The Résumé of Dan Charlson

11 years in software and web industry, including:
  8 years program (5 years) and project (3 years) management
  7 years at Microsoft (6 as employee, 1 as contractor)
  7 years in localization
  3 years in software test engineering
  2.5 years natural language processing (NLP)
  2 years as team lead or manager
  2 years in account management / business analysis and strategy

• Highly motivated, committed, self-starter; flexible and adaptable; able to take direction
• Outgoing and personable team player who builds rapport with internal and external stakeholders; customer-focused: balancing, optimizing scope, schedule, resources and risk
• Strong communicator, open and respectful of others; capable negotiator, noted for effective cross-group liaison, communication, and evangelism of team's vision and mission
• Articulate, precise presenter of written and spoken communication, tuned to each audience
• Passionate about technology, with keen eye to improving existing processes, and innovating automatable solutions to new challenges
• Fast and eager learner, with broad yet deep knowledge in several related domains

• Program and Project Management / Software Test Engineering / Team Management
• Software Internationalization (I18N), Globalization (G11n), Localizability, Localization (L10N)
• Natural Language Processing (NLP) / Usability / Security Threat Modeling, Risk Analysis
• Multilingual, CJK, Bidi Computing / Computer-Aided Translation Tools & Technology
• XML (XSLT & XSD) / Web Authoring / Encodings, Fonts / MS Office Software Power User
• Platforms: Windows (Win9x, 2000, XP, Vista) / UNIX & Linux / MacOS
• Familiarity with: SQL, C, C#, VBA, Perl; IR & Search; Content, Knowledge, Taxonomy management
• Familiarity with: Photoshop, PageMaker, FrameMaker, Illustrator, FreeHand, Flash, etc.

• Magna Cum Laude Graduate, University of Washington, Seattle; two undergraduate degrees:
  • Bachelor of Arts in Linguistics Honors (specialized in Japanese)
  • Bachelor of Arts in Japan Studies (Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies)
  • 1993 Award Recipient of Henry S. Tatsumi Scholarship for Excellence in the Study of Japanese
  • Inducted into the national Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society
• Reed College, Portland, OR (Major: Russian Language & Literature)

• Wtr 02: C Programming: Intro & Intermediate (DL) - "Successful Completion" UW
• Wtr 01: Korean I: Grammar/Reading/Writing - (ungraded) Korean Club at Microsoft
• Spr 00: Database Management Systems - "A" New York University SCPS
• Wtr 00: Arabic II: Intensive - "Credit" New York University SCPS
• Aut 99: Arabic I: Intensive - "A" New York University SCPS
• Wtr 98: C Programming: Basics - "Successful Completion" UW Extension Program
  For my final project I wrote a small program which emulates a weekly timecard. (It is the only .exe listed.)
• Sum 97: Japanese 4th Year Class - "A-" Middlebury College's Summer Language School

• Native: English
• Advanced: Japanese [speak; read/write] I once knew ~2500 kanji (jouyou kanji plus)
• Intermediate: French, Russian [reading only], Latin
• Elementary: Arabic, Korean [minimal reading, writing, and speech]
• Linguistic knowledge: Swedish, Thai, Chinese, Hawaiian, major European languages

• Identified, owned and drove all internationalization and localization efforts company-wide
• Evangelized internationalization by creating and delivering trainings company-wide
• Delivered International Payment Method recommendations with regional Product Mgrs
• Performed globalization analyses on company programs; e.g., world-ready address handling

• Performed spec and globalization reviews of products, tools, and processes from 14 teams
• Spec'd, negotiated, shipped high number of 3-, 6-, 12-month workarounds and projects
• PM'd/shipped enterprise-scale test tool, Octave, a multilingual markup-based content differ
• XML SME: developed stylesheets, XML schema for internal tools; developed, gave trainings

• Assumed ownership of Statistical (fka Phrasal) Speller, a machine-learning spell-checking project; successfully negotiated a cross-group plan past an impasse, shipped M4 Version
• Drove cross-group efforts in Security, Privacy, and Localization compliance as Authoring Group representative to cross-platform task forces
• Compiled and extended Threat Model for Authoring architecture, and helped establish format for security reviews
• Owned group's end-to-end content and metadata Build Integration issues

• At M0 stepped into team lead capacity of Knowledge Management team in newly-formed NUI Platform Group. Identified the need for an internal log analysis tool, and wrote appropriate specification after repeated analyses of web server logs utilizing clustering tools
• While learning and using XML Topic Map technology to design schemas for knowledge representation, participated in team-wide knowledge structure instantiation (creation)
• KM team representative/contact with PSS and CDDG; went on site visits, identified and reported on complex requirements and areas for collaboration, fostering partnerships
• Participated in team-wide testing efforts of prototype knowledge structure editor

• Designed, ran, and analyzed tests of linguistic data using large English corpora over the new-this-cycle Semantics layer
• Coordinated within and across own and other linguistic and functional test teams to ship a text-based NL command and query system
• Rationalized and documented a metadata-encoding scheme for classification of error types in group-wide corpora database, enhancing issue detection and prioritization

• Led client interactions to vision, spec, and cost-estimate 3-, 6-, and 12- month long internal and client-oriented projects (both translation/localization and custom application development)
• Managed one team of ten network and software engineers, and another team of 10 desktop publishing specialists and designers via an intermediary manager to execute these projects on schedule and within budget
• Designed and led implementation of the company's ecommerce and eCRM-oriented website
• Implemented systematic and rigorous application development and quality assurance methodologies; e.g., specs, bug tracking and development project databases
• Contributed to corporate strategy regarding Internet and translation industry developments
• Trained staff in localization techniques
• Managed translation memory databases

• Account manager for several Fortune 500 companies—multiple project with budgets up to US$2M
• Performed project analysis, budgeted and resource allocated all steps in translation & localization processes
• Wrote time-saving macros (one reduced the project analysis phase by 90%)
• Developed procedure and training docs where there hadn't been any
• Coordinated site participation in enterprise-wide ISO9000 certification project
• Wrote extensive site-specific documentation

• As a contract STE, designed and wrote test cases, ran, automated, and analyzed tests of linguistic data using large Japanese corpora
• Designed, automated, and ran functional tests
• Coordinated and reported efforts of native-speaker team members
• Automated several management-oriented reporting mechanisms (primarily Excel charts) using VBA (Visual Basic for Applications)

• Worked in HMC's Interpreter Services Office as Advance Scheduler of Interpreters for non-English speaking patients using Access database application

• Established Branch Office presence for Ark Interface in Tokyo
• Managed and implemented Ark International Group localization projects for customers and clients around the Pacific Rim in close coordination with Home Office personnel

• Assisted Director of International Team create, manage and implement localization processes for numerous language versions of the company's products
• Designed process flow; assessed and researched technical and linguistic requirements

• Applied quality assurance methodologies to software
• Followed, wrote, and implemented test suites
• Communicated findings and observations to concerned parties in a timely, efficient, and diplomatic manner, or using bug database

• Performed advanced word processing for offer, response and termination materials
• Wrote many macros in Word to automate document processes, reducing time per doc by up to 90%
• Generation, maintenance and destruction of confidential employee files
• Telephone Support (answering and responding to employee concerns)
• Data entry and cleanup of personnel database

© 1996-2006 Dan Charlson

www.dancha.com