Software Quality Manager

Wikimedia Foundation; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 129,000 - 203,000; Full time

Job summary

Wikimedia Foundation in San Francisco is seeking an experienced Software Quality Manager to lead two teams delivering testing and documentation services across WMF engineering.

You will drive automated test suites, manual testing, and documentation, coach a distributed team, and foster a culture where quality and documentation are everyone's responsibility. This role requires strong engineering leadership and hands-on skills in Go, Python, and PHP, with excellent English communication.

Qualifications

• Proven engineering leadership in a technical setting.
• Experience designing and reviewing software with Go, Python, PHP, or similar OO languages.
• Led teams delivering QA, documentation, or program management services across product teams.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with multiple teams and stakeholders to align testing and documentation needs while balancing project goals with technical requirements and team skill sets.
• Drive execution–ensuring SLAs are met, KPIs tracked, and work is actively unblocked.
• Expand and refine automated processes and help teams adopt best practices that improve quality and documentation.
• Promote a quality- and documentation-first mindset across engineering teams.
• Oversee the design, implementation, and maintenance of automated test suites, manual testing practices, and technical documentation.
• Ensure teams are engaged, productive, and understand the bigger project context.
• Coach team members, conduct performance reviews, and foster an inclusive work culture.

Skills

Technical leadership

Go

Python

PHP

Team management

Remote collaboration

English communication

Open source experience

Tools

Markdown

Job description

The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) is looking for an experienced Software Quality Manager to lead two teams who are providing testing & documentation services to multiple WMF engineering teams while fostering a culture where Software Quality & Documentation is everyone’s responsibility.

This role supports geographically distributed teams of 5-10 Test Engineers & 3 Technical Writers who are providing services that improve the quality of our software. They engage with multiple WMF teams in high-impact initiatives to provide technical documentation, automated test suites, and manual testing for the software that runs Wikipedia and its sister projects.

We’re committed to making knowledge available to everyone globally. This is an opportunity to do good while empowering the current and future generations of developers across the globe to build high-quality and well-documented software that scales with our mission.

Our team provides services that enable our staff & communities to achieve our Vision: a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.

The Wikimedia Foundation values diversity and recognizes that employees from a broad range of perspectives are essential to creating a knowledge source that benefits everyone. We are committed to inclusion, diversifying tech, and advocating for diversity in our employees, their experiences, and the people we serve.

You are responsible for:

• Collaborating with multiple teams and cross-functional stakeholders to align on testing and documentation needs while balancing project goals with technical requirements and team skill sets.
• Driving execution–ensuring SLAs are met, key performance metrics are being tracked, and work is being actively unblocked.
• Expanding and refining automated processes and supporting teams in adopting best practices that improve software quality and technical documentation
• Promoting a mindset of quality and documentation-first practices across the engineering teams.
• Oversee the design, implementation, and maintenance of automated test suites, manual testing practices and technical documentation.
• Ensuring both teams are engaged and productive, and understands the big picture of the different projects they contribute to and how their efforts contribute to it.
• Coaching your team, conducting performance reviews, providing career guidance, and building a professional and inclusive work culture.

Skills and Experience:

• Demonstrated engineering experience in a technical management or leadership role.
• Strong hands-on experience developing, designing, and reviewing software applications using languages such as Go, Python, PHP, or other object-oriented programming languages.
• Proven track record of managing a team that provides critical centralized services (such as quality assurance, technical documentation or technical program management) to various product teams.
• Experience managing the expectations of diverse teams with varying goals, ensuring that your service team prioritizes tasks effectively and delivers value across the organization.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, with the ability to articulate complex technical topics and solutions clearly and concisely.
• An established track record and prior success in working with a multicultural, remote and distributed high-performing team.

Qualities that are important to us:

• Alignment with our mission and values.
• Experience with open source development methodologies and open source community.
• Technical background in either manual and automated testing or technical documentation writing
• Strong ability to identify and implement strategies that improve testing and documentation practices, ensuring they scale with the organization’s needs.
• Excellent communication and follow-up skills. You’re actively engaged, and your team feels involved and well-informed about what’s happening in the team and broader organization.
• Experience with remote work and the level of engagement and communication it takes to build a geographically distributed team that is functional and healthy.
• Experience with large-scale, global developer ecosystems a nd platforms and managing the risks and opportunities associated with them.
• Resilience—we work on new and interesting problems in public and collaborative ways.
• Working together for outcomes, and being willing to change course.
• Passionate about developing people and platforms, with a focus on fostering a strong product-minded culture.

Additionally, we’d love it if you have:

• Knowledge of testing automation tools for E2E and Visual Regression
• Knowledge of documentation as code tools such as Markdown
• Experience in transitioning Test Engineers from manual testing towards automation
• Experience editing Wikipedia or with the Wikipedia, Wikidata, or Wikimedia Commons communities or other collaborative enterprises.
• Familiarity with MediaWiki.

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$ 129,193 to US$ 202,962 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:

US States: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia*, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico*, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming (US Territory or Federal District)

Countries: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya*, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore*, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Our non-US employees are hired through a local third party Employer of Record (EOR) and must have current work authorization in their location. (*citizens/permanent residents only)

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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