Wikimedia Foundation
Senior Data Engineer
Job Summary
The Senior Data Engineer role at Wikimedia involves developing scalable data pipelines and infrastructure, using tools like Airflow, Kafka, Spark, and SQL. The position requires 5+ years of experience, with a focus on on-premise systems such as Hadoop and HDFS, and skills in programming languages like Python and Java/Scala. Responsibilities include maintaining data quality, supporting data governance, and enhancing the data platform for various analytics and AI use cases. The role emphasizes collaboration within a global, remote team to improve Wikimedia's data ecosystem and serve billions of users worldwide.
Required Skills
Benefits
Job Description
Senior Data Engineer
Wikipedia and its sister projects reach billions of users monthly across 300+ languages and are powered by 200,000+ volunteer contributors. The Wikimedia Foundation's Data Platform team enables this global knowledge ecosystem through robust data capabilities that serve both our internal teams and the public through products like Wikistats, Wikimedia Analytics APIs and Data Snapshots. Our vision is a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all human knowledge– including access to data for research, feature development, and advancing artificial intelligence responsibly.
As a Senior Data Engineer for our Data Platform, you will shape the future of how Wikimedia’s vast data ecosystem serves both our internal teams and the global community. You will help drive the Data Platform Engineering team’s effort to unify data systems across the Wikimedia Foundation to deliver scalable solutions that support internal and external platform users and the open knowledge movement.
Experience
- 5+ years of data engineering experience, with a significant portion focused on on-premise systems (e.g., Hadoop, HDFS).
- Practical knowledge of engineering best practices with a strong emphasis on system robustness and maintainability.
- Hands-on experience in troubleshooting systems and pipelines for performance and scaling.
- Demonstrated consistency with tenure at companies (e.g., average of 2+ years, ideally including longer engagements).
- Desirable: Exposure to architectural/system design or technical leadership tasks.
- Desirable: Experience in data governance, data lineage, and data quality initiatives.
Skills
Core Technical Skills
- Expertise in tools like Airflow, Kafka, Spark, and Hive.
- Advanced proficiency in Python and Java/Scala, with deep knowledge of one language and its ecosystem.
- Advanced working knowledge of SQL and experience with various database/query dialects (e.g., MariaDB, HiveQL, CassandraQL, Spark SQL, Presto).
Bonus Skills
- Familiarity with additional technologies such as Flink, Iceberg, Druid, Presto, Cassandra, Kubernetes, and Docker.
- Expertise in AI development tooling and AI applications in data engineering and analytics.
Other Skills
- Familiarity with stream processing frameworks like Spark Streaming or Flink.
- Strong communication and collaboration skills to interact effectively within and across teams.
- Ability to produce clear, well-documented technical designs and articulate ideas to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Responsibilities
- Designing and Building Data Pipelines: Develop scalable, robust infrastructure and processes using tools such as Airflow, Spark, and Kafka.
- Monitoring and Alerting for Data Quality: Implement systems to detect and address potential data issues promptly.
- Supporting Data Governance and Lineage: Assist in designing and implementing solutions to track and manage data across pipelines.
- Data Platform Development: Contribute to the design and improvement of the shared data platform, enabling critical use cases such as product analytics, bot detection, and image classification.
- Enhancing Operational Excellence: Identify and implement improvements in system reliability, maintainability, and performance.
Our work environment
You’ll join a geographically distributed team and report to the Engineering Manager, Data Platform Engineering. We operate lean teams with significant maintenance scope and ambitious goals to scale the Wikimedia Foundation’s data capabilities. Our work directly impacts billions of users while advancing open knowledge accessibility.
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$113,082 to US$175,725 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 countries: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America and Uruguay. Our non-US employees are hired through a local third party Employer of Record (EOR).
We periodically review this list to streamline to ensure alignment with our hiring requirements.
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 [email protected] or +1 (415) 839-6885.
More information
What does the Wikimedia Foundation do?
What makes Wikipedia different from social media platforms?
News from across the Wikimedia movement
Wikimedia Foundation
A nonprofit organization that supports Wikipedia and other free knowledge projects, promoting open access to information.
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