Director of Data
@ Wikimedia Foundation

Hybrid
$200,000
Hybrid
Full Time
Posted 23 days ago

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XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXX****** @wikimedia.org
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Job Details

About the Director of Data Role

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a deeply technical, outcome-oriented Director of Data to lead work across data engineering, search, experimentation, and data-related site reliability engineering (SRE). This role oversees production data systems powering product analytics, machine learning, product features, and community tools.

Responsibilities

Manage managers and principal ICs across multiple teams including Data Engineering, Search, Experimentation, and Data SRE. Set clear roadmaps, ensure production-readiness, and provide strategic technical oversight while diving into challenging technical problems.

  • Drive safe, incremental shipping of data products.
  • Set architectural direction for petabyte-scale systems.
  • Partner with product management to align technical execution with user needs.
  • Provide operational multipliers by reducing toil.
  • Develop and scale globally distributed teams.

Required Skills and Experience

Minimum 8+ years in engineering leadership and 3+ years managing managers in data-heavy environments. Proven track record of shipping production data systems at massive scale, with hands-on experience in open source tech stacks like Kubernetes, Kafka, Spark, Flink, Hadoop, Ceph, and Airflow.

Additional Preferred Qualifications

Experience with open source participation, multilingual fluency, and involvement in volunteer communities.

About Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization behind Wikipedia and sister projects. It is a remote-first organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA. The mission is to freely share all knowledge worldwide.

Key skills/competency

  • Data Engineering
  • Search
  • Experimentation
  • Data SRE
  • Petabyte-scale
  • Privacy
  • Data Lakes
  • Event Pipelines
  • Open Source
  • Leadership
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How to Get Hired at Wikimedia Foundation

🎯 Tips for Getting Hired

  • Customize your resume: Highlight data leadership, tech stacks, and measurable outcomes.
  • Research Wikimedia Foundation: Study their mission, values, and remote culture.
  • Showcase technical depth: Emphasize experience with Kubernetes, Kafka, and more.
  • Prepare detailed examples: Include instances of managing large-scale data systems.

📝 Interview Preparation Advice

Technical Preparation

Review Kubernetes, Kafka, and big data architectures.
Study petabyte-scale system designs and data modeling.
Practice analysis of system reliability and SLO setting.
Familiarize with open source data tech stacks.

Behavioral Questions

Describe managing distributed teams effectively.
Explain handling technical challenges under pressure.
Share examples of incremental release strategies.
Discuss balancing reliability with velocity.

Frequently Asked Questions