2024-2026 Experiential Learning and Research Impact Report Released
Join us in celebrating the professional and research accomplishments of Middlebury Institute students documented in our 2024-2026 annual Experiential Learning Impact Report.
Master of Arts in Translation and Localization Management
Soka University of America (SUA) has signed an agreement with Middlebury to purchase the Middlebury Institute campus in Monterey. The sale establishes the Monterey Institute of International Studies at Soka University of America, which will continue select graduate programs, including the MA in Translation and Localization Management, starting fall 2027.
You can find additional information, including how to apply and program details, on the SUA website.
Current Students
Spring 2026 was the final intake for the Middlebury offering of this program. Currently enrolled students will complete their degrees by summer 2027. We are committed to supporting all of our students through the completion of their degrees with rigorous academics, experiential learning opportunities, and career planning. Learn more.
Degree Program
Our Master of Arts in Translation and Localization Management (TLM) degree prepares you for a career working at the intersection of language, culture, business, AI, and technology. Our graduates work around the world in a range of roles, including as localization program managers and language leads at tech firms like Netflix, Google, and Salesforce, and as project managers at leading translation companies.
What is Localization?
Localization is the process of adapting the content related to an idea, service, or product to the language and culture of a specific market or region.
AI and Localization
AI is changing the language services industry. Most, if not all job descriptions in the localization industry are being rewritten and expanded to include AI.
From its inception, our program has prepared graduates to leverage new technologies and lead:
- You will learn to incorporate AI into your work, increasing your efficiency and scale.
- You will develop skills that allow you to respond to changes, e.g. hard skills like workflow design and coding, soft skills like adaptability and change management, troubleshooting, and problem-solving.
- You will build a growth mindset allowing you to respond to this change and future changes.
- Our program combines language, culture, business, and technology. The technology may change and the way we translate may change but the fundamental business of the industry remains the same.
What better time to go back to school than now when professionals in the industry are having to learn new skills to keep up with the changes. Our graduates are the leading language experts at the global tech, media, entertainment, gaming, and language service providers. Watch our webinar on Navigating the Growth of AI and Changes to the Language Services Industry.
What is Localization?
Adam Wooten, program director for the MA in Localization Project Management and a professor in the Translation and Localization Management program, describes the basics behind localization.
Launch Your Career
Career and Academic Advising
Your career and academic advising are coordinated, ensuring you align your coursework with your career goals. Our experienced advisors will guide you from course registration to preparing for interviews, negotiating your employment offers, and managing your career.
Location
Our Monterey, California, campus is located in a beautiful, multicultural area that’s home to a high concentration of localization companies. Coupled with our proximity to Silicon Valley, you’ll have extensive opportunities to engage with localization professionals, find internships, and explore full-time employment opportunities.
Language Services Career Fair
Our annual language services career fair, hosted at our Monterey, California campus, attracts dozens of employers—like the MediaLocate and Deluxe Media Inc.—all seeking to hire our students for internships and full-time positions.
Alumni Network
Our large and influential alumni network is eager to help you take the next step in your career. They are thriving in careers around the world. Many top employers seek out our graduates as their go-to hires for localization management talent.
Explore careers in localization
Internship
We have 40+ employers of our recent interns including Salesforce and Welocalize to give you further professional experience before you graduate.
Careers
Employers rely on the Institute as their go-to source for finding localization management talent. Our graduates work with some of the most prestigious organizations around the world.
Curriculum
Build your expertise in:
- Project management
- Multiple computer programming languages
- Media localization
- Finance and marketing
- Data-driven localization
- Translation or second language communication (optional)
- Intercultural competence
Language and Intercultural Competence
You will pick one of three tracks to complete this program. All tracks include intercultural competence. The first two options require differing levels of fluency in a second language. The third track only requires fluency in English.
- Translation
- Become a translator or localization professional with translation or editing responsibilities
- Requires native and near-native fluency in English and a second language (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian, or Spanish)
- Language Studies
- Use a second language in professional settings
- Requires 300-level or higher proficiency in Arabic, Chinese, English (if not your first language), French, Japanese, Russian, or Spanish.
- Intercultural Competence
- Many technical and management roles in the language services industry only require fluency in English.
- Prepare to work with a diverse range of colleagues, vendors, and clients.
Learn more about your language and intercultural competence options.
Specializations
You can pursue an optional, career-oriented specialization to deepen your expertise in a particular area:
- Creative Media Localization: focus on localizing news and entertainment, including video games, movies, and multimedia.
- Localization Program Management: manage teams and develop business strategy at the program level.
- Language Services Management: oversee large-scale, multilingual projects, ensuring timelines, budget, and quality standards.
4
-semester, 60-credit master’s
$70
billion industry (and growing)
98%
employed within one year of graduation
Faculty: Professors and Practitioners
You’ll learn from faculty who combine academic expertise with years of professional experience. They’re active in their respective fields, engaging with industry organizations including, the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA), Nimdzi, LocWorld, the American Translators Association (ATA), TAUS, the Northern California Translators Association (NCTA), the International Federation of Translators (FIT), and Translators Without Borders (TWB).
Together with career advisors, our faculty will be your mentors, ensuring that you receive the academic and professional experience that will help you realize your career goals.
Gain In-Demand Skills
Meet Winnie Heh: Career Advisor and Middlebury Institute Graduate
Winnie Heh is a career and academic advisor in translation and interpretation, conference interpretation, and translation and localization management.
Customize Your Translation and Localization Management Degree
Our flexible curriculum means you can customize your degree:
- STEM designation: expanded career opportunities for international students and scholarships for U.S. students.
- Take translation, language studies, and/or intercultural competence courses, depending on your career goals and proficiency in a second language.
- Pursue an optional, career-oriented specialization.
- Accelerated Entry: Complete your degree in three semesters if you have taken relevant localization coursework
- Advanced Entry: Complete your degree in two semesters if you have relevant work experience.
- Joint degrees: earn two master’s degrees in just four semesters, combining the TLM degree with an MA in Translation, MA in Translation and Interpretation, or an MA in Conference Interpretation.
Check out the program details for your options.
The Business of Language and Technology
Transcript
One of the things that makes our program very interesting is that we cover so many different topics. And I think that we have probably the most broad curriculum of any localization program in North America, if not the world.
I picked this program because it combines the linguistic aspect with the technical part, and I think that’s very exciting. And this school is one of the only institutions that offer this program. And because I wanna set foot into the localization industry, this was the best choice for me.
Well, my studies here was a mixture of translation, interpretation and localization. And I had a chance to intern at a Stanford hospital. And we got to use advanced tools, computer assisted translation tools, in the field. That’s a very wonderful opportunity that I got.
We have a really close relationship with the localization industry. And we are always interacting with folks in the industry to find out what kind of skills they’re looking for in the people that they hire. And we’re making changes to our courses to respond to their needs.
We need game testers who have the language skills that we need. And then there’s game testing from a localization point of view, where we’re translating our games, and we need to check primarily when text appears on the screen.
Monterey is so close located to the Bay Area, and also the Silicon Valley, which is really great because this gives us an opportunity to attend events in the Silicon Valley. And those are really helpful also to learn about the localization industry. Many, in fact, in not the majority of our students have internships that are ongoing throughout the academic year. There are a few localization agencies right here, in Monterrey, that they work at, and for other agencies, they work remotely. And we’re finding out that agencies are opening up offices here in Monterrey, partially to get access to our students. Here, you will learn the most advanced expertise in this profession because every professor are the most selective ones in the world. And they are also practicing profession as well. They never stop practicing.
It’s so easy to get help from the professors. Even on the weekend when I had some issues with coding, my professor emailed me right back which was really great.
The goal for our graduates is to get them their dream job in the localization industry. And to do that, we’re giving them the skills that employers are looking for
Everything I’ve learned here so far is so relevant. Just meeting people from the localization industry outside of MIIS made me realize that all the skills are really important to know.
If you’ve been looking for a way to use your language skills, and you’d like to learn some business and technology skills as well, then translation and localization management is the perfect program for you.
Related Programs
The MA in Translation and Localization Management is related to several other programs at the Middlebury Institute:
- MA in Translation and Interpretation: Develop key skills both in and out of your A (native) and B (near-native) languages as you work with real-world texts, high-profile events, and live simulations in a variety of fields.
- Joint MA in Translation and Interpretation/Translation and Localization Management: Launch a flexible career in the language services industry with advanced language and technical skills. Earn two master’s degrees in three years. Fall 2025 was the last intake in this program.
- Subtitling for Streaming: Quickly develop your video skills with this online, self-paced course on the fundamentals of professional subtitling.
- Online MA in Localization Project Management: Learn to manage translation and localization projects in this asynchronous, online program.
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Career Outcomes
- 98%
- Working within 1 year of graduation
- 56
- Different employers of recent graduates