Role Overview
As a Project Manager (Japanese Speaker), you will serve as the vital link between our creative production teams and our Japanese clientele. You are more than a translator; you are a facilitator of vision. You will oversee the lifecycle of game assets and animation pipelines, ensuring that creative intent is preserved across languages while maintaining rigorous production schedules and budgets.
Key Responsibilities
1. Strategic Project Orchestration
- End-to-End Oversight: Manage projects from initial briefing and bidding through to final delivery, ensuring all milestones are met.
- Resource Allocation: Together with Leads, identify team strengths and assign tasks across departments to maximize efficiency.
- Schedule & Risk Management: Design robust project timelines; proactively identify, surface and resolve bottlenecks, implement contingency plans to keep production on track.
- Budget Accountability: Monitor project burn rates, resolve budget queries, and negotiate additional resources when scope creep occurs.
2. Linguistic & Cultural Liaison
- Technical Translation: Provide accurate translation of technical briefs, feedback loops and documentation.
- Meetings: Facilitate real-time communication in client meetings, ensuring technical nuances and creative feedback are clearly understood by both parties.
- Quality Assurance: Audit translated assets and documentation to ensure consistency in terminology, tone, and cultural appropriateness for the Japanese market.
3. Team Leadership & Stakeholder Management
- Performance Coaching: Mentor team members on industry best practices and direct performance reviews to maintain high studio standards.
- Reporting: Prepare data-driven updates for upper management, showcasing project health, ROI, and delivery status.
- Client Relations: Build trust with Japanese stakeholders by demonstrating an understanding of their corporate etiquette and creative standards.
Job Requirements
- Experience: Minimum 3 years of project management experience, specifically within the gaming or animation industries.
- Language Mastery: Native-level fluency or JLPT N1/N2 certification. Must be capable of translating complex creative feedback and technical jargon.
- Production Knowledge: Strong grasp of modern production methodologies (Agile, Scrum, or Waterfall) and familiarity with tools like Jira, ShotGrid, or Trello.
- Soft Skills: Exceptional negotiation skills and the ability to remain the calm in the storm when navigating tight deadlines or shifting client requirements.
- Adaptability: A collaborative mindset with the flexibility to pivot between high-level management and granular translation tasks.
