Director of Product, Abstract Wikipedia

DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

Summary

The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for an experienced and collaborative Director of Product Management to support and drive our work on Abstract Wikipedia, a project that aims to let more people share more knowledge in more languages. This position includes product and engineering management responsibilities.

This role is responsible for realizing the vision to develop software that allows the creation of “abstract content” which is represented in a language-independent format and is directly editable by communities. Through this work, the intended outcome is that many Wikipedias can access and enrich their own locally controlled content. In this way, communities can with much less effort provide more comprehensive, current and more vetted content to readers than what most local Wikipedias are able to provide today.

The Wikimedia Foundation values diversity and recognizes that employees from a broad range of perspectives is essential to creating a knowledge source that benefits everyone. We are committed to inclusion, diversifying tech, and advocating for diversity in our employees, their experiences, and the people we serve.

Our teams build products that enable our communities to achieve our Vision: a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.  

This role supports product managers, engineering managers, works directly with distinguished and principal engineers, and collaborates with research and design, and across many teams to set strategic direction. This is an opportunity to ‘do good’ while having a high level of impact at a large-scale media property.

You will be responsible for:

• Supporting the team to produce roadmaps and milestones, while iterating toward a product vision and product direction Abstract Wikipedia, pulling together disparate projects to form a cohesive vision and program, working closely with engineering and architecture teams across the Foundation.
• Ensuring the Abstract Wikipedia team delivers incremental but clear value to our end users.
• Participating in writing grant reports to grantors who fund Abstract Wikipedia projects at WMF
• Aligning with product, technology, analytics and research teams on use cases for Abstract Wikipedia
• Managing and mentoring product managers, an engineering manager and engineers working on Abstract Wikipedia
• Defining and tracking key performance metrics for product initiatives and connecting these metrics to overall Foundation goals
• Managing communications for your area among the product teams and the broader cross-functional organization to ensure stakeholder alignment

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a related field, or the equivalent in relevant work experience
• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in Product Management
• Experience with global developer ecosystems and platforms and managing the risks and opportunities associated with them
• Experience with open source development methodologies and open source community
• Robust analytical, problem-solving, and conceptual skills with the ability to deliver on detail as well as strategy
• Good written and verbal communication skills and the ability to interact effectively and develop effective working relationships with all levels of management, staff and communities, including non-technical staff
• Capable of managing a diverse range of responsibilities in a dynamic and results-oriented environment. Must be comfortable with evolving requirements and priorities.

Qualities that are important to us:

• Experience developing at scale developer ecosystems including structured content, knowledge graphs and taxonomies
• Alignment with our mission and values
• Resilience—we work on new and interesting problems in public and collaborative ways
• Working together for outcomes, and being willing to change course
• Sharing a culture of constructive criticism and respect

Additionally, we would love it if you have:

• Experience editing Wikipedia or with the Wikipedia, Wikidata, or Wikimedia Commons communities or other collaborative enterprises
• Familiarity with MediaWiki

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 experi