Senior Translator at African Development Bank - AfDB

The primary role of the Language Services Department is to ensure, as required by the Bank’s Agreement, the accessibility in the two working languages of the Bank (English and French, and on occasion Arabic and Portuguese) of all issues and documents submitted to the Senior Management and governing bodies of the Bank, for efficient decision-making aimed at the achievement of the Bank’s mission. To this end, high priority will be accorded to ensuring an accurate and effective flow of communication within the Bank, and also between the Bank, its shareholders, development partners and the public at large, through the translation, interpretation and terminological services provided by the Department.

The specific objective of the French Translation Division (SGLS.2) is to ensure quality translation of all Bank documents into French, as well as the editing in French of key documents such as the Bank Group Annual Report.

Duties and responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Division Manager SGLS.2, the incumbent:

• Translates into French from English, without revision, complex, technical and sensitive documents covering the full range of the Bank’s work, namely: reports of an economic and financial nature, statements from Senior Management, audit reports, planning and programming documents, project appraisal reports, legal documents, etc.:
•  Must aim at a high standard of accuracy, faithfulness to the spirit, letter, style and nuances of the original;
•  Observes established terminology and usage;
•  Advises on language matters and proposes improvements to the translation process;
•  Assists less experienced internal and external translators and helps to develop the Department’s terminology base;
• Participates in working groups on various issues related to the business of the Bank in general, and that of the Department in particular;
• Performs any other duty assigned to him/her by Management.

Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience

Candidates must:

• A minimum of a Master’s degree in translation.
• Qualifications in any other discipline relevant to the business of the African Development Bank Group would be an added advantage;
• Have at least 5 years of practical experience in professional translation (particularly in the economic field, finance and/or law), at least 3 of which (for external candidates) should have been spent working in or with an international organization (preferably multilateral development banks);
• Have extensive general knowledge and be able to quickly adapt to a complex multicultural environment;
• Possess excellent writing skills and a sound mastery of language standards;
• Be able to quickly blend into, and maintain a smooth working relationship with a multilingual team;
• Have a sound knowledge of, and be able to use modern Computer-Assisted Translation tools (Trados, Multitrans, etc)
• Be conversant with all the standard software used in the Bank to be able to directly perform his/her assignments on the computer.