Overview

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking an experienced executive to serve as Vice President of Product for our Product department. At the Wikimedia Foundation, we operate the world’s largest collaborative project: a top ten website, reaching a billion people globally every month, while incorporating the values of privacy, transparency and community that are so important to our users.

Reporting to the Chief Product Officer, the VP of Product is a key member of the Foundation’s leadership team and an active participant in the strategic decision making framing the work of the Product department, the Wikimedia Foundation and the Wikimedia movement.

The VP of Product is responsible for planning and executing an integrated multi-year product strategy and roadmap with well defined impact and associated metrics for the Foundation’s portfolio of consumer-facing software experiences used by more than one billion users per month from every part of the globe. This strategy will interlock with and support the larger organization and movement strategy in service of our vision of enabling every human being to share freely in the sum of human knowledge.

The product portfolio is focused on Wikipedia’s editing and reading experiences on the web, search, and mobile apps, as well as preparing our content to support and enrich the wider knowledge ecosystem. We’re in the process of modernizing our product suite for both experienced and new users and a sizable portion of the strategic direction is integrating technologies such as artificial intelligence, semantic data, and multimedia.

The VP of Product will manage a team of product directors and data managers and will work directly with heads of design, product engineering and program management to create the strategy and implementation plans. Additionally, the VP of Product will work closely with community, communications and platform technology departments to establish schedules around the implementation, delivery and marketing of these products.

The VP of Product will be directly responsible for: 

  • Driving development of an integrated global product strategy to ensure that Wikipedia and its sister projects are alive and relevant forever. This includes:
    • Balancing the needs and goals of content consumers, creators and syndicators
    • Integrating technologies such as structured data and AI
    • Harmonizing existing community with strategic goals of growth and diversity
  • Working within our values of collaboration, privacy, usability, accessibility and community. You don’t have to be a jerk to do tech on the internet
  • Creating scalable product management processes and prioritization rubrics
  • Negotiating shared goals, roadmaps and dependencies with design and engineering, platform and community engagement, communication departments
  • Partnering closely with the marketing team on addressable markets, segments and strategy
  • Contributing to our great product culture by managing, coaching and developing our product and data teams
  • Illustrating your success in making your mark on the world by collaboratively measuring and adapting our product strategy within the product department and the broader Foundation
  • Managing up to 5 direct reports with a total team size of 20

Skills and experience

  • Experience in consumer internet product management for media, user generated content or similar industry with multi-sided platforms and/or peer production
  • 5+ years senior leadership experience
  • Insight into and demonstrated success with the strategy and tactics of growing and stewarding large digital consumer products, particularly in the areas of media, user generated content, peer production, or multi-sided platforms
  • A passion for impact.  Demonstrated success at all stages of the product development process and product lifecycle, leading to significant, measurable impact.
  • Experience interpreting data to inform decision making, of measuring interventions, and of asking big questions and answering them using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods
  • Experience building and supporting diverse, international and distributed teams
  • Outstanding oral and written English language communications
  • Experience working closely with design and data teams
  • Bachelor’s degree or the equivalent in related work experience

Pluses

  • Experience working with global nonprofit, international nongovernmental, or technology service organizations
  • Experience managing products with an international audience
  • Fluency or familiarity with languages in addition to English
  • Spent time having lived or worked outside your country of origin
  • Experience as a member of a volunteer community

The Wikimedia Foundation is… 

…the nonprofit organization that hosts and 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, free of interference. We host 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 financial support 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.

The Wikimedia Foundation is an equal opportunity employer, and we encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply.

U.S. Benefits & Perks*

  • Fully paid medical, dental and vision coverage for employees and their eligible families (yes, fully paid premiums!)
  • The Wellness Program provides reimbursement for mind, body and soul activities such as fitness memberships, baby sitting, continuing education and much more
  • The 401(k) retirement plan offers matched contributions at 4% of annual salary
  • Flexible and generous time off – vacation, sick and volunteer days, plus 19 paid holidays – including the last week of the year.
  • Family friendly! 100% paid new parent leave for seven weeks plus an additional five weeks for pregnancy, flexible options to phase back in after leave, fully equipped lactation room.
  • For those emergency moments – long and short term disability, life insurance (2x salary) and an employee assistance program
  • Pre-tax savings plans for health care, child care, elder care, public transportation and parking expenses
  • Telecommuting and flexible work schedules available
  • Appropriate fuel for thinking and coding (aka, a pantry full of treats) and monthly massages to help staff relax
  • Great colleagues – diverse staff and contractors speaking dozens of languages from around the world, fantastic intellectual discourse, mission-driven and intensely passionate people

*Eligible international workers’ benefits are specific to their location and dependent on their employer of record