Soren Eberhardt

Soren Eberhardt is a senior program manager in the Skype localization team at Microsoft, working on language quality and language planning strategies and projects. He has worked in the field of internationalization and localization for the last 20 years, both on the vendor side and client side. He's held roles as translator, localization engineer and project and program manager over the years.

While at Microsoft, Eberhardt has worked on the localization of Windows and Office as well as Skype products. In addition, he has taught localization classes at the University of Washington and classes on computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools at New York University. He has published several e-books on languages. The language with the fewest speakers he has ever localized a product for is Inuktitut.

Experience

Market Engagement Program Manager

• Company Name Microsoft
• Dates EmployedJan 2019 – Present
• Employment Duration5 mos
• LocationUnited States

Instructor

• Company Name University of Washington
• Dates EmployedJan 2012 – Present
• Employment Duration7 yrs 5 mos
• LocationGreater Seattle Area

Instructor for the Localization Engineering course of the University of Washington Localization Certificate program in 2012 and 2013. Instructor for the Introduction to Localization course for undergraduates at the University of Washington in 2013 and 2014.

Senior Program Manager (Skype)

• Company Name Microsoft (Skype)
• Total Duration5 yrs 11 mos
• Dates EmployedSep 2015 – Dec 2018
• Employment Duration3 yrs 4 mos

• LocationGreater Seattle Area

  • Responsible for driving the overall linguistic quality strategy and in the Skype Localization Team. Ensured smooth on-ramping of new localization service provider in the translation space in summer 2016. Introduced native speaker testing by LSP in 2018, with threefold increase in bug finding efficiency compared to previous model.
  • Responsible for Skype's data-driven language strategy. Coordinator of Microsoft’s cross-organizational initiative on language offerings planning.
  • Responsible for on-boarding several Skype products to localization workflows.
  • Project manager for initial localization of Microsoft Teams: drove localization into 18 languages for general availability release in March 2017. See less

IPM (Skype)

• Dates Employed Feb 2013 – Aug 2015
• Employment Duration2 yrs 7 mos

International Project Manager for Lync for Windows and Lync for Windows 8 Store App: Influencing the Lync feature teams to ensure world-readiness and market suitability of Lync products. Working closely with IPE and test as well as Localization Service Providers on delivering high-quality localized versions in agile model. Responsible for driving geopolitical framework, world-readiness framework and language excellence in the Lync Intl team. See less

Instructor

• Company Name New York University
• Dates EmployedOct 2012 – Jul 2016
• Employment Duration3 yrs 10 mos

Co-taught "Introduction to CAT and Terminology Management" with Carla diFranco, a very well-received online course on computer-aided translation tools and terminology management at the NYU School of Professional Studies Department of Foreign Languages, Translation and Interpreting

IPM (Office)

• Company Name Microsoft
• Total Duration11 yrs 2 mos
• Dates EmployedDec 2010 – Feb 2013
• Employment Duration2 yrs 3 mos

• LocationRedmond, WA

  • Product IPM for Lync (Server, Client, Online): Integrating with the Lync core teams to ensure world-readiness and market suitability of Lync products (for example, by spec reviews). Working closely with core program management and UX designers to understand and influence the scenario and feature investments for Office 15 and beyond; collaborating with P... See more

IPM (Unified Communications)

• Dates EmployedJul 2008 – Dec 2010

• Employment Duration2 yrs 6 mos

  • IPM for Office Communicator localization (38 languages) and then Lync Server localization (9 languages): Leading cross-functional team, end-to-end project management and vendor management, building strong relationships with all stakeholders.
  • Process optimization tasks: Reorganizing the IPM team's wiki, redefining the localization team's bug management processes, defining international spec review process, defining world-readiness strategies. Saved company $ 200,000 by driving for a new auto-translation process. See less

Freelance writer

• Company Name European Weekly
• Dates Employed2003 – 2005
• Employment Duration2 yrs

Blogger

• Company Name Literon
• Dates Employed1998 – 2003
• Employment Duration4 yrs

Locatech

• Company Name Locatech
• Dates Employed2001
• Employment Durationless than a year

Education

Universität Paderborn

Degree NameM.A. Field Of Study Comparative literature Dates attended or expected graduation 1986 – 1993

Major in Comparative literature, minored in German Linguistics and Philosophy. Member of the Student Council (AStA) of the Universität Paderborn 1991-92. Student representative of the faculty council for Languages and Arts for several years.