Engineering Manager, Security and Privacy

Engineering Manager, Product Safety and Security

Position Overview

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking an experienced and mission-driven Engineering Manager to lead the security and privacy engineering group within the Product Safety and Security team. This role will also advise the Foundation on critical security and privacy issues.

The Product Safety and Security team comprises two closely integrated engineering groups. This position manages a team of security and privacy engineers dedicated to enhancing the security and privacy of applications that power Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects. The role involves close collaboration with a peer engineering group focused on maintaining the integrity of the Wikipedia platform and ensuring the safety of its contributors. Both engineering groups report to the Director of Engineering, MediaWiki.

This leadership position will partner with the Group Product Manager for Safety and Security to define and implement the roadmap and priorities for the Product Safety and Security team.

Why This Role Matters

The Wikimedia Foundation operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. We are deeply committed to the security, privacy, and integrity of these projects, as well as the volunteer community that makes them thrive. The Product Safety and Security team plays a pivotal role in guiding how the Wikimedia Foundation and its projects adapt to an increasingly complex threat landscape.

Responsibilities

• Lead a group of security and privacy engineers in safeguarding the Wikimedia Foundation’s people, project integrity, infrastructure, and other assets against threats.
• Advise product management across the Foundation on security best practices and the security implications of various product decisions.
• Contribute to establishing the Wikimedia Foundation’s overall security and safety roadmap, ensuring delivery against technical and organizational goals.
• Collaborate effectively with Product & Engineering teams, Legal, ITS, and other departments.
• Set direction, remove obstacles, and ensure successful delivery against technical and organizational goals.
• Establish and lead the execution of group processes, including sprint planning, security releases and deployments, and security incident response.
• Hire and develop a high-performing, inclusive engineering group that builds and owns security-critical software, operating from a shared sense of mission.

Skills and Experience

• Proven experience managing engineers and engineering teams responsible for infrastructure, platform, or developer-facing tools.
• Strong technical background with experience in systems engineering, cloud infrastructure (e.g., Kubernetes, OpenStack), and developer platform architecture.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional collaboration and product-oriented development within open communities or large-scale developer ecosystems.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills, particularly in distributed and asynchronous environments.
• Ability to travel 2-3 times per year.

Additionally, we’d love it if you have:

• Experience managing engineering teams with a specific focus on security.
• Experience contributing to or leading in open-source projects.
• Familiarity with Wikipedia or Wikimedia projects.
• A passion for building inclusive platforms that reduce barriers to entry and empower a diverse range of contributors.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world where every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute to our shared knowledge and should have free access to it. We host Wikipedia and 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.

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