Celebrating ten years at MediaLocate
This year marks 10 years since I began working for MediaLocate. It’s been a great 10 years!
Early Career and Path to MediaLocate
Throughout 2014, I had been working at U.S. Translation Company in Salt Lake City, first, as a machine translation intern, then as a translation technology specialist. I developed pipelines and tools for data cleaning and filtering, and then worked closely with AsiaOnline in training MT engines. I then strategized the company’s first machine translation services from several angles: technical implementation of MT systems, standards for MT post-editor certification, best practices for managing MT-driven projects, training for sales team, and strategy for marketing MT post-editing services. I’m grateful to my employers at US Translation Company, David Utrilla and Amy Clements.
Around that time, my company also sent me to TAUS in Vancouver, where I met Max Troyer, who was evangelizing the Translation and Localization Management program (TLM) at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS). He invited me to apply, and sparked my interest. I applied and was later accepted for advanced entry thanks to my industry experience. Thank you, Max!
In February 2015, I took a road trip to Monterey to scout out the area and also attend the MIIS career fair. The fact that I hadn’t started my studies yet meant that I was an attractive pick for internships–an early hire would mean a long-term contribution to my employer at affordable intern wages.
At the recommendation of Adam Wooten, I applied for a project management internship at MediaLocate. I was interviewed by Martiño Prada and Thomas Huang. My candidacy for the project management internship was going well until my resume was spotted by Vilma Campos, who observed that I had experience in machine translation development and Python programming. She offered me an internship in the engineering department and I accepted. After working for one year as an intern, I was hired on as a full-time localization engineer.
Life at MediaLocate
Working in the office at MediaLocate is like working in a big family. Downstairs in the production office, the calorie counter always tempts with regional delicacies brought by my international colleagues. We represent a huge variety of nationalities: China, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Germany, Philippines, Spain, Korea, and more.
MediaLocate really benefits a lot from talented interns from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. Whether interns or full-time, I crossed paths with many colleagues and friends.
The China Chapter
After a nearly two years in Monterey, I packed up my life belongings into my Honda Element and ventured south to sunnier shores—San Diego—where I was dating a former classmate, Chang Sun. After dating for several months, she had to move back to China. Her visa application was taking a long time. After six months of waiting, I decided I would no longer put the future of our relationship in the hands of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. On October 31st, 2017, I moved to China myself. (We got married in China the next year!)
My manager at MediaLocate, Vilma Campos, and our CEO, Stephan Lins, were a little shocked by my move, but they were supportive and accommodating. They allowed me to continue to work as a freelance contractor.
A couple months after landing in Beijing, I attended a TAUS conference, where I met Alex Han, a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU). He hired me to teach programming and localization in their localization program. I split my work roughly 50/50 between BLCU and MediaLocate.
The young graduates from BLCU’s localization program were an attractive source of talent for MediaLocate. I started a software development internship and recruited two skilled BLCU students, Jason and Sabrina. Together, we automated many projects and strengthened MediaLocate’s development frameworks.
I also met Christy Tang, who continues to play an important role in the company. She started as my localization engineering assistant, but has now grown into an excellent localization engineer herself. She and I automate as much as we can, and then she very reliably handles the daily requests from our clients. She has been an all-star of our team.
My Philosophy of Value Creation
I believe in this philosophy of adding value. Whenever I receive a task, I follow these steps:
- Do it
- Automate it
- Document it
- Delegate it
I first do the project several times to learn the ins-and-outs. I then automate as much as I can using any tools available: Python, VBA, JavaScript, etc. The automation eventually turns into an executable, runnable with the click of a button. I then document how to use this executable, as well as perform anything else that can’t be automated. Finally, I send my automation and my documentation to a trusted colleague. They run the automation and perform the steps in the documentation, only looping me in if something goes amiss.
I’ve found this process to create immense value. It takes full advantage of several venues for value creation: 1) automation by technology, 2) knowledge management, and 3) social network.
Lessons from My Manager
My work at MediaLocate has been shaped and guided extensively by my manager, Vilma Campos. In October of 2024, she celebrated 20 years of working for MediaLocate. She has taught me several key principles of success.
Improve Processes, Not People: Focus on optimizing and automating processes rather than criticizing individuals for mistakes. Errors are seen as opportunities to redesign workflows and implement automation, not as reasons to blame yourself or others.
Value of Automation and Programming: Always look for opportunities to automate repetitive or manual tasks, even if it requires learning new skills, such as programming. Prioritize long-term efficiency through automation instead of doing tasks manually for immediate speed.
Appreciate Beauty and Enjoyment in Work: Take time to enjoy your environment and recognize the beauty in your surroundings, at work and beyond. Bring joy and fun into challenging tasks, turning hard work into energizing team experiences—like sharing pizza during late-night projects.
Hard Work and Fulfillment: Commit to projects with intensity and effort, recognizing that hard work can be deeply rewarding, especially when shared with a team. Learn to find value and satisfaction in facing and overcoming demanding tasks.
Supportive and Empowering Leadership: Encourage and recognize the accomplishments of team members, providing both motivation and autonomy. Offer support for both professional goals and personal lives, creating an environment where people feel appreciated and empowered.
Team Collaboration: Emphasize the significance of teamwork, proactive onboarding, and mentoring new team members. Foster an atmosphere where team members help each other grow and succeed together.
Clear Documentation: Consistently create and maintain clear documentation for all processes and workflows. Make sure that knowledge is openly shared so that processes remain accessible and repeatable for everyone.
Support for Personal and Family Endeavors: Be considerate and supportive of colleagues’ family and outside commitments. Help others find a healthy balance between their professional responsibilities and personal goals.
Global Perspective and Opportunity Development: Leverage the unique talents and locations of team members to create new opportunities, such as developing internships and international collaborations, to drive innovation and growth.
Professional Growth and Development
Throughout my ten years of experience as a localization engineer, I’ve worked on thousands of projects across a wide range of content types. I’m most familiar with iOS, Android, InDesign, DITA, and MadCap Flare. Actually, I even gave a speech about DITA and Flare at tcworld China in 2023!.
I owe big thanks to our CEO, Stephan Lins for sending me to conferences like TAUS and tcworld. He also sent me to another conference for small business providers for government services in San Diego. I accompanied salesperson Sean Scheufler as a solutions architect. I would also attend meetings of the BYU Management Society in San Diego. Thank you, Stephan, for your confidence in me.
When I attend conferences, I always attend with the mindset of creating value for others and the company I represent. That means breaking out of my introvert shell and getting to know as many people as I can. I always ask, “what’s the most challenging part of your work these days?” The answer to this question usually opens up opportunities for sharing insights and making connections.
Evolution of My Role
From 2021 to 2023, I set out on an unconventional career goal: to make myself obsolete. At the time, I was servicing about ten clients as localization engineer. To begin, I automated as much as I could for these 10 clients using Python. I then documented each process clearly and concisely. Finally, I trained my colleague Christy on how to complete these projects. I achieved my final goal of passing off all my production work to Christy.
The effort was tremendously successful. Christy is a reliable and effective engineer. She regularly and efficiently completes all of these projects on her own. The only issue now was that I had successfully put myself out of a job.
I booked a flight to MediaLocate headquarters to visit my manager, Vilma Campos, and my CEO, Stephan Lins. In that meeting, I laid out how I envision my role at MediaLocate: a top-level individual contributor (IC), a technical decision-maker, and an engineering team mentor. I proposed the title of “Staff Engineer,” and MediaLocate leadership agreed. My role at MediaLocate now is exactly that: I write code, make technical decisions, and contribute to our AI brain trust. These days, I’m spending most of my time writing software that interfaces between translation management systems and large language models. I’m deeply involved with the OpenAI API, the WorldServer SDK, and software development frameworks for Python.
The role of staff engineer suits me really well because it gives me the flexibility to handle my teaching load at Beijing Language and Culture University. My teaching schedule is strict, but my staff engineering role is flexible. Because it’s not tied directly to production tasks, my work is not influenced by urgent deadlines or all-hands-on-deck scrambles to complete a project.
The more contemplative nature of my work as staff engineer means I can put my best effort into software development. The software I write for MediaLocate is optimized and production ready. That means it features a graphical user interface (GUI), handles exceptions comprehensively, optimizes performance by using multithreading and concurrent API requests. The code I write is object-oriented, where classes inherit from one another. The final result is packaged into an executable, which can be installed on Windows or MacOS. I also supply documentation for use, and developer notes for other software engineers. We make full use of GitHub, where we use branches, commits, and pull requests to coordinate our efforts.
Looking to the Future
What does the next ten years hold?
Recently, I was honored for my contribution to the LangOps movement. I was recognized as a LangOps pioneer in May 2025. I recognize the changes in the air around localization. My book chapter, titled Localization in the AI Era, which was published by Routledge in Translation Studies in the Era of Artificial Intelligence lays out my vision.
Translation is about delivering a product, whereas LangOps is about building a system. A LangOps system should be equipped to handle any language request by customers or employees into any langauge in real-time, applying AI-first principles, leveraging clean and abundant data, and pulling in human insight as much or as little as needed. A LangOps system makes full use of advanced techniques like retrieval-augmented generation, knowledge graphs, quality estimation, and automatic post-editing. Now, I am designing LangOps implementation roadmaps and technology for global enterprises who believe in the LangOps vision.
I welcome the bright future that awaits us with LangOps, and I give heartfelt thanks to MediaLocate, which has been the fertile ground for me to grow as an engineer and language technology strategist. Here’s to the next ten years!