Skilled Specialist in Data Architecture and Infrastructure Management
The Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organisation behind Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects, is seeking a skilled Senior Data Engineer to join its Data Platform team. This team is responsible for providing data capabilities for Wikistats, Wikimedia Analytics APIs, and Data Snapshots, powering Wikipedia and its sister projects.
In this role, the Senior Data Engineer will help drive the Data Platform Engineering team's effort to unify data systems. The team, which is geographically distributed, reports to the Engineering Manager, Data Platform Engineering.
The ideal candidate will have at least 3 years of data engineering experience, with a significant portion focused on on-premise systems, and practical knowledge of engineering best practices, with a strong emphasis on system robustness and maintainability. Desirable skills include exposure to architectural/system design or technical leadership tasks, and experience in data governance, data lineage, and data quality initiatives.
The Senior Data Engineer's work will directly impact billions of users while advancing open knowledge accessibility. They will contribute to the design and improvement of the shared data platform, enabling critical use cases such as product analytics, bot detection, and image classification. The role also involves shaping the future of Wikimedia's data ecosystem.
The Senior Data Engineer will need hands-on experience in troubleshooting systems and pipelines for performance and scaling. They will identify and implement improvements in system reliability, maintainability, and performance. Collaboration with analytics, site reliability, and product teams is expected.
The work environment is lean with significant maintenance scope and ambitious goals to scale the Wikimedia Foundation's data capabilities. The Senior Data Engineer should have a strong commitment to Wikimedia's open knowledge mission and collaborative work environment. Comfort with asynchronous communication and the ability to navigate situations with incomplete or conflicting information are also valued traits.
The Wikimedia Foundation is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity and inclusivity. The compensation for the Senior Data Engineer role is competitive, equitable, and consistent with the Foundation's values and culture. The role is currently hireable in a list of specified countries, with the pay range adjusted to the country of hire.
While the exact title "Senior Data Engineer" job listing was not found in detail, related roles such as Engineering Manager for data and Experiment Platform teams emphasize these key qualifications and responsibilities. For the most precise and updated details, consulting Wikimedia Foundation’s official careers page or job postings would be recommended.
- The Senior Data Engineer will apply their expertise in data engineering, particularly in on-premise systems, to contribute to the design and improvement of the shared data platform, which powers personal-finance data analytics for Wikipedia and its sister projects.
- The Senior Data Engineer will leverage technology such as data-and-cloud-computing in their role, ensuring system robustness and maintainability, and driving the team's effort to unify data systems, thereby shaping the future of Wikimedia's data ecosystem.
