Vacancy: French/English Bilingual Technical Interpreter

Job Description

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is a scientific nonprofit organization that sets standards for the identity, strength, quality, and purity of medicines, food ingredients, and dietary supplements manufactured, distributed and consumed worldwide. USP’s drug standards are enforceable in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration, and these standards are used in more than 140 countries.

USP is an independent nonprofit organization with nearly 200 years of experience developing quality standards for medicines. Through its global public health programs, USP strengthens medicines quality assurance systems, increases the supply of quality-assured medicines, and develops capacity to detect and remove poor-quality medicines from the market. By sharing scientific expertise and providing technical support and leadership, USP helps local regulators improve and sustain local health systems and enables manufacturers to supply quality-assured essential medicines for years to come. Through these efforts, USP is able to help detect and identify poor quality health products in disease areas such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases, as well as helping safeguard the maternal, newborn, and child health sectors.

USP was recently awarded the Promoting the Quality of Medicines Plus (PQM+), a USAID-funded global program designed to sustainably strengthen medical product quality assurance systems in low-and-middle income countries.  PQM+ is currently in the process of starting up activities in the ECOWAS region and is seeking an ECOWAS based consultant to provide interpretation services (French/English) for meetings, workshops, training videos for project implementation. S/he will work under the guidance of the program manager for West Africa and in coordination with technical staff at USP headquarters in Rockville, MD.

The period of performance for this consultancy will begin in July and run through September 30, 2020.  

Scope of Work:

• Provide simultaneous interpretation for virtual workshops and meetings


• Provide simultaneous interpretation for field workshops and meetings


• Provide interpretation, voice-overs for pre-recorded technical training videos

Deliverables:

Activity-based report to USP project manager

Required Skills or Experience

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in English Language (if native Francophone) or French Language (if native Anglophone) or interpretation (French/English).

Experience:

• Prior USAID experience and knowledge of USAID rules and regulations preferred


• At least 5 years professional experience doing simultaneous translation at international meetings/workshops related to medicines regulations, product quality, quality assurance and quality control.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• A native French speaker is preferred.


• Must be proficient in English and French and possess excellent verbal skills.


• Certified professional translator.


• Basic knowledge of medicines regulation in Africa and public health issues/threats on the continent.


• High level of integrity and commitment to quality.


• Conversant with virtual meeting platforms such as Webex, Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft teams, Skype etc.


• Resident and ability to travel within the ECOWAS region but strong preference for individuals resident in any of the UEMOA countries.