Overview
The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a Senior Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) to join its Service Operations team, which manages the infrastructure behind Wikipedia and its sister projects.
This globally distributed team is diverse, collaborative, and passionate about technology. The Service Operations SRE team focuses on the application-level infrastructure and developer-facing services, which includes MediaWiki on bare metal servers, microservices on a custom Kubernetes setup, and tools like Gerrit, GitLab, and Phabricator. The team emphasizes automation (mainly using Python, Puppet, and Spicerack) and shares its work publicly on platforms like Wikitech.
As a senior team member, you’ll help design, manage, and improve infrastructure like Kubernetes clusters, application servers, and databases. You’ll also be part of a 24/7 on-call rotation, work closely with other engineers across departments, and help evolve Wikimedia’s technical ecosystem.
Key Responsibilities
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Design and maintain infrastructure for public-facing services
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Manage deployments and configurations
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Plan and operate large-scale systems
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Monitor performance, troubleshoot issues, and optimize systems
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Document and automate routine tasks
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Participate in incident response, including leading postmortems
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Mentor teammates and contribute to a collaborative, global team
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Travel 2–3 times a year for team events or conferences
Requirements
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5+ years in SRE, DevOps, or Operations roles
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Experience managing high-availability and large-scale systems
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Strong knowledge of containers (Docker, Kubernetes)
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Skilled in shell scripting and at least one programming language (e.g., Python, Go, Ruby)
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Experience with configuration tools like Puppet, Ansible, or Terraform
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Clear communication in technical English
Bonus Skills
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Experience with Debian packaging or other OS-level tools
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Contributions to open source projects
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Familiarity with Wikimedia or its projects
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A good sense of humor (reference to RFC 2549 – IP over Avian Carriers)
About Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit that runs Wikipedia and other free knowledge platforms. Their mission is to make knowledge freely available to everyone. Funded primarily through individual donations, the organization supports its projects through advocacy, software development, and partnerships.
As a remote-first employer, Wikimedia hires globally and offers equitable, location-adjusted compensation. U.S. pay for this role ranges from $109,047 to $169,455, and salaries in other countries are adjusted accordingly. They are committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Currently, they can hire in over 40 countries, including the U.S., U.K., India, Germany, Brazil, and more.
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 [email protected] or +1 (415) 839-6885.