Deputy Chief Product and Technology Officer

Wikimedia Foundation; United States; Remote; USD 253,000 - 314,000; Full time

Job summary

Wikimedia Foundation seeks a Deputy Chief Product and Technology Officer to lead strategic initiatives in product and technology, engaging with global communities and overseeing diverse teams. This role demands strong leadership and a commitment to Wikimedia's mission of free knowledge.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in strategic- and executive-level technical leadership.
• Experience managing high-performance teams across multiple locations.
• Proven ability to address complex stakeholder environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategy and planning for Wikimedia's product and technology initiatives.
• Support product development through best practices and performance evaluation.
• Build and maintain strong relationships within the global Wikimedia community.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Product management

Technical expertise

Team leadership

Crisis management

Communication skills

Empathy

Decision making

Curiosity

Job description

As the professional focused on developing the product and technology work of the Foundation, the Deputy Chief Product and Technology Officer (Deputy CPTO) will report to and work with the Chief Product and Technology Officer (CPTO) to drive the development and execution of our technical platform strategy with our global communities of volunteer editors, developers, researchers, users and Wikimedia affiliates. Succeeding in this environment will require taking a hands-on approach to connecting with a broad array of stakeholders and supporting the product and technology leadership team across diverse areas of specialization, including software engineering, site reliability engineering, engineering productivity, technical engagement, research, security, machine learning, data science, product strategy and management, design, and analytics with a focus on innovation and rapid iteration.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategy and Planning

• Support multi-year strategy and planning efforts focused on priorities that include Wikimedia’s financial model, product and technology efforts, and shared governance with communities.
• Set and execute compelling annual and multi-year plans that align investments, resources and talent in response to global trends and organizational objectives.
• Communicate clearly, transparently and regularly with the Board of Trustees and key internal and external constituents about Wikimedia’s opportunities, choices and progress toward its goals.

Product Development

• Shape and define cross-functional teams while leveraging product development and industry best practices.
• Evaluate product performance, identifying risks and opportunities, prioritizing high value products and optimizing resource allocation.
• Apply expertise and insight to find solutions to complex problems.

Management and Culture

• Experience and capacity to lead and manage a wide range of constituencies, including staff, volunteers, and the Board of Trustees.
• Lead a high-performance culture that values inclusion and manages people and teams in line with organizational values.
• Assume a hands-on creative leadership role in the planning, executing, delivering and assessing the work of the Product & Technology department.
• Drive towards solutions with clear decision-making and accountability.
• Demonstrated ability to recruit, cultivate, and retain talent.

Governance and risk

• Support the organization’s current and future risk profile across areas that include policy, government regulation, technology and security.

Community

• Build trusted relationships throughout the global Wikimedia community; listen intently to community members, affiliates and user/thematic groups to develop, adapt and champion strategies that grow volunteer engagement and readership.

The Leader:

Requirements

• 7+ years in strategic- and executive-level technical and operational leadership.
• Deep expertise building high traffic consumer platform products on both the desktop and mobile – including consumption methods, user experiences, technologies, and platforms.
• Proven experience across both product and engineering with capabilities to lead both functions, as well as functions such as program management, design, research, analytics as needed.
• Demonstrated strong managerial skills and experience from both Wikimedia and other organizations, ensuring that we continuously bring knowledge and skills from organizations the Foundation can all learn from.
• The ability to manage a large department similar in scale and complexity to the Wikimedia Foundation’s Product and Technology department with a significant operating budget as well as hundreds of globally dispersed staff (~ 350 currently) and programs.
• Proven track record in recruiting, building, retaining and mentoring high-performing, diverse, global leadership teams. Managerial maturity that empowers leaders to exercise their judgment and discretion.
• Experience with multi-faceted stakeholder environments, particularly structures similar to the community/affiliate model. Listens to, integrates, and champions ideas from a variety of stakeholders, especially those voices not typically championed.
• The ability to manage fast-moving crisis response situations with strong communication skills and calm, measured, strategic actions.
• Deep resonance with Wikimedia’s values and mission, ideally with personal experience in a closely related field (open/free knowledge, public policy, neutrality, knowledge access, human rights, technology’s vital role in enabling the mission).

Qualities that are important to us

• Exceptional character and unquestionable personal integrity.
• Impeccable judgement and discernment, with an ability to instill confidence and earn trust. Someone who possesses high emotional intelligence, and is an attentive, empathetic listener. Has the deference to recognize that they are a steward of a broad-based, large-scale movement.
• Ability to collaborate to make decisions and communicate them effectively in a highly complex environment with numerous stakeholders.
• Brings a relationship orientation and a communication style that inspires and galvanizes volunteers to engage, donors to invest, and the public to trust the brand.
• Ability to lead calmly through uncertainty, and to influence with empathy and humility.
• A lifelong learner; curiosity and critical thinking skills to assess situations through multiple lenses.
• Ability to explain goals and strategies clearly to non-specialist audiences and gain their understanding and confidence.
• Empathy towards and commitment to work with Wikimedia communities and volunteers.
• Strong asynchronous communication and decision-making in a highly consensus-based environment that is geographically distributed.
• As a global citizen, has a track record of leading outside of only a North American context.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Wikimedia Foundation values having a diverse workforce and continuously strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate against any person based upon their race, traits historically associated with race, religion, color, national origin, sex, pregnancy or related medical conditions, parental status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, genetic information, or any other legally protected characteristics.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a remote-first organization with staff members including contractors based 40+ countries*. Salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are set in a way that is competitive, equitable, and consistent with our values and culture. The anticipated annual pay range of this position for applicants based within the United States is US$253,818 to US$313,433 with multiple individualized factors, including cost of living in the location, being the determinants of the offered pay. For applicants located outside of the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. We neither ask for nor take into consideration the salary history of applicants. The compensation for a successful applicant will be based on their skills, experience and location.

*Please note that we are currently able to hire in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America and Uruguay. Our non-US employees are hired through a local third party Employer of Record (EOR).

We periodically review this list to streamline to ensure alignment with our hiring requirements.

All applicants can reach out to their recruiter to understand more about the specific pay range for their location during the interview process.

If you are a qualified applicant requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability, you may contact us at [e-mail] or [phone].

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