Wikimedia Engineering/Careers

The purpose of this page is to document the career paths and structure of Wikimedia Foundation's Engineering and Product Development efforts. It is not intended to be a listing of job openings or opportunities, or a sales pitch to work at WMF, but an inside view that's useful for current and potential employees and contractors. For this reason, it lives here on mediawiki.org, where it can be continuously updated by anyone.

Role and title are distinct. The title ties to a specific salary band in the organization that a position should typically be situated in. A person's role may change more frequently based on the organization's needs and the person's preferences. Examples of a person's role include e.g. ScrumMaster responsibilities on a team, leadership responsibilities for a specific technical project or area, interface responsibilities between teams, etc. These role designations are sometimes added alongside a person's title in the form "Title -- Role", and may be included in other contexts as well as a useful way to internally or externally highlight a person's responsibilities, but they are more likely subject to change.

Engineering-related career paths

Development track

Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
Principal Software Engineer (legacy title: "Architect"/"Lead Architect")

QA track

QA Engineer
Senior QA Engineer

Operations track

Operations Engineer
Senior Operations Engineer
Principal Operations Engineer (legacy title: "Architect"/"Lead Architect")

Leadership track

Process manager (e.g. Release Manager)
Group manager
Director
VP of Engineering

Specialized roles

Software Security Engineer
Operations Security Engineer
Technical Contributor Coordinator
Technical Communications Manager
Bug Wrangler

Potential future roles (TBD)

CTO (for technical as opposed to process leadership)

Role designations

Product-related career paths

The matrix is here. (NB: Dead link, probably needs to be recovered from Howief's archive)

Supporting functions

Community Liaison
Product Analyst

Product management track

Associate Product Manager
Product Manager
Senior Product Manager

Design track

User Experience

Associate Designer (User Experience / Visual)
Designer (User Experience / Visual)
Senior Designer (User Experience / Visual)

Research

User Research Lead
Senior User Researcher

Associate User Researcher

Analytics

Research Analyst
Research Scientist
Senior Research Scientist

Leadership track

Director
VP of Product

Potential future roles

Principal (could be the equivalent of Architect, e.g. Principal Designer)

Levels in engineering

[Software/Operations] Engineer

entry-level to mid-level
able to be an effective individual contributor on a team, lead on a smaller team/project
prepared to consult with senior team members on significant architectural changes
prepared to develop mentoring capacity in their areas of expertise

Senior [Software/Operations] Engineer

5+ years of combined professional+volunteer engineering experience (not limited to WMF)
can be effective technical lead on a complex team/project
works closely with product managers and designers on projects
proven ability to mentor engineers across the organization and in the community
track record of modelling good social and development practices
track record of preparing RFCs and other/comparable architectural briefings for major technical changes, participation in architecture discussions, architectural leadership in their area

Principal [Software/Operations] Engineer

8+ years of combined professional+volunteer engineering experience (not limited to WMF)
proven technical leadership capability in multiple domains
notable technical accomplishments in an open source/free software context
track record of inspiring and mentoring engineers across the organization and in the community
track record of modelling and shaping best community, open source and development practices
track record of preparing and guiding RFCs and other/comparable architectural briefings and discussions for major technical changes, providing broad architectural leadership