Since host country nationals (HCNs) in subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) with high proficiency in a foreign language perform boundary-spanning functions and have more clear and consistent expectations about their role and future career opportunities. Thus, this study suggests that HCNs’ foreign language proficiency positively relates to their perceived career prospects. And we suggest that HCNs’ perceived career prospects is positively related to their work engagement based on the job demands-resource model, social exchange theory and effort-reward imbalance model. We also examine whether perceived career prospects mediate the relationship between HCNs’ foreign language proficiency and their work engagement. Furthermore, we investigate the positive relationship between HCNs’ perceived career prospects and their work engagement will be stronger for HCNs high on perceived organizational support than for HCNs low on perceived organizational support. Results from data collected from 475 HCNs in 50 foreign subsidiaries provide support for our hypotheses. On the basis of the empirical findings, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications, limitations of this study and provide suggestions for future research.