Korean Language Manager (12-month contract)

Full job description

About the Role

As our Korean Language Manager, you’ll be responsible for making Canva feel truly local for users in Korea.

You’ll shape how Canva sounds and feels across Product, Marketing, Content, and other key surfaces, making sure the Korean experience is clear, natural, culturally relevant, and consistent.

This is much more than a translation role. You’ll be the language and cultural expert for Korea, working closely with Product, Design, Engineering, Marketing, and Localisation teams to identify opportunities, improve quality, and advocate for Korean users across Canva.

You’ll also help us evolve how we work as localisation becomes increasingly AI-enabled, balancing quality, scale, automation, and the moments where human craft matters most.

What you’ll do (responsibilities)

• Shape Canva’s voice across Product, Marketing, Content, and other user-facing experiences in Korean.

• Translate, review, transcreate, and adapt key content when needed.

• Own and evolve Korean linguistic assets, including style guides, glossaries, and terminology.

• Regularly audit Canva’s Korean experience and proactively identify opportunities for improvement.

• Review vendor translations and provide actionable quality feedback.

• Work with localisation partners to improve quality and consistency over time.

• Provide cultural and linguistic guidance to teams across Canva.

• Support product testing and localisation QA for new features and launches.

• Use user insights, quality data, and product signals to prioritise localisation opportunities.

• Experiment with AI-assisted localisation workflows and help evaluate their quality for Korean.

• Help us decide where automation can scale and where human expertise remains essential.

Qualifications and requirements

What we're looking for

You’re a strong Korean writer with excellent linguistic judgement and a deep understanding of how language, culture, and context shape the way people experience a product.

You know that great localisation goes beyond translating words. You think about the full user experience, including tone, messaging, terminology, visual context, and whether something genuinely feels right for Korean users.

You’re proactive and comfortable working in ambiguity. You don’t wait for issues to be reported, you explore the product, identify opportunities, and work with others to improve them.

You’re also comfortable influencing people who don’t report to you. You can explain linguistic and cultural recommendations clearly to non-linguistic stakeholders and use context, user insights, data, or examples to bring others along.

You’ll ideally bring:

• Native Korean language proficiency and excellent writing skills.

• Professional-level English communication skills.

• Experience in localisation, language management, UX writing, content design, translation, transcreation, or a related field.

• Experience maintaining linguistic quality across multiple content types and surfaces.

• Strong understanding of style guides, glossaries, terminology management, and localisation QA.

• Experience working with localisation vendors or external linguists.

• Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills.

• Comfort working in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities.

• Curiosity about AI and how it is changing localisation workflows.

We’d also love it if you have:

• Previous experience as an in-house Language Manager or Language Lead.

• Experience localising SaaS, consumer tech, or digital products.

• Experience with CAT/TMS tools such as Smartling.

• Experience with UX writing, copywriting, or transcreation.

• Experience evaluating machine translation or LLM-generated content.

• Familiarity with LQA or MQM frameworks.

• Experience using data, user research, or product insights to inform localisation decisions.

• Experience working with Product, Design, or Engineering teams.

• A background in linguistics, translation, literature, localisation, or a related discipline.

What we're looking for

You’re a strong Korean writer with excellent linguistic judgement and a deep understanding of how language, culture, and context shape the way people experience a product.

You know that great localisation goes beyond translating words. You think about the full user experience, including tone, messaging, terminology, visual context, and whether something genuinely feels right for Korean users.

You’re proactive and comfortable working in ambiguity. You don’t wait for issues to be reported, you explore the product, identify opportunities, and work with others to improve them.

You’re also comfortable influencing people who don’t report to you. You can explain linguistic and cultural recommendations clearly to non-linguistic stakeholders and use context, user insights, data, or examples to bring others along.

You’ll ideally bring:

• Native Korean language proficiency and excellent writing skills.

• Professional-level English communication skills.

• Experience in localisation, language management, UX writing, content design, translation, transcreation, or a related field.

• Experience maintaining linguistic quality across multiple content types and surfaces.

• Strong understanding of style guides, glossaries, terminology management, and localisation QA.

• Experience working with localisation vendors or external linguists.

• Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional collaboration skills.

• Comfort working in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities.

• Curiosity about AI and how it is changing localisation workflows.

We’d also love it if you have:

• Previous experience as an in-house Language Manager or Language Lead.

• Experience localising SaaS, consumer tech, or digital products.

• Experience with CAT/TMS tools such as Smartling.

• Experience with UX writing, copywriting, or transcreation.

• Experience evaluating machine translation or LLM-generated content.

• Familiarity with LQA or MQM frameworks.

• Experience using data, user research, or product insights to inform localisation decisions.

• Experience working with Product, Design, or Engineering teams.

• A background in linguistics, translation, literature, localisation, or a related discipline.

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