Senior Software Engineer, Wikidata Platform

Job Description

SummaryThe Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to join the team supporting the Wikidata Platform — the structured data backbone of Wikimedia projects and a key part of the global open knowledge ecosystem. You’ll help scale and sustain the Wikidata Query Service (WDQS) and related platform services that power tools, features, communities, and research efforts across Wikimedia projects and beyond. This role combines backend engineering and operations ownership.

You’ll implement high-scale, production-grade services while ensuring performance, reliability, and maintainability. Working closely with the technical and product leads, you’ll contribute to shaping the future of how the world queries and interacts with structured, linked data. Important: We are a fully remote team. Your working hours will need to overlap with UTC+1 to UTC-5 time zones to accommodate members of your team around the world.

Being 14:00 UTC to 17:00 UTC, the team’s overlapping hours. What You’ll DoDesign, build, and maintain backend systems and APIs that power Wikidata’s query infrastructureImprove reliability, observability, and automation of the Wikidata Query Service and data pipelinesCollaborate with SRE, data engineers, and product teams to ensure stability and scalability under growing usageMonitor production systems, respond to operational incidents, and proactively identify and resolve bottlenecksSupport platform migrations and system upgrades (e.

g. , triple stores, streaming ingestion)Contribute to deployment automation, CI/CD workflows, and service instrumentationParticipate in code reviews, design discussions, and technical planningDocument systems and share knowledge with team members and Wikimedia’s broader technical communitySkills and Experience We’re Looking For5+ years of experience as a backend or platform engineer working on distributed systems or data platformsDeep understanding of database and knowledge graph representation technologies and standardsProficiency in Java, C++, or other systems languages. Ability to set up, scale, and investigate systems is more important than expertise in a particular language.

Experience building and operating production-grade services with SLOsFamiliarity with modern observability tools (metrics, logging, tracing)Understanding of graph databases, search indexes, or data processing pipelinesAbility to work collaboratively across disciplines and communicate clearly across technical and non-technical audiencesA commitment to learning, resilience, and contributing to a mission-driven engineering cultureNice to HaveExperience working with knowledge graphs or RDF/SPARQLFamiliarity with streaming data systems (e. g. , Kafka, Flink)Comfort with CI/CD pipelines and containerization tools (e.

g. , Docker, Kubernetes)Experience in open source or open knowledge communitiesFamiliarity with Wikimedia technologies, Wikidata, or MediaWiki About the Wikimedia FoundationThe 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 $1 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.

EWJD3