Job Description
The Senior Digital & eCommerce Localization Lead is an expert practitioner responsible for the localization strategy, execution guidance, and cross-functional collaboration within one or more assigned pillars of the D&E Localization function. Pillars span Legal Compliance & Partnership, Digital Marketing, Customer Activation, Core Commerce, and Retention.
Operating as an embedded strategic advisor, this role ensures that localization investment is directed where it generates the greatest commercial return — prioritizing by impact rather than responding to individual market requests. Rather than owning every localization activity end-to-end, the Senior Lead guides, consults, and connects — ensuring the right accountability exists within the relevant functional teams while driving global consistency, quality, and measurable business impact.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Embedding & Planning
- Actively participate in product roadmap, feature launch, and campaign planning cycles, representing localization requirements before decisions are finalized.
- Advocate for localization as a first-class input into D&E strategy, not a downstream production activity.
- Apply a commercial lens to localization decisions — prioritizing markets, channels, and features based on revenue impact, compliance risk, and strategic opportunity rather than volume of requests.
- Support the Head of Localization in maintaining and refining ROI-based prioritization criteria, ensuring localization investment is allocated to the highest-impact opportunities.
Pillar Ownership & Delivery
- Serve as the accountable lead for localization activity within assigned pillar(s), ensuring deliverables are clearly defined, prioritized, and executed to standard.
- Guide functional teams on how to implement localization requirements within their pillar — advising on approach, standards, and tooling rather than executing directly.
- Maintain a clear view of the localization backlog, pipeline, and in-flight activity within assigned pillars, surfacing risks or capacity issues proactively.
- Coordinate with other pillar leads to ensure cross-pillar dependencies are identified and managed effectively.
Stakeholder & Market Partnership
- Build and maintain effective working relationships with assigned Global D&E Stakeholders, Country Business Partners, and in-market commercial teams.
- Apply commercial and ROI judgement when translating market priorities into localization requirements — recommending investment where impact is evidenced, and deprioritizing where it is not.
- Serve as a trusted advisor to business stakeholders, providing clear, evidence-based guidance on localization investment, scope, and sequencing.
- Manage stakeholder expectations across Commercial, Legal, RMTC, DDIT, and Customer functions as relevant to assigned pillar(s).
Quality, Standards & Governance
- Define and uphold localization quality standards, style guides, and terminology frameworks for assigned pillar(s).
- Advise on vendor selection, briefing, and review processes where third-party localization or translation services are engaged.
- Ensure that compliance, regulatory, and data privacy requirements are embedded in localization workflows within assigned pillar(s).
- Proactively escalate quality, capacity, or compliance risks to the Head of Localization before they impact the business.
Performance & Continuous Improvement
- Define and track performance indicators for assigned pillar(s), contributing to the function’s overall KPI framework and reporting.
- Use customer feedback, market data, and performance insights to identify improvement opportunities and refine localization approaches.
- Contribute to the global Digital & eCommerce community, sharing expertise, market insights, and best practices across the teams.
Who You Are:
Required
- 7+ years of experience in localization, digital product management, eCommerce, digital marketing, or a closely related field within a global digital environment.
- Demonstrated expertise in at least one APAC or key commercial market language (e.g., Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Hindi, Bahasa Indonesia, or equivalent).
- Strong understanding of digital and eCommerce ecosystems, including content management, search, transactional platforms, and/or digital marketing channels.
- Proven ability to operate as a senior advisor and influence stakeholders across commercial, product, legal, and technology functions without direct authority.
- Experience working in cross-functional, matrixed global organizations with multiple concurrent workstreams and competing priorities.
- Strong communication skills; able to translate complex localization topics into clear business language for senior stakeholders.
- Fluent English, written and spoken, to business standard.
Preferred
- Background in life sciences, B2B eCommerce, or a regulated industry; understanding of compliance and data privacy requirements.
- Familiarity with Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC), Salesforce CRM (SFDC), or Adobe Experience Manager (AEM).
- Knowledge of SEO, GEO, and SEM principles in multilingual and multi-market contexts.
- Experience with agile product development and cross-functional pod or scrum team working.
- Knowledge of data privacy regulations applicable to key markets (e.g., GDPR, PIPL, PIPA, LGPD, CCPA).