3 min read

Joining Mozilla — Working on Pontoon

Table of Contents

Mozilla ships software in dozens of languages, and almost none of that happens by magic. Behind every translated button and onboarding string is a pipeline of translators, reviewers, and tooling. I work on that tooling.

How I got here

I joined Mozilla as a [role] in [start date], working on [team name]. My focus has been [primary area of focus], reporting to [manager] and collaborating closely with [adjacent teams / community].

What Pontoon is

Pontoon is Mozilla’s open-source localization platform. It’s where staff and a large volunteer community translate Mozilla products and websites into many locales. At a high level, it handles:

  • Strings — the source text that needs translating.
  • Locales — the target languages and their teams.
  • Translation memory — past translations reused to keep things consistent.
  • Review workflows — approving, rejecting, and discussing suggestions.

My scope

The bulk of my work lives in [frontend / backend / full-stack] on Pontoon, where I [describe scope, e.g. own a subsystem / contribute features across the app].

AreaWhat I doStatus
[Area 1][responsibility][ongoing / shipped]
[Area 2][responsibility][ongoing / shipped]
[Area 3][responsibility][ongoing / shipped]

How the team works

The team operates [describe cadence — e.g. on a weekly release train], with much of the work happening in the open on GitHub. A defining feature of the project is the [size]-strong volunteer community, which means decisions weigh both staff needs and the workflows of contributors around the world.

Beyond Pontoon

Alongside the core platform, I’ve also contributed to [related project / experiment], including [the autocomplete work documented elsewhere on this site]. Specifics on that: [link / brief description].

I’ll dig into individual projects in the other articles here. For now, the short version: I help make sure Mozilla’s products speak more languages, more reliably.