Director of Engineering, MediaWiki

Wikimedia Foundation; United States; Remote; USD 172,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player seeks a Director of Engineering for its MediaWiki group, responsible for leading a dynamic team dedicated to enhancing the open-source platform that powers Wikipedia. This role involves strategic decision-making and collaboration across departments, fostering an inclusive environment, and managing a diverse team of engineers. If you are passionate about open knowledge and have a proven track record in software engineering leadership, this is an exciting opportunity to make a significant impact in a remote-first organization committed to free knowledge and community engagement.

Qualifications

• Experience leading teams of 100+ software engineers.
• Proven success in managing engineering processes and product lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Lead teams to build and improve MediaWiki capabilities.
• Hire, coach, and empower engineering managers and contributors.

Skills

Team Leadership

Software Engineering Lifecycle Management

Backend Platform Management

Community Engagement

Diversity and Inclusion

Organizational Development

Flexible Work Hours

Global Developer Ecosystem Management

Education

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

MediaWiki

Job description

The Director of Engineering, MediaWiki is accountable for the MediaWiki Engineering Group in the Wikimedia Foundation and is an active participant in the strategic decision making for the Product and Technology department and across the Wikimedia movement. The teams in this group build, maintain, and improve upon MediaWiki, the software platform that powers Wikipedia and its sister projects, used by hundreds of millions of people each month. MediaWiki has been built to enable the creation, moderation, storage, discovery and consumption of open content in different languages and at scale. As free and open source software, MediaWiki is also used by many other projects and sites.

The MediaWiki Engineering group includes the MediaWiki Interfaces, MediaWiki Platform, and Content Transform team. The monthly MediaWiki Insights have more information on the kind of challenges the team undertakes.

This role involves managing an engineering organization of about 25 including some very experienced Principal engineers and managers. The role reports to the Senior Director of Engineering and shares responsibility with the Director of Product for MediaWiki to iterate and execute on a holistic strategy for MediaWiki in collaboration with other engineering teams, product management, and the volunteer technical contributor community. The role will require developing a deep understanding of the community and its needs.

You are responsible for:

• Leading a group of teams working to build, maintain, and improve the capabilities of MediaWiki, the open-source software platform that powers Wikipedia and other sites.
• Living and demonstrating our values by fostering a working environment and team relationships that are aligned in our mission, welcoming to everyone who shares our vision and values, curious and open to new ideas, focused on delivering great work, and constantly improving.
• Hiring, coaching, developing, and empowering engineering managers and highly senior individual contributors to enable their success in solving problems, delivering on team objectives, and coaching and developing their team members.
• Engineering delivery of the teams in the MediaWiki Engineering group.
• Collaborating with the Director of Product for MediaWiki on roadmaps and technical strategy.
• Participating with other senior managers & directors across the department to establish strategic plans, align towards common objectives, and solve complex problems.
• Participating in organizational development of methods, techniques, and evaluation criteria for projects, programs, and people to ensure the greatest impact for the Foundation.
• Planning, staffing, budgeting, and managing expense priorities within the cost center for MediaWiki Engineering.
• Collaborating and taking joint responsibility with fellow Engineering leaders to ensure the stability, reliability and optimal performance of production environments and services.

Skills and Experience:

• Experience leading teams that manage software engineering lifecycle processes and services in an organization with 100+ software engineers.
• Experience leading or managing a backend platform organization.
• Experience managing organizational interaction with a community of volunteer technical contributors.
• Experience building and leading diverse, multi-national and remote-first teams.
• Proven success at all stages of the engineering process and product lifecycle, leading to significant, measurable impact.
• Experience with managing managers.
• Ability to travel up to 2-3 times a year.
• Ability to work flexible hours with an organization spread across several time zones.
• Experience with large-scale, global developer ecosystems.
• Serve as an ambassador for the Foundation and our movement to donors and the general public.

Additionally, we’d love it if you have:

• Experience contributing to or managing open source projects and communities, or experience with open governance (IETF, W3C, etc.).
• Familiarity with MediaWiki.
• Experience working with (high-traffic) systems powered by large, monolithic code bases.
• Experience editing Wikipedia or contributing to other wiki projects.
• Experience working with internationally distributed teams or organizations.

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$ 172,976 to US$ 269,298 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.