Simon Muiruri
Native Swahili Speaker - Translator | Transcriptionist | AI Data Specialist
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About
Native Swahili linguist and localization specialist with 8+ years of experience in translation, linguistic QA, AI data evaluation, proofreading, and MTPE. Proven track record across major projects for Google, Facebook, OpenAI, Transsion, and other global clients, with over 4 million words translated, reviewed, or evaluated. Skilled in software, AI, legal, medical, gaming, and technical localization, combining strong linguistic expertise, cultural awareness, and meticulous attention to quality.
Experience
Swahili Reviewer at One Hour Translation Services (2016-12 – Present)
Facebook Project. Have successfully translated and reviewed 99,300 words.
- Translating content, ensuring that the meaning and feeling of the original material is retained.
- Checking translations of technical terms to ensure that they are accurate and remain consistent throughout translation revisions.
- Proofreading, editing, revising and rating translated materials.
Swahili Transcriber / Annotation at Appen (2017-02 – Present)
Fields: News, Sports, Business & Commerce, Information Technology. Have successfully transcribed and translated over 275,000 words.
- Transcribing utterances from mixed Swahili dialects.
- Referring to reference materials such as dictionaries, lexicons and terminology banks as needed to ensure wordlist accuracy.
- Quality assurance, peer review and validation.
Swahili Translator at Stepes (2017-11 – Present)
Fields: Religion & Software Localization. Have successfully translated 16,601 words.
- Translating religious content faithfully, accurately and integrally, while approximating the patterns of thought and style to the target audience.
External Reviewer (Swahili Localization) at Vistatec (2022-12 – Present)
Google Project. Fields: Software Localization & Testing, Websites, Transcreation, Legal, AI. Have successfully reviewed over 3,400 hours of a wide range of content from translation vendors (approx. 3,400,000 words).
- Objective assessment of translations to ensure consistency and appropriateness of style, tone, terminology and adherence to common locale.
Exclusive Swahili Translator at Boo World (2023-02 – Present)
Fields: Software Localization, Psychology, Social Media, Transcreation. Have successfully translated 57,800 words.
- Translating concepts into user flows, wireframes, mockups and prototypes that lead to intuitive user experiences.
- Providing commercial translations for website copy, social media platforms, mobile apps and promotional materials including video subtitles.
Swahili Translator / Proofreader at Andovar Localization Services (2023-04 – Present)
Fields: Video Games, Films & TV, Telecommunication. Have successfully translated 24,000 words.
- Translating film subtitles, ensuring accuracy, brevity and cultural relevance.
- Translating video games while setting creative vision for the target audience.
Phonetic Transcriber at Power Translations International (2023-04 – Present)
Fields: General. Have successfully transcribed 5600 words.
- Translating terms and marking with a phonetic symbol to indicate the pronunciation.
Swahili Translator / Proofreader at Dr. Localize (2023-05 – Present)
Fields: Pharmaceutical Patent, Patient Facing Materials, Clinical Trials. Have successfully translated and reviewed approximately 53,000 words.
- Translating medical and pharmaceutical materials accurately to bridge the gap between medical experts, patients, and manufacturers globally.
Swahili Translator / Proofreader at ICS-Translate (2023-05 – Present)
Fields: Legal, Online Gaming/Gambling. Have successfully translated over 284,000 words.
- Translating T&Cs with high proficiency of legal and gambling terminology.
Kikuyu Translator / Team Leader at ClearlyLoc (2023-05 – Present)
Transsion Project. Fields: Software Localization, Technical, Legal. Have successfully translated 86,000 words.
- Translating complex UI strings with high proficiency of legal and IT terminology.
AI Dataset Curator / Swahili Linguist at Magnon Sancus (2025-09 – Present)
Open AI Project. Fields: Data Evaluation, Response Ranking, and Model Refinement. Have successfully evaluated over 2,500 prompts & datasets.
- Recording audio data to improve AI model performance, creating structured datasets, evaluating and ranking model outputs, and fine-tuning training data for better alignment with target quality metrics.
Education
Diploma in Information Technology – Tracom College (2008 – 2008)
Bachelor of Arts in Humanities & Social Sciences – Kenyatta University (2022 – 2022)
