Software Engineer III, Core Experiences at Wikimedia

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 in 40+ countries.

Software Engineer III, Core Experiences

The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for two Software Engineer III positions to join the App Growth and Moderator Tools Engineering teams within the Core Experiences engineering group.

App Growth Team:

The App Growth team's clear and ambitious goal is to make the apps the premier destination for knowledge lovers and significantly grow our active readership. As a web full-stack mid-career Software Engineer III supporting the Mobile Apps teams, you will build features that create natural handoffs from the web to the app, seamlessly landing users in the right place. Examples include prompting a reader to try a personalized reading list in the app, integrating a game within the apps as a webview, or ensuring a smooth handoff to the web editing experience when someone attempts to edit. This role focuses on web-first product experiences, APIs, and platform integrations that can be reused across mobile web and native app surfaces, helping to scale features across platforms and create compelling experiences that deepen reader engagement and increase user retention. This role requires at least four hours of your workday to occur between 14:00 UTC and 21:00 UTC for synchronous collaboration.

Moderator Tools Team:

On the Moderator Tools team, we build and improve tools for Wikimedia’s volunteer patrollers and administrators, enhancing their ability to review and act on problematic content across Wikimedia projects. Our current focus is on exploring ideas for a centralized venue to identify moderator needs by advancing a unified personal Dashboard that supports the full reader-to-new-editor-to-new-moderator journey. To realize these bold ideas, the team is seeking a Software Engineer III. As an engineer in the product and technology department, you will be responsible for building components for our product user experiences in the Dashboard and other projects, as the team maintains several MediaWiki extensions and “off-wiki” projects related to The Wikipedia Library. In this remote environment, teamwork and a consensus-oriented approach are highly valued. You will have the opportunity to write open-source code for collaborative experiences supporting over half a billion pages accessed per day. This role requires at least four hours of your workday to occur between 14:00 UTC and 20:00 UTC for synchronous communication.

You are responsible for:

• Delivery and Enablement: Support the delivery of initiatives. Break down complex features into manageable tasks, anticipate risks, and collaborate to resolve blockers.
• Implementation: Successfully build moderately complex features and components with minimal support and proactively suggest areas for architectural improvements.
• Production Support: Take ownership of bug fixes and production problems, communicating clearly and promptly about impact and resolution.
• Quality, Testing, and Observability: Design and improve features with observability and testing as core considerations. Instrument features to enable deeper analysis by Product Analysts. Contribute to healthier testing and software quality practices.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Support team alignment by asking clarifying questions, reinforcing agreements, and coordinating your work with cross-functional partners. Facilitate team ceremonies.
• Prioritization: Contribute meaningfully to planning. Help scope work. Identify risks across multiple sprints. Adapt as priorities shift.
• Culture and Standards: Participate in code reviews, design discussions, and technical planning; proactively share knowledge; and help improve team development workflows.
• Operational Awareness: Understand how code affects usage and trust. Contribute to onboarding, documentation, and hiring efforts at the team level.

Qualities that are important to us:

• Continuous Learning: You adapt to ambiguity with a desire to learn and discover by self-directing your learning in depth and breadth. You encourage and support learning in others. You proactively share knowledge to make it easier for others to contribute.
• Autonomy: You work autonomously on most tasks, while timely checking in with teammates and sharing workload when blocked. You balance contributing and receiving support within the team.
• Feedback: You share and receive thoughtful, actionable feedback with peers – both constructive and positive.
• Collaboration: You enjoy working with others to solve problems and are open to feedback. You actively share knowledge and experience; you offer guidance to help others grow.
• Accountable: You own your work end-to-end and help establish a culture of responsibility and follow-through. You consider the implications of technical decisions and reflect on whether delivered solutions meet the intended goals.
• Clear Communicator: You can explain your ideas simply and communicate in a timely manner. You adapt your communication to different audiences across engineering, product, and non-technical stakeholders in both synchronous and asynchronous channels.
• Outcome-oriented: You connect your technical work to user value, team goals, and product outcomes. You can make pragmatic tradeoffs when the ideal technical solution is not the right immediate product choice.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree + at least 2 years or equivalent professional web application experience.
• Experience working with backend languages like PHP or Python and/or experience with front-end languages, particularly with Javascript frameworks.
• A demonstrated ability to deliver testable, user-friendly features in a collaborative team environment.
• Experience building responsive or mobile-first web experiences.
• Experience converting design mockups into functional components.
• Experience building features with observability and testing in mind.
• Experience in writing well-documented and readable code.

Additionally, we would love it if you have:

• Experience working in a fully remote, internationally distributed teams or organizations.
• Experience working with large, legacy codebases.
• A history of open-source contributions.
• Prior experience with MediaWiki or Wikimedia projects.
• Familiarity with Wikipedia / wikitext / markdown editing or content management systems (e.g., MediaWiki, Drupal, Wordpress).
• Some experience with data science, machine learning, and/or AI (e.g., familiarity with prompt engineering, Jupyter notebooks experience, etc.).
• [For App Growth] Experience in launching and maintaining mobile applications, cross-platform app frameworks, or building webview-wrapped experiences in native mobile apps.
• [For App Growth] Experience building mobile games or other interactive experiences.
• [For Moderator Tools] Experience with at least one Python framework, such as Django or Tornado.

U.S. Benefits & Perks

Salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are set to be 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$92,267 to US$144,201. Multiple individualized factors, including the cost of living in the location, will be determinants of the offered pay. For applicants located outside of the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. We do not 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.

We provide all team members with additional benefits, which reflect our values and ideals. We balance our programs to meet local needs and ensure fairness globally.

• Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person.
• Personal Learning Budget of USD 2,000 per year.
• Annual compensation review.
• Recognition rewards.
• Annual holiday leave.
• Paid Parental Leave.
• Employee Assistance Programme (Wellness Programs).
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues.
• Priority Pass for travel and travel upgrades for long-haul company events.

The Wikimedia Foundation is committed to providing equal work opportunities to all team members and applicants. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any type on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, caste, religion, age, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by our policies or federal, state, or local laws. 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 [email protected] or +1 (415) 839-6885.