The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a Senior Site Reliability Engineer to support and develop the platform behind Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, ensuring high reliability and scalability of one of the world’s top-10 websites. This remote-first role involves operational leadership, automation, incident response, and collaboration with global engineering teams to advance the mission of free knowledge for all.
What You'll Do
- Performing day-to-day operational/DevOps tasks on Wikimedia’s public-facing infrastructure (deployment, maintenance, configuration, troubleshooting)
- Implementing and utilizing configuration management and deployment tools (Puppet, Kubernetes)
- Leading continuous improvement by automating the installation, configuration, and maintenance of services on our platform
- Work closely with product teams, helping them bring scalable functionality to our users by assisting in the architectural design of new services and making them operate at scale
- Participating in a 24/7 on-call rotation shared across the broader SRE team. This includes taking part in incident response, diagnosis, and follow-up on system outages or alerts across Wikimedia’s production infrastructure.
- Collaborating with a global, cross-functional team in an asynchronous communication environment
- Mentoring peers in your areas of technical and operational strength
- Ability and willingness to travel 1-2 times a year for in-person events and team meetings
- Most importantly, share our values and work in accordance with them
What We're Looking For
- 6+ years of experience in an SRE/Operations/DevOps role as part of a team
- Experience with shell and any scripting languages used in an SRE context (Python, Go, Bash, Ruby; we primarily use Python) and configuration management tools (Puppet, Ansible; we use Puppet)
- Experience with distributed caching systems, including their underlying algorithms and how to optimize their performance
- A thorough, protocol-level understanding of TCP/IP, HTTP, TLS, and DNS
- Experience with package management on Linux systems (we use Debian)
- Strong Linux system-level troubleshooting skills
- History of automating tasks and processes, identifying process gaps, and finding automation opportunities
- Strong English language skills (verbal and written) and ability to work independently, as an effective part of a globally distributed team working across multiple time zones
- Experience leading and participating in incident response and post-incident review rituals, with the goal of conducting root cause analysis and implementing preventive measures.
Nice to Have
- Experience with high-performance HTTP(S) caching-proxy software, such as HAProxy, Varnish (Vinyl), Apache Traffic Server, Envoy, or Nginx
- Experience with Linux kernel tuning for high-traffic loads
- Experience with the use, maintenance, and configuration of monitoring, metrics, and logging infrastructure (Prometheus, Grafana, etc.)
- Developing/contributing to Free and Open Source software, or being part of an open-source community (share your favourite pull requests!)
- Experience with LAMP stack technologies (PHP/HHVM, memcached/Redis) -- MediaWiki experience is a definite plus
- Experience with defining cross-team SLOs and their implementation
Technical Stack
Puppet, Kubernetes, Python, Go, Bash, Ruby, Ansible, HAProxy, Varnish, Vinyl, Apache Traffic Server, Envoy, Nginx, TCP/IP, HTTP, TLS, DNS, Debian, Linux, Prometheus, Grafana, PHP, HHVM, memcached, Redis, MediaWiki
Team & Environment
Join a globally distributed and diverse team within the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team at the Wikimedia Foundation. We operate in an asynchronous communication environment and value open collaboration, mentorship, and shared ownership of systems.
Benefits & Compensation
- Remote-first organization with staff in 40+ countries
- Ability and willingness to travel 1-2 times a year for in-person events and team meetings
- Salaries set competitively, equitably, and aligned with values and culture
- No consideration of salary history in compensation decisions
- Equal opportunity employer with commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity
- Employees hired through local third-party Employer of Record (EOR) outside the US
- Work authorization required in applicant's location
Compensation: US$ 113,082 to US$ 175,725 annually for US-based applicants; adjusted for country of hire outside the US. No bonuses, commissions, or profit-sharing.
Work Mode
Remote-first with asynchronous communication; travel 1-2 times per year for in-person events. Positions available for applicants in: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom.
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.
