Contract Project Manager - Communications

Employment Type: Contract

Location Type: Remote (ideally EST)

Position Overview

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a contract Project Manager for its Communications department. Reporting to the Senior Manager of Program Management, this role involves close collaboration with department project managers and various teams to support the Foundation's annual plan and related strategies. You will be part of a small, effective team, helping to extend their capabilities by project managing cross-team initiatives and supporting collective work. This includes liaising with and across the Communications department's teams, serving as a supportive project partner to writers, designers, marketers, PR/media, and movement communications specialists.

This is a remote position, ideally located within the Eastern Standard Time zone, working with colleagues across the USA, UK, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate closely with the Senior Manager of Program Management and assist department project managers on various projects, initiatives, and campaigns.
• Assist with negotiating project scopes, establishing project team norms, defining team roles and responsibilities, and creating decision-making frameworks.
• Identify stakeholders, schedule regular project meetings, and clearly communicate roadblocks, challenges, and dependencies.
• Support healthy team dynamics and a culture that welcomes diverse perspectives while driving multiple, smaller projects to completion.
• Document project work and run retrospectives to identify best practices for dependable, successful, on-time completion.
• Track and report relevant qualitative and quantitative metrics.
• Ensure individuals and teams understand their commitments to goals and each other, upholding a culture of belonging and accountability.
• Help project teams balance challenging work and workloads against scope creep and perfectionism.

Skills and Experience

• 2+ years of experience in project management or related roles.
• 2+ years of experience working remotely with a distributed team.
• Experience using Asana (our project management software) and the Google suite.
• Strong project management skills, including prioritization, organization, planning, time management, stakeholder management, facilitation, problem-solving, and decision-making.
• Familiarity and comfort with different communication styles, experience with various cultures, and projects crossing multiple time zones.
• Ability to anticipate risks, build relationships and trust, influence without authority, and effectively enforce accountability.
• Dependable and flexible interpersonal communication skills.
• Experience and comfort with ambiguity.

Qualities Important to the Team

• Mission Driven: Belief in the Wikimedia mission.
• Openness and Curiosity: Interest in working on new and interesting communications problems in complex, public, and collaborative ways.
• Team-Oriented: Naturally inclined toward collaboration and the belief that success includes everyone.
• Intentionally Inclusive: Motivated by high standards, reflecting values related to participation, equity, and diversity in global movements.
• Resilience: Commitment to working positively toward outcomes and willingness to change course when warranted.
• Creativity: Thoughtfulness in complex situations, appreciation of creative mentalities, work patterns, and approaches.

Additionally, we would appreciate experience with:

• Working in an international organization with a distributed workforce.
• An understanding of the value of neurodiversity.
• Fluency in languages in addition to English.
• Non-profit experience.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects.