Data Engineer

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 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 contribute the Data Platform Engineering team’s effort to unify data systems across the Wikimedia Foundation to deliver scalable solutions that support the open knowledge movement. 

• 3+ years of data engineering experience, with exposure to on-premise systems (e.g., Spark, Hadoop, HDFS).
• Understanding of engineering best practices with a strong emphasis on writing maintainable and reliable code.
• Hands-on experience in troubleshooting systems and pipelines for performance and scaling.
• Desirable: Exposure to architectural/system design or technical ownership.
• Desirable: Experience in data governance, data lineage, and data quality initiatives.

• Working experience with data pipeline tools like Airflow, Kafka, Spark, and Hive.
• Proficient in Python or Java/Scala, with working knowledge of development tools and its ecosystem.
• Knowledge of SQL and experience with various database/query dialects (e.g., MariaDB, HiveQL, CassandraQL, Spark SQL, Presto).
• Working knowledge of CI/CD processes and software containerization.

• Familiarity with additional technologies such as Kubernetes, Flink, Iceberg, Druid, Presto, Cassandra.
• Working knowledge of AI development tooling and AI applications in software engineering.

• Familiarity with stream processing frameworks like Spark Streaming or Flink.
• Good 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.

• 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.
• Collaborate with peers to improve and evolve the shared data platform, enabling use cases like product analytics, bot detection, and image classification.
• Enhancing Operational Excellence: Identify and implement improvements in system reliability, maintainability, and performance.

Our work environment

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$101,102 to US$156,045 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.

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