Communications and Language Access Specialist - Urdu

The Agency You’ll Join

The New York City Mayor’s Office is responsible for overseeing city services throughout the five boroughs, coordinating public agencies and departments, and managing public property. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is head of the executive branch of New York City's government. Previously, Mayor Adams has served the people of New York City as an NYPD officer, state senator, and Brooklyn borough president. The Adams’ administration is leading the fight to serve the people of the greatest city in the world, ensuring delivery of efficient and effective services, working to make New York City’s economy stronger, reducing inequality, improving public safety, and making the city more affordable that meets the needs of all New Yorkers. We value leadership, transparency, fairness, and efficiency as we actively seek diverse talents from various sectors to join our team.

The Team You’ll Work With

The Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA) was established pursuant to the New York City Charter to promote the well-being of New York City’s immigrant communities. To achieve this, MOIA serves as a bridge between city government and immigrant communities; advises and assists in developing and implementing policies and programs designed to assist immigrants and speakers of other languages; and supports and enhances the ability of city agencies and offices to serve immigrant communities city-wide. To learn more, visit: https://www.nyc.gov/site/immigrants/

The Problems You’ll Solve

MOIA seeks a Communications and Language Specialist who will join a dynamic team in a fast-paced work environment. Reporting to the Language Access Hub Manager and working closely with the MOIA’s Communications Team, the Communications and Language Access Specialist will serve as a liaison to the Urdu-speaking community and advise city agencies on how to effectively communicate with Urdu speakers.

The Communications and Language Access Specialist will play a critical role in the development and execution of strategic initiatives designed to connect immigrant New Yorkers to critical and accurate policy information, develop a strong feedback loop on translation practices from agency partners, and maintain close communication and collaboration with external community partners, including conducting community focus groups.

In this role, the Communications and Language Access Specialist will have key responsibilities, including:

• Strategic Interagency Partnership: Serve as a strategic partner for language access to city agencies, providing best practice guidance on translations, interpretation, thought partnership support on how to communicate and get resources out to the immigrant community, and maintaining a feedback loop for translated materials.
• Translation of Materials: Translate a vast range of communication materials, working with Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools. Materials include but are not limited to website content, fact sheets, flyers, information on services, social media posts, press releases, PowerPoint presentations, marketing campaigns, subtitles for videos, etc.
• Translation Review: Review translated materials for accuracy and consistency, and appropriateness for the target communities; recommend and/or provide edits.
• Community Liaison: Serve as a Language Access Liaison to Urdu Urdu-speaking immigrant community, which includes understanding language needs and how to communicate effectively with the community.
• Technical Assistance: Provide other support to the Language Services Team as needed by helping to train staff on language services, providing technical assistance on language services best practices to other city agencies, attending community events requiring interpretation to help set up, distribute, and collect interpretation equipment, and coordinate interpreters, assisting with social media communications, voiceovers, project management, and typesetting.
• Advising on Material Development: Advising on material development, including toplines, talking points, speeches, and content that is released by MOIA and is relevant to Urdu-speaking communities.
• Community Engagement: Ensure that, as a Language Access Specialist, you are rooted in the community, which you will do in two ways. Attend and support external-facing events and meetings with Urdu-speaking communities. Engage and develop professional relationships with community partners to develop style guides, glossaries, and other tools to improve the quality of translations.
• Reporting: Assist with monthly and yearly reporting of language services indicators.
• Work occasional evenings.
• Perform other related assignments and special projects, as directed.

About You

• You have experience serving immigrant communities.
• You have familiarity with language usage among communities of New York City.
• You have the ability to communicate complex messages clearly and simply to diverse New York City audiences.
• You have the ability to prioritize and work in a fast-paced environment with firm deadlines.
• You have excellent project management and organizational skills.
• You have the capacity and willingness to learn CAT tools, such as SDL Trados Studio and MultiTerm.
• You can converse and write fluently in English and have native fluency in Urdu.
• You have two years of experience in translation, or a bachelor’s degree in Translation, and at least one year of experience in English to Urdu.

MAYORAL PROGRAM COORDINATOR (M - 06423