New social impact-focused research
position below! You'd be working on building models and running research
studies to improve the integrity of the information published on
Wikipedia (and sister projects like WikiData and Wikimedia Commons), as
well as identifying and addressing knowledge gaps, sources of bias, and
sociotechnical barriers to contribution in the content and the contributor communities
of those projects.
Summary
Every month, more than 70,000
volunteer editors come together to make free knowledge a reality. Every
hour, 36,000 people view Wikipedia articles from all over the world.
Every second, more than 100,000 HTTP requests hit Wikimedia’s servers.
In the Wikimedia Foundation’s Research team, we leverage this
large-scale data to understand and empower people around the world to
share in the sum of all knowledge.
As a research scientist at the
Wikimedia Foundation, you will work with researchers, software
engineers, designers, and volunteers to design, test and evaluate new
technologies. You will produce empirical insights to inform the
organization’s and the movement’s efforts towards our strategic
direction—to become the platform that serves open knowledge to the world
and to empower all people to access and contribute to free knowledge.
You will turn research questions into publicly shared, reproducible
knowledge and work with a team that is strongly committed to principles
of transparency, privacy and collaboration. You will use and develop
free and open source technology and collaborate with researchers in the
industry and academia.
Responsibilities
As a research scientist with our team, you will:
- Conduct
research involving experimental design, labeled data collection,
large-scale data analysis and data mining, statistical modeling as well
as the application and online/offline evaluation of machine learning
methods
- Contribute to the design, execution, and communication of research projects
- Discuss, document and share the process and results of your research publicly
- Actively engage in a collaborative, consensus-oriented environment and as part of a globally-distributed organization
Requirements
- PhD or MSc
degree plus related work experience in computer science, statistics, or
related technical fields; PhD degree highly preferred
- Experience
in Machine Learning and at least one of the following fields: Natural
Language Processing, Algorithm Design, Social Network Analysis, HCI,
Behavioral/ Experimental Economics, Computational Social Science
- Programming experience in Python, Scala, R, or C++
- Contributions
to research communities and research initiatives including publishing
in relevant conferences and journals, organizing academic workshops
This will set you apart
- A portfolio of open source research or programming projects
- Relevant work experience, in academia or industry
- Experience with large-scale experiments in online platforms
- Experience with mixed methods research
- A strong record of scholarly publications
- Experience with tools such as Spark, Flink, Hive, Kafka
- Experience editing Wikipedia or other Wikimedia projects
The Wikimedia Foundation is...
...the nonprofit organization that supports 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
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
* for benefits eligible staff, benefits may vary by location