Russian Translator and Project Manager

Company Overview:
With an annual budget of $1.6 billion and more than 6,000 employees throughout the five boroughs, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) is one of the largest public health agencies in the world, serving 8 million New Yorkers from diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. We are tackling a broad range of public health issues with innovative policies and programs and getting exceptional results, but our work is never finished. The breadth of our innovative programs provides the widest range of choices for every member of our team.
Since January 2020, DOHMH has been fighting the COVID-19 pandemic- activities include but are not limited to surveillance & epidemiological investigations; lab testing; engaging and providing guidance to healthcare partners; ensuring the safety & health of responders; providing timely and accurate information to the public; promoting the emotional health of New Yorkers and coordinating citywide COVID-19 vaccine administration. With grant funds from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), DOHMH is undertaking a new initiative to establish, expand, train, and sustain the public health workforce to support jurisdictional COVID-19 prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery initiatives over 2 years.
The selected candidate will be an employee of Public Health Solutions, a nonprofit organization which is the fiscal and administrative manager of the grant but will work be supervised by DOHMH. This is a grant-funded position ending June 30, 2023.

Program Description:
Within the Health Department, the Office of External Affairs, the Language Services Unit works to ensure that differences in language, culture, and literacy do not create barriers to health care access. The unit’s main mission is to coordinate language services for the agency. The agency has more than 100 programs that protect and promote the health of the world’s most culturally and linguistically diverse city. Each of those programs relies on the communications unit to create, edit, design, and translate critical messages to the public. During the COVID-19 pandemic, our team has work tirelessly to make sure all New Yorkers have all the information they need to be safe in more than 20 languages.

Summary of Position:
DOHMH has an opening for a Russian Translator/Project Manager. Reporting to the Translation Manager, the Russian Translator’s duties include but are not limited to:

• Supporting the Agency in its efforts to comply with Local Law 30: The Citywide Policy on Language Access to ensure the effective delivery of City Services and meaningful access to City Programs and activities for all City residents regardless of their proficiency in English.

• Improving outreach to diverse communities throughout New York City via the establishment of collaborative working relationships with community-based organizations throughout New York City.

Specifically, the Russian Translator and Project Manager will:

• Provide input on cultural and linguistic issues related to the development of communications materials related to COVID-19 for diverse New York City audiences with outreach to community-based organizations, other City Agencies, and constituents.
• Act as a liaison with programs and external partners such as a community-based organization regarding COVID-19 documents translation on many different languages for New York City residents as needed.
• Assist in the development of resources and recommendations to improve the effectiveness of agency language services across New York City neighborhoods/communities.
• Provide guidance and support for programs using document translation services for materials and pamphlets that go to New York City residents.
• Translate a vast range of communication materials related to COVID-19 (booklets, fact sheets, press releases, press updates, social media posts and marketing campaigns) into Russian for distribution to community-based organizations and the city at large.
• Assist in editing public-facing materials for easy comprehension, style consistency, and managing translations into appropriate languages.

Qualifications and Requirements:

• Converse and write fluently in English and native fluency in Russian writing and conversation. In addition:
• Two years of full-time experience in translating from English into Russian and vice versa.
• Capacity and willingness to learn Trados and CAT memory tools.
• The ideal candidate for this position must be a pro-active and self-motivated individual with the ability to work in teams and in a highly dynamic environment with multiple stakeholders and timelines.
• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or University
• Excellent judgement, editing, writing and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to communicate complex messages clearly and simply to highly diverse New York City audiences
• Native fluency in Russian
• Experience and/or education as an English to Russian translator
• Strong organizational and problem-solving skills
• Positive attitude and team-oriented outlook.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with stakeholder engagement and project management.
• Experience in or knowledge of radio/TV production
• Excellent communication (verbal & written) and interpersonal skills.
• Strong analytical skills and ability to manage and report complex information.
• Desire to grow professionally, develop new skills and willingness to work outside of comfort zone.
• Experience working with the public health sector and coordinating projects involving multiple stakeholders.
• Ability to prioritize and work in fast-paced environment with hard deadlines.
• Fluency in Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint.

NOTE: All applicants must comply with PHS’ vaccination policy. Effective October 1, 2021, employees will be required to provide verification that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (with an FDA-authorized vaccine).
PHS is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women, people of color, persons with disabilities, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, and veterans.

Job Type: Temporary