About this role
Work Location Type: Hybrid
About Grainger
W.W. Grainger, Inc. is a leading broad line distributor with operations primarily in North America and Japan. At Grainger, We Keep the World Working® by serving more than 4.6 million customers worldwide with maintenance, repair and operating (MRO) products and value-added solutions delivered through innovative technology and deep customer expertise. Known for its commitment to service and purpose-driven culture, the Company reported 2025 revenue of $17.9 billion. For more information, visit www.grainger.com.
Compensation:
The base salary for this role ranges between $ 80,080 - $ 110,110 with eligibility for an incentive target of 10% which is contingent upon achieving both individual and company performance objectives.
The pay range above is not a guarantee of compensation but reflects the potential total compensation for this role at the time of this posting based on the assigned job grade. Actual compensation will vary depending on factors such as geographic work location, relevant experience and individual skills. The stated range is a reasonable estimate and may change over time; final compensation may fall above or below the range provided. Grainger reserves the right to amend, modify, or discontinue its compensation and benefits programs at any time, in accordance with applicable law.
This job posting is for an existing vacancy.
Position Summary:
The Senior Communications Specialist (Bilingual) is responsible for developing and delivering high-quality communications in English and French across Grainger Canada. Reporting to the Senior Manager, Communications, this role provides advisory and executional support for internal and external communications, with a particular focus on translation quality and French-language compliance.
Working closely with communications partners, leaders, business stakeholders, and translation vendors, the senior specialist manages bilingual communications and translation requests, ensuring messaging is accurate, culturally appropriate, aligned with brand and language standards, and compliant with applicable French-language requirements. The role supports enterprise, people, and change communications that help team members understand key business updates, decisions, and actions.
Key Responsibilities (You Will):
- Develop, write, edit, and translate high-impact communications in English and French, including enterprise announcements, business communications, change materials, FAQs, leader messages, and other team member facing materials.
- Work closely with translation and localization vendors to triage, coordinate, and advance high volumes of translation submissions through established workflows, while improving efficiency, consistency, scalability, and turnaround time.
- Serve as a subject-matter expert and trusted advisor to leaders, communications partners, and stakeholders on bilingual communications, translation practices, localization, language risk, messaging, channels, timing, and content readiness.
- Adapt and localize communications to ensure they are clear, relevant, culturally appropriate, and aligned with Grainger Canada’s voice and communication standards.
- Coordinate and execute communications across enterprise channels, including SharePoint and Firstup, ensuring content is accurate, timely, accessible and appropriately targeted.
- Lead the translation and linguistic review of corporate, sensitive, compliance‑driven, and people‑impact communications, including urgent and time‑sensitive requests, ensuring accuracy, consistency, appropriate tone, and alignment with established standards.
- Advise communications partners, leaders and stakeholders on translation approaches, language risk, bilingual content requirements and content readiness for distribution.
- Apply translation memory, terminology standards, established language guidelines, and quality-assurance practices to ensure consistency, accuracy, and efficiency across bilingual communications.
- Support compliance with applicable French-language requirements, including the Charter of the French Language, by identifying, assessing, and escalating potential language, legal, reputational, accessibility, or compliance risks before distribution.
- Develop and maintain scalable self-service translation resources, tools, templates, and guidance that enable business partners to effectively manage lower-risk bilingual communications.
- Review communications for consistency with Grainger Canada’s communications standards, brand voice, accessibility expectations, and employee experience objective Qs.
- Manage multiple communications priorities and deadlines, balancing urgent business needs with appropriate review, quality, and compliance requirements.
Education and Experience (You Have):
- Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Translation, Public Relations, Journalism, English, or a related field.
- 3–5+ years of experience in communications, translation, or a related field within a large, matrixed organization.
- Demonstrated experience developing, writing, editing, and translating high-visibility, sensitive, or employee-impact communications in both English and French.
- Experience supporting compliance ‑ driven communications, including Quebec language requirements.
- Experience using enterprise communications platforms, content management systems, and translation or language-management tools.
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills in both French and English, with demonstrated ability to tailor messaging for different audiences, channels, and levels of the organization.
- Strong attention to detail, discretion, and sound judgment, particularly when handling confidential, sensitive, high-risk, or time-sensitive information.
- Strong project management and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent communications priorities from planning through execution in a fast-paced environment while maintaining quality and accuracy.
- Strong collaboration and relationship ‑ building skills with the ability to build trust across functions and levels of the organization.
- Continuous improvement mindset with a focus on efficiency, quality, and scalability.
- A professional translation designation, such as ATIO or OTTIAQ, is an asset.
Rewards and Benefits:
Our programs provide choice and flexibility to meet your individual needs. Check out some of the benefits available to you with Grainger (may vary based on hours worked):
- Medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage
- Paid time off (PTO) and up to 12 company holidays per year (dependent on home province)
- Life insurance coverage, including spousal and dependent life insurance.
- Employee Family Assistance Program to help team members with physical, emotional, mental, financial and other concerns
- Registered Retirement Savings Plan & Defined Contribution Pension Plan to help you save for your financial future
- Educational & Professional Membership Fee Assistance program
- Employee discounts, team member perks and more!
DEI Statement:
We encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn't perfectly match this job post as you may still be the right candidate for this role or others. We aspire to create a culture where everyone is comfortable being who they are, can learn and grow to realize their full potential, and is recognized and rewarded for their impact.
We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. All qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, or disability. Should you need a reasonable accommodation during the application and selection process, please advise us so we can provide appropriate assistance.
Pre-employment background checks are required for all external candidates. Internal candidates undergo a background check when they move from a non-driving role to a driving role.