Tech Lead, Wikidata Platform

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The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a collaborative technical lead to oversee the sustainment, development, and evolution of the Wikidata query platform, one of the world's largest open linked databases. Wikidata impacts billions of users across 300+ languages and is essential for Wikipedia, libraries, universities, and other platforms. Our vision is a world where everyone can freely share in the sum of all human knowledge, including data access for editing, research, and AI development.

Role Overview

As the Technical Lead, you will shape the future of how users query and access Wikidata at scale, guiding the technical vision and architecture to ensure stability, reliability, and sustainability. You will share responsibilities with the Staff Product Manager and Engineering Manager for the delivery, development, and operations of Wikidata platform products, reporting to the Director of Product, Abstract Wikipedia and Wikidata Platform. This role involves close collaboration with Wikimedia Deutschland (WMDE) and working within a global, remote environment.

Responsibilities include:

1. Ensuring the stability, performance, and scalability of the Wikidata Query Service architecture.
2. Developing a vision for the query infrastructure supporting growth and sustainability.
3. Innovating query methods, APIs, algorithms, and indexing strategies.
4. Collaborating with cross-functional teams to design requirements and ship improvements.
5. Staying informed on advances in knowledge representation technologies.
6. Persevering through setbacks and communicating effectively.
7. Understanding Wikimedia's movement and how it influences work.
8. Establishing best practices for interacting with query services.
9. Performing data analysis to uncover insights.

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in building and scaling API-driven data platforms.
• 4+ years in data engineering with production deployments at scale.
• Deep knowledge of database and knowledge graph technologies.
• Proficiency in Java, C++, or similar languages.
• Experience with privacy-sensitive data and security best practices.
• Proven ability to manage ambiguous projects and collaborate across teams.
• Knowledge of scalable data processing frameworks (Spark, Kafka, Flink, etc.).

Desired Qualities:

• Alignment with Wikimedia’s mission and values.
• Strong problem-solving and leadership skills.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Decision-making in complex environments.
• Curiosity and continuous learning.
• Mentorship and impact growth.
• Resilience, patience, emotional intelligence.

Preferred Extras:

• Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD.
• Involvement in open source or Wikimedia communities.
• Contributions to Wikipedia, Wikidata, or Wikimedia projects.

About Wikimedia Foundation

We operate Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects, aiming for universal access to human knowledge. As a nonprofit, we rely on donations and are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are a remote-first organization with staff in over 40 countries, offering competitive, equitable salaries based on skills, experience, and location.