and implement opportunities for process improvements and technology enhancements to optimize localization efficiency and scalability.

• Develop and manage localization budgets: Ensure cost-effectiveness and resource allocation by managing localization budgets tied to maintenance and expansion.

What we look for

• You have 7+ years of experience in program or project management, with at least 2 years of direct experience managing localization efforts for global products.

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Linguistics, Translation, International Business, Computer Science, or a related discipline).

• You're an expert at managing complex, cross-functional programs with multiple stakeholders across different time zones.

• You have a deep understanding of localization tools, processes, and best practices (e.g., CAT tools, TMS, CMS, machine translation).

• Strong project management skills with the ability to prioritize, plan, and execute multiple tasks simultaneously.

• You're highly aware of global cultural, regulatory, and UX differences and have experience working with international markets.

• Solid understanding of internationalization (i18n) and globalization (g11n) concepts.

• Experience with vendor management, including contract negotiation and performance evaluation.

• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and negotiation skills, with the ability to influence and collaborate effectively with diverse stakeholders.

• Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a dynamic and fast-paced environment.

• Ability and willingness to work flexible hours outside of the normal business day where you reside in order to accommodate meetings with Affirm team members and external vendors across multiple time zones the United States, Canada, UK, Europe and Australia.