Technical Lead for Wikidata Platform - Remote

Overview

The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a collaborative technical lead to guide the sustainment, development, and evolution of the query platform for Wikidata, one of the world’s largest open linked databases. Wikidata facilitates much of the structure of Wikipedia content and contributor activities, making an impact on billions of users across 300+ languages. It also is a critical resource for libraries, universities, and other technology platforms. Our vision is a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all human knowledge. This includes access to data for editing workflow support, research, feature development, and advancing artificial intelligence responsibly.

In Short

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of Wikidata’s query platform architecture.
• Collaborate with product management and engineering teams to deliver platform services and features.
• Ensure stability, performance, and scalability of the Wikidata Query Service architecture.
• Develop new query methods, APIs, and indexing strategies.
• Maintain an understanding of structured knowledge representation technologies.
• Perform data analysis to uncover insights and patterns.
• Work with multiple stakeholder teams to deliver results.
• Guide the technical vision and architecture for Wikidata Platform.
• Engage in continuous learning and mentoring of other engineers.
• Support the mission and values of the Wikimedia Foundation.

Requirements

• 8+ years of experience in API-driven data platform products.
• 4+ years of experience in data engineering with production deployments.
• Deep understanding of database and knowledge graph technologies.
• Proficiency in Java, C++, or similar programming languages.
• Experience with privacy-sensitive data and security best practices.
• Strong problem-solving and collaboration skills.
• Knowledge of scalable data processing frameworks like Spark, Kafka, Flink.
• Ability to communicate plans and results effectively.
• Experience with containerization and CI/CD pipelines is a plus.
• Familiarity with open source and open knowledge communities.

Benefits

• Competitive and equitable salary.
• Remote-first work environment.
• Opportunity to impact one of the top 15 websites globally.
• Engagement with diverse international teams.
• Commitment to continuous learning and professional development.
• Inclusive and equitable workplace culture.
• Support for mentoring and growth opportunities.
• Access to a wide range of resources and knowledge.
• Flexible work arrangements.
• Travel opportunities as required.