Research Scientist

Overview

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; turn research questions into publicly shared knowledge; produce empirical insights to inform the organization’s and the movement’s strategy. You will work with a team that is strongly committed to principles of transparency, privacy and collaboration; uses free and open source technology and regularly collaborates with researchers in the industry and academia.

Responsibilities

As a research scientist with our team, you will:

• Conduct research involving experimental design, large-scale data analysis and data mining, statistical modeling and the application 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
• Programming experience in Python, C++, or R
• 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 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

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, massages, cooking classes 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

More Information

https://wikimediafoundation.org

https://blog.wikimedia.org