The Technical Writer will be responsible for leading the creation and maintenance of educational material for a large community of free software developers. The Wikimedia Foundation supports a large development community (both volunteer and professional) to maintain and enhance MediaWiki and related Wikimedia site software. This documentation provides system administrator assistance for the installation and maintenance of MediaWiki and other Wikimedia-created software, developer assistance for the enhancement of MediaWiki, and API documentation for Wikimedia sites. The Technical Writer will work with the Core Platform Team and the community at large to prioritize areas of improvement, and then follow through on those priorities. This person is required to become a generous and organized contributor on mediawiki.org and other wikis, and will be responsible for fostering the community of volunteer technical writers to follow their lead.

SUMMARY

Duties include, but are not limited to the following:

• Ensure mediawiki.org, documentation portal, and other developer documentation is clear, accurate, up-to-date, and fulfills goal of expanding the developer community
• Absorb knowledge from seasoned developers, and ensure most important information is readily available to newcomers in a comprehensive and concise format
• Expand the community of writers contributing to public documentation
• Create diagrams and illustrations as appropriate to improve readability and clarity
• Broad oversight of editing activity on public technical documentation, ensuring vandalism and misinformation is corrected quickly and completely
• Work with project managers and developers to document new features and other improvements in a timely fashion
• Communicate widely and frequently to wide audience of staff, community members and volunteers via mailing list, irc, and wikis

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience in technical writing for software projects
• Has written technical documentation for developers
• Experience developing documentation strategy
• Demonstrated ability to create clear and compelling visual diagrams
• Creative and highly motivated to serve the community
• Experience working with and writing for diverse, multilingual and international communities
• Comfort in a highly collaborative, consensus-oriented environment
• Strong research skills (as there will not be developer support for some of the issues that need to be documented)
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Comfort using a wide variety of communications/collaboration tools including wikis, mailing lists and IRC
• Strong affinity for the Wikimedia mission

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience writing on public wikis
• Experience contributing to and participating in Free Software/Open Source projects
• Experience managing volunteer-based teams is a major plus
• Experience living or working outside of your home country is a major plus
• Experience developing web applications with the LAMP stack and related technologies (CSS, HTML, Javascript, XML, etc.) a major plus
• The ability to speak multiple languages is a major plus
• Experience working with a remote and distributed organization.

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

Wikimedia Foundation website

Wikimedia Foundation blog

Annual Report – 2017

Wikimedia 2030