Software Engineer

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a 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 alongside the rest of the team, 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. With 14:00 UTC to 17:00 UTC being the team's overlapping hours. What You’ll Do Help design, build, and maintain backend systems and APIs that power Wikidata’s query infrastructure Improve reliability, observability, and automation of the Wikidata Query Service and data pipelines Integrate Wikidata Platform services with other systems and data sources across Wikimedia Develop features and capabilities to ensure stability and scalability under growing usage Monitor production systems, respond to operational incidents and resolve bottlenecks Support platform migrations and system upgrades (e.g., triple stores, streaming ingestion) Contribute to deployment automation, CI/CD workflows, and service instrumentation Participate in code reviews and design discussions, Document systems and share knowledge with team members and Wikimedia’s broader technical community Skills and Experience We’re Looking For 2+ years of experience as a backend or platform engineer working on distributed systems or data platforms Solid understanding of database and/or knowledge graph representation technologies Proficiency 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 SLOs - good appreciation of scalability, performance, reliability and other non-functionals Familiarity with modern observability tools (metrics, logging, tracing) Familiarity with data processing technologies such as graph databases, search indexes, or data processing pipelines Ability to work collaboratively across disciplines and communicate clearly across technical and non-technical audiences A commitment to learning, resilience, and contributing to a mission-driven engineering culture Nice to Have Experience working with knowledge graphs or RDF/SPARQL Familiarity 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 communities Familiarity with Wikimedia technologies, Wikidata, or 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 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 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. The anticipated annual pay range of this position for applicants based within the United States is US$ 95,164 to US$ 148,729 with multiple individualized factors, including cost of living in the location, being the determinants of the offered pay. For applicants located outside of the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. We neither ask for nor take into consideration the salary history of applicants. The compensation for a successful applicant will be based on their skills, experience and location. If you are a qualified applicant requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability, you may contact us at recruiting@wikimedia.org or +1 (415) 839-6885.