Wikimedia Foundation
Software Engineer - Growth Team
Job Summary
The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a software engineer for their Growth team, responsible for building user-facing components and enhancing the Wikipedia contributor experience. The role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams, writing accessible and performant interfaces using JavaScript, VueJS, and CSS, and extending MediaWiki functionalities. Candidates should have 3-5 years of programming experience, familiarity with front-end and back-end concepts, and experience with languages like JavaScript, PHP, or Python. The position emphasizes contributions to open access, diversity, and community engagement within a remote, inclusive environment.
Required Skills
Benefits
Job Description
Software Engineer - Growth Team - Full Stack
Summary
The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for product software engineers to join the Growth team, reporting to product engineering management. As a product engineer, you will be responsible for building out the user facing components for our product user experiences. In this role, you will work in a remote environment, where we value teamwork and a consensus-oriented approach. You get to write open source code for collaborative experiences supporting over a half a billion pages accessed per day, and you get to do it at a place that believes we're all more successful when everyone has a good work-life balance.
On the Growth team, our mission is to support new account holders by designing and building engaging, intuitive, and inclusive products that make it easier to join the Wikimedia movement. We envision a thriving Wikimedia community where the barrier to entry for contributing to Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects is as low as possible, thus allowing more people to successfully become active editors, and advance into roles that require more experience, leading to a sustainable and diverse knowledge commons. So far, our main projects have focused on machine-learning driven task recommendations and volunteer mentorship.
You are responsible for:
- Improving the Wikipedia new contributor and moderation experience by building new functionality primarily in the GrowthExperiments extension and fixing bugs for code that our team maintains.
- Collaborating with product managers, designers, and other teams on shared projects.
- Writing multilingual, accessible and performant user facing interfaces using JavaScript, VueJS and CSS.
- Building on top of existing Design System Library components in our ecosystem and writing new ones when needed.
- Building on top of existing MediaWiki APIs in our ecosystem.
- Extending the capabilities of the MediaWiki stack to serve diverse community needs by incorporating possibilities that are offered by new tooling or technical advances.
- Writing unit and integration tests
- Proactively addressing security and code review feedback
- Working across teams to proactively reduce technical debt by refactoring code, updating testing frameworks, and reviewing code from other engineers.
- Instrumenting components to monitor user behavior and performance characteristics
Skills and experience:
- 3-5 years related professional experience in programming roles with some understanding in fundamental frontend and backend concepts.
- Experience in JavaScript.
- Experience in PHP or Python.
- A demonstrated ability to deliver features collaboratively in a team environment.
- Experience converting design mockups into functional components
- Experience with incorporating performance and accessibility into features.
- Experience in writing well-documented and readable code
Qualities that are important to us:
- A desire to make meaningful contributions to knowledge equity, free culture, and open access.
- An emphasis on communicating clearly in both synchronous and asynchronous channels.
- A willingness to incorporate new technical approaches and engineering thought patterns towards solving problems.
- Interest in mentoring, or teaching and sharing technical knowledge.
Additionally, we'd love it if you have this:
-
- Experience working with internationally distributed teams or organizations
- Familiarity with Wikipedia / wikitext / markdown editing or content management systems (e.g., MediaWiki, Drupal, WordPress)
- Experience with Bash, VueJS, and/or Docker
- Experience working with projects or communities in languages other than English
- Experience working with large, legacy codebases
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 $89,000 to $139,000 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.
See more jobsSafe Remote Job Search Tips
Verify Employer Thoroughly
Research the company's identity thoroughly before applying. Check for a professional website with contacts, active social media, and LinkedIn profiles. Verify details across platforms and look for reviews on Glassdoor or Trustpilot to confirm legitimacy.
Never Pay to Get a Job
Legitimate employers never require payment for applications, training, background checks, or equipment. Always reject upfront payment requests or demands for bank details, even if they claim it's for purchasing necessary work gear on your behalf.
Safeguard Your Personal Information
Protect sensitive data like SSN, bank details, or ID copies. Share this only after accepting a formal, written job offer. Ensure it's submitted via a secure company system or portal, never through insecure channels like standard email attachments.
Scrutinize Communication & Interviews
Watch for communication red flags: poor grammar, generic emails (@gmail), vague details, or undue pressure. Be highly suspicious of interviews held only via text or chat apps; legitimate companies typically use video or phone calls.
Beware of Unrealistic Offers
If an offer's salary or benefits seem unrealistically high for the work involved, be cautious. Research standard pay for similar roles. Offers that appear 'too good to be true' are often scams designed to lure you into providing information or payment.
Insist on a Formal Contract
Always secure and review a formal, written job offer or employment contract before starting work or sharing final personal details. Ensure it clearly defines your role, compensation, key terms, and conditions to avoid misunderstandings or scams.