Head of Unit – Translation management

Interested in working in a Directorate that serves two separate European Union institutions, where you will work on forward-looking projects and policies? Would you like to work in a position that plays a central role as the operational manager in the Directorate?

Head of Unit – Translation management

As Head of Unit in the Translation Management Unit, you will be a member of the Directorate's core management team.

You will be responsible for the management and coordination of the workload of the entire Directorate of translation across ten Units and twenty-four language sectors. You will be providing essential contributions to the general coordination and sound management of the Directorate and managing the efficient use of the Unit's resources. You will also be responsible for ensuring the quality of the work carried out within the Unit.

As operational manager you will be responsible for ensuring the business continuity of the Directorate. You will act as the business representative of the Directorate for any IT and technology-related project and activity. You will establish effective inter-institutional relations and coordinate with other stakeholders to ensure the best possible use of resources.

You may be asked to carry out other specific tasks and represent the Directorate at the Committees' and at inter-institutional level. You will manage a dynamic team of 5 administrators and 14 assistants.

General abilities and capacities required

• Think with a critical spirit, analyse and solve problems pragmatically.
• Assess critically credibility and reliability of sources, data and information and use relevant digital tools to carry out the duties.
• Organise own work, demonstrate responsibility, identify priorities, take appropriate decisions and deliver results.
• Adapt to an evolving working environment, demonstrate commitment and adopt constructive attitude at all times. Remain effective and flexible even during periods of heavy activity.
• Take initiative to achieve individual and shared objectives, demonstrate ownership and work autonomously.
• Learn and professionally develop to continuously enhance job performance and knowledge of the organisation and working environment.
• Work together with others in a constructive way by contributing to diverse and inclusive working environment. Demonstrate respect and courtesy at all times.
• Convey information and relevant opinions clearly and concisely both orally and in writing, facilitate interaction and engage effectively with others. Treat confidential or sensitive information accordingly.

Job-specific requirements

• You have a thorough knowledge of one of the official languages of the European Union and a satisfactory knowledge of another of the EU official languages. For functional reasons, a high level of English is required and a good level of French is highly desirable.
• You have a good command of IT applications and tools, such as Outlook, Excel, Word and SharePoint, including AI tools in a secure environment.
• You have proven experience in daily supervision of staff, including feedback, assessment and development.
• You have sound experience in implementing change, optimising use of resources and modernising working methods and tools through technologies.
• You have substantial experience in managing projects involving several internal and external stakeholders.
• You have proven experience in managing IT projects.

Assets

• Knowledge of the European Union’s decision-making process and experience in the area of interinstitutional cooperation, preferably in a relevant technical field, is a strong asset.
• Prior experience in managing translation-related services, and translation process management using the latest translation tools is an asset.
• Prior experience in translation demand management, translation stakeholder negotiations and/or translation workload prioritisation is an asset.
• Prior experience in development and implementation of translation technology tools and systems, specifically in the fields of neural machine translation and large language models is an asset.
• Background in project and/or portfolio management is an asset.
• Knowledge of the CoR and the EESC and of their structures, aims and contribution to the EU is desirable.