Summary

The Wikimedia Foundation seeks a Senior Software Engineer for the Product Safety and Integrity team to build new security features protecting Wikipedia and its projects. This hands-on role involves designing and implementing features to safeguard users and ensure platform resilience against attacks, working alongside engineers and product managers.

You are a seasoned software engineer experienced in building security features for large-scale systems. You understand the importance of testing, documentation, and common pitfalls in secure web application development. You are passionate about the WMF mission and thrive in our transparent operational environment, impacting thousands of editors daily.

You will primarily work on the MediaWiki platform powering Wikipedia. As a top 10 website, we must meet stringent performance standards while addressing security challenges like modern authentication, bot abuse detection and prevention, and security architecture improvements against emerging threats.

You Are Responsible For

• Helping design, develop, and deliver security features with safety and security as primary considerations.
• Collaborating with other engineering teams to ensure safe architectural and implementation choices.
• Leading by example in code review, decision-making, and team culture, fostering transparency, empathy, and collaboration.
• Developing, reviewing, and deploying security features created by the Foundation and community members.
• Performing security maintenance and addressing technical debt in security-critical components.
• Providing support for application security incidents and operations.

Skills and Experience

We value mindset and potential over a checklist of specific experiences. Key traits for our team include:

• 5+ years of experience as a software engineer, ideally with a focus on security.
• Ability to work effectively in a modern PHP and JavaScript codebase.
• Driving technical quality and operational excellence by defining and reinforcing standards in testing, observability, and system reliability.
• Comfortably and autonomously creating proofs of concept, writing design documents, and breaking down complex projects into actionable tasks to support less experienced team members.
• Experience in developing secure software or security-related product features.
• A strong interest in working with a talented security team and learning specialist security skills such as exploiting and mitigating application-level vulnerabilities.
• Ability to explain complex security issues and their implications on privacy and risk to non-technical audiences.
• Sensitivity to the security challenges faced by participants in a large, international project.
• Experience working in a remote, distributed team.

Additionally, we'd love it if you have:

• Experience working on anti-abuse mechanisms such as CAPTCHA and bot detection.
• Previous experience building security countermeasures against attacks at the web, backend, and database levels.
• Experience finding and fixing security bugs and reviewing code for security gaps.
• A working knowledge of threat modeling and secure design patterns.
• Prior experience with MediaWiki or Wikimedia projects.
• Contributions to open-source software.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization operating Wikipedia and other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world where every human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe everyone has the potential to contribute and access knowledge freely. We host Wikimedia projects, build software for reading, contributing, and sharing content, support volunteer communities and partners, and advocate for policies enabling free knowledge to thrive.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization funded by donations from millions of individuals worldwide. We are a US 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Wikimedia Foundation values a diverse workforce and strives for an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage applications from individuals with diverse backgrounds and do not discriminate based on protected characteristics.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a remote-first organization with staff and contractors in over 40 countries. Salaries are competitive, equitable, and aligned with our values. The anticipated annual pay range for this position in the United States is US$113,082 to US$175,725, determined by factors including cost of living. For applicants outside the US, the pay range will be adjusted by country of hire. We do not consider salary history. Compensation is based on skills, experience, and location.

We currently hire in: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Uruguay. Non-US employees are hired through a local third-party Employer of Record (EOR).

We periodically review this list to ensure alignment with hiring requirements.

Applicants can reach out to their recruiter for specific pay range information for their location during the interview process.

Qualified applicants requiring assistance or accommodation due to a disability can contact [email protected] or +1 (415) 839-6885.

More Information

• U.S. Benefits & Perks
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