Senior UX Designer

Job Description

The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization supporting Wikipedia and other Wiki projects. The Foundation operates one of the world’s top ten websites and has global reach and impact. Technology and innovation are critical in our quest to support every human in freely sharing knowledge.

The Product department at the Foundation is looking for a Senior UX Designer to join our Product Design team. This role will directly support the Foundation’s Structured Data on Commons work which is made possible by a grant from the Sloan Foundation. This team focuses on making the millions of files on Wikimedia Commons easier to view, search (also multilingually), edit, organize and re-use, and as such is a key strategic initiative for the Product team.

As the SDC team’s designer, you will be responsible for developing design concepts, testing and evaluating these concepts, and engaging in “community conversations” with stakeholders in the Wikimedia Commons contributor community to gather insights and surface concerns. As part of the Product Design team at the Foundation, you will contribute in weekly design review sessions, and mentor other designers as needed.

Responsibilities

Design

• Understand audience behaviour and create experiments to test hypotheses
• Shepherd features from ideas on paper through to implementation
• Use evaluative and generative research to inform your design decisions
• Reduce, simplify and distill

Collaborate

• Collaborate with product and engineering leads to establish and maintain product design processes
• Interact with our users and communities from the beginning to end of your design process
• Work with our growing team of designers to create reusable design patterns
• Be an active part of the development team throughout the product process

Advocate

• Distill complex concepts into simple, easy to understand talking points to effectively articulate your vision to your team and the communities
• Develop clear and effective communications that are compelling and convincing
• Be the voice of design in developing product plans

Requirements

The right person is better than the right set of experiences. These are the traits we’ve identified make great additions to our team so far.

• Have great instincts for making design decisions and be able to support your choices with research and data
• Being able to perform evaluative research
• Be able to tell stories that convey your design goals to team members and internal stakeholders
• Have a creative vision of your own while being able to work within the bounds of what is possible, and imagine what can come next
• 5+ years of experience contributing on product design teams
• Know when to switch from blue sky ideation to tactical thinking
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent in related work experience
• Be self-driven and comfortable working autonomously

Pluses

In addition to the basic skills needed for being successful, these skills could set you apart from the pack!

• Passion for participatory (vs. only consumption) experiences on the web
• Background in content consumption, publishing, education, or news
• Experience working on offline digital experiences
• Experience acting as a researcher, both in-person and with remote participants
• Have familiarity with Free Knowledge and/or Open Source communities
• Speak more than one of the 286 languages of the users you’ll be designing for

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

More information

WMF
Blog
Wikimedia 2030
Wikimedia Medium Term Plan
Diversity and inclusion information for Wikimedia workers, by the numbers
Wikimania 2019
Annual Report - 2017
This is Wikimedia Foundation
Facts Matter
Our Projects
Fundraising Report