Head of Global Language Services (LSE)

Vacancy Notice 1752 INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization, with 196 Member Countries. Created in 1923, it facilitates cross-border police co-operation, and supports and assists all organizations, authorities, and services whose mission is to prevent or combat international crime. INTERPOL actively encourages applications from women and nationals of member countries that are currently unrepresented among our staff (please click on this link to access the list of countries). Candidates from these countries are particularly encouraged to apply. INTERPOL’s recruitment process is merit-based hence all hiring decisions are made considering the applicant’s qualifications and the needs of the Organization. Job Title: Head of Global Language Services (LSE) Reporting To: Director, Finance and Corporate Services Location: Lyon Type of contract: Fixed-term Contract Duration (in months): 36.00 Grade: 3 Number of post(s): 1 Level of Security screening: Basic Deadline for application: 01 November 2026 Conditions applying for all candidates Only professional experience for which candidates can provide official proof of employment will be considered. Candidates could be requested to provide copies of such official documents prior to interviews/test. Subsequent extension to this post will be subject to the terms of the Organization’s Staff Manual, to satisfactory performance and to availability of funds. Tests/interviews in connection to this selection procedure will take place approximately 3-4 weeks after the deadline for applications. Applicants are kindly requested to plan their availability during this period accordingly, in case they are short-listed. Selected candidates will be expected to report for duty approximately two to three months after receiving an offer of employment at the latest. This selection exercise may be used to generate a reserve list of suitable candidates that may be used to address Organization's similar staffing needs in the future. DEFINITION OF THE POST The Executive Directorate Resource Management (EDRM) is responsible for the strategic and operational management of INTERPOL’s financial, human, and corporate resources to ensure the effective delivery of the Organization’s global mission. The Directorate of Finance and Corporate Services (FCS) oversees all financial governance, budgeting, accounting, treasury, and control functions, ensuring compliance with International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS), financial regulations, and the decisions of INTERPOL’s governing bodies, and manages corporate services in the area of general services, procurement, contract, travel and events, and language services. The Head of Global Language Services provides strategic leadership and operational oversight of all multilingual services and institutional document and archive management across INTERPOL, ensuring the timely, accurate, secure, and consistent delivery of linguistic support in the Organization’s four working languages (Arabic, English, French and Spanish), while also guaranteeing the integrity, accessibility, preservation, and digital governance of all institutional records and archives. The incumbent is responsible for transforming Language Services into a digitally empowered, revision-centric, and automation-driven unit, leveraging INTERPOL’s vast repository of previously translated documents, standardized terminology, and institutional style guides, to be integrated into a unified enterprise document and knowledge management framework. The Head of Global Language Services ensures that all linguistic outputs, including sensitive, classified, and legally binding documents, meet the highest standards of accuracy, cultural appropriateness, and institutional coherence. The incumbent leads the integration of machine translation as a pre-translation tool, with human experts acting as quality controllers and terminological arbiters, and that all translated and non-translated institutional documents are systematically managed, archived, and retrievable in compliance with INTERPOL’s recordkeeping policies. The post also oversees the automation of minute-taking for statutory meetings, ensuring real-time multilingual summaries are generated using Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools validated for accuracy and neutrality, with human review reserved for high-stakes content. PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND ACTIVITIES 1: Strategic leadership and digital transformation of Language Services and Document Services Lead and coordinate the Department ensuring alignment of objectives, workload distribution, and quality standards across all linguistic and document management functions. Lead the digital transformation of all Language Services, transitioning from full translation to AI-assisted revision as the primary workflow across all four official languages. Lead and collaborate with the four Heads of Language Services to evaluate and implement AI and machine translation tools suited to INTERPOL’s needs, define and enforce translation revision protocols, and establish quality metrics such as post-editing effort and terminology compliance. Develop and implement a mid-term and long term Global Language Services Strategy, with strategic KPIs . Ensure full integration of INTERPOL’s translation memory and terminology databases (via Trados) and document archives. Administer the terminology enforcement rules in Trados to prevent lexical drift, ensuring that key legal, operational, and institutional terms are used identically across all languages and documents. Drive automation of translation request intake, prioritization, and routing via an integrated workflow system with clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and limit redundant requests. Lead change management across all of Language Services, including training, communication, and stakeholder engagement on new workflows. Represent Language Services in cross-directorate digital transformation initiatives (Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Knowledge Management, Procurement) to ensure linguistic and archival requirements are embedded in all new systems. 2: Outsourcing, Administrative and Financial Management Prepare and manage the annual budget for Language Services, including staffing, technology subscriptions, external contracts, and training; conduct cost-benefit analyses for new tools and processes. Coordinate with Procurement teams for: language technology solutions ( Computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools, AI platforms, terminology databases), document digitization services and archival solutions, and quality assurance and metadata indexing software, in coordination with ICT. Ensure administrative compliance with INTERPOL regulations. Oversee the outsourcing strategy ensuring external use only when internal capacity is exceeded or when specialized domain expertise is unavailable internally. Establish strict performance benchmarks for external vendors. 3: Team Management, Performance Oversight and Resource Optimization Lead, manage, and develop the multidisciplinary team of language professionals, ensuring alignment with organizational goals, professional growth, and high-performance culture. Actively manage performance for all direct reports, with annual objectives directly tied to quality of outputs, effective use of technology, contribution to automation, compliance, efficient use of outsourcing and meeting deadlines. Align internal staffing capacity with operational demand. Manage the balance between internal and external resources with precision. Resolve complex linguistic and archival queries from internal units or external translators. Maintain and update the Organization’s linguistic style guides and document management policy reference materials in coordination with all language teams and the Information and Document Manager. Strengthen communication and staff awareness on the style guides. 4: Client Engagement and Institutional Representation Act as the