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THE WORLD'S LARGEST software localisation and translation company is looking to double its mainland staff in the coming year, creating many potential job opportunities for Hong Kong-sourced professionals.

Lionbridge - a Nasdaq-listed company which has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts - has been operating in China since 1998 and counts global names such as Microsoft, Adobe, Google and Nokia among its high-profile clients.

Its main business in China involves software localisation, translation and testing.

The US$400 million revenue company has more than 4,000 employees worldwide, including program managers, engineers, content developers and linguistic experts.

'We're looking to grow in China from 200 employees to 400 by the end of next year, and we plan to fill a range of key posts from overseas,' said Lionbridge vice-president for Asia, Michael Shannon.

'We are looking at all possible avenues to attract good talent, including Hong Kong. The main positions we're looking to fill are for global project managers, engineers and language specialists.

'We're also looking for account executives in sales roles to deal with growth in business from Chinese companies.

'The benefit of Hong Kong is its proximity to [mainland] China, and there are fewer cultural issues when Hongkongers move to the mainland. They find it easier to adapt, not just with the language but in terms of the thinking as well. Hongkongers have a good understanding of how to do business, in China and internationally.'

Lionbridge China has doubled its staff over the past year and plans to grow to more than three times its size over the next three years, to ultimately boast a workforce of more than 600. The company needs experienced middle managers to keep pace with such rapid growth.

'We're looking for project managers and middle management across the board, from operations managers to HR and customer service professionals. We are interested in people with strong communication skills who have dealt with overseas clients before,' Mr Shannon said.

Qualified candidates also need a relevant university degree and five years of experience in their respective fields.

'Fluency in English is a prerequisite for our project managers because we deal directly with customers in the US and other countries - not just in China,' he said.

Another prerequisite is a willingness to travel because project managers need to make several international trips every year. Salaries are competitive and depend on the candidate's ability, experience and the position.

'We're willing to pay for the right people and we may offer relocation packages to the right candidates,' Mr Shannon said.

He advised Hong Kong candidates to brush up on their Putonghua if they were considering a move to the mainland.

'Even if some projects don't involve Mandarin, knowledge of the language helps new people adjust to daily life and improves interaction with fellow employees.'

Knowledge of other languages is also a plus because global project managers deal with Lionbridge offices and vendors in countries all over the world.

Lionbridge has two major lines of business in China: it deals with multilingual translation and localisation projects; and software and hardware testing including multiple language testing. China is a key part of the company's outsourced application testing arm. Lionbridge conducts functional testing programs for major global mobile device and computer peripheral manufacturers.

'More companies are looking for offshore solutions and we are seeing China grow as a global project management hub, as it evolves from its traditional task-based back-office role. Now we're increasingly managing large multiple-language projects from our Chinese operation,' Mr Shannon said.

'Global project management is a key thing we're trying to develop here. Our global project managers [GPMs] deal with clients all over the world. We might have to translate a mobile phone manual into 25 languages, but we don't have offices in each country.

'We sometimes need to subcontract work to local companies [or vendors]. A GPM needs to deal with all these offices and vendors in fulfilling a project.'

As its business expands, Lionbridge is also expanding co-operation with internationally focused Chinese-owned companies that are exporting software and need multiple-language localisation services. Most of the openings for project managers, linguists and software engineers are at the Beijing office, with a number of positions also available in Shanghai. The company is also considering plans to set up in a third Chinese city.

Global positioning

Major software localisation company expands in China

Openings for project managers, software engineers and linguists

Project managers must speak fluent English - other languages also useful

Strong communication skills and international experience essential

Relevant qualifications required, plus five years of job experience



US group bridges the gap