What is actually happening to hiring in the language industry?
Analysis for people running language functions and language businesses: localization strategy, when to hire an owner rather than buy capacity, what a localization team costs fully loaded, and how AI has changed what these organizations need to hire for.
The index
4 pieces
Written for people running language functions and language businesses, not for search engines. Each one answers a question somebody actually asked.
014 min
Localization strategy: a practical guide for growth-stage companies
A localization strategy decides which markets you enter, what quality each type of content needs, who owns delivery, and what you will spend. It is a set of commercial decisions, not a translation plan. Most companies write one after their first market entry goes badly rather than before.
023 min
Website localization vs translation: when you need which
Translation converts text from one language to another. Localization adapts the whole experience — currency, formats, imagery, legal copy, payment methods, search terms and layout — for a specific market. Translation is a subset of localization. You need translation for information, and localization for anything you expect to convert.
033 min
When to hire a head of localization, and when to use an LSP instead
Use an LSP when you need production capacity. Hire a head of localization when you need someone to decide what gets produced. The trigger is not volume — it is the point at which localization decisions start affecting product and engineering roadmaps, which a supplier cannot own from outside.
043 min
What a localization team actually costs, fully loaded
Fully loaded cost has four components: headcount, vendor spend, tooling, and the engineering time internationalization consumes. Most budgets capture the first three and miss the fourth, which is frequently the largest. This page sets out the model; the benchmark figures are published with the salary report.
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