Lead UX Designer - Future Audiences

Summary

The Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization supporting Wikipedia and other Wiki projects. The Foundation operates one of the world’s top five websites and has global reach and impact.  Technology and innovation are critical in our quest to support every human in freely sharing knowledge. 

The Product Design team at Wikimedia is looking for a Lead UX Designer with an expert understanding of user experience and product development processes to work within one of our multi-disciplinary product teams exploring new and varied experimental concepts to engage new, future audiences to learn from and contribute to Wikimedia projects. 

You will be responsible for…

• Reducing complexity to create simple, delightful experiences from Wikimedia projects.
• Creating prototypes and running experiments to iteratively test your hypotheses.
• Using and evolving our design system and guidelines, to create new features from ideas on paper to implementation.
• Applying accessibility standards and guidelines to your designs.
• Collaborating with product managers and engineers to create product plans and maintain product design processes.
• Distilling complex concepts into easy to understand talking points to engage with our readers and communities throughout the design process.
• Working actively with other leaders on product and design to help improve tactical and operational processes.
• Supporting the growth of colleagues by mentoring others within the team.

Skills and experience…. 

The right person is better than the right set of experiences. These are the traits we’ve identified that make great additions to our team so far.

• Can craft compelling stories that persuade team members and stakeholders to adopt their ideas.
• Experience mentoring other designers on design whilst welcoming feedback from others.
• Solid experience using evaluative and generative research methods, to build a deeper understanding of audience behaviors.
• Has a strong creative vision and the ability to switch from blue sky ideation to tactical thinking to execute and test new ideas efficiently.
• Highly skilled prototyper able to craft persuasive translations to bring their ideas to life.
• Shares their work and ideas beyond their own team, and enjoys engaging with the global design community. 
• 8+ years of experience contributing on design teams
• Bachelor's degree and/or Masters degree, or equivalent in related work experience 

Additionally, we’d love it if you have...

• Background in content consumption, publishing, education, news, and games/edu-tainment
• Experience working on products in emerging and new tech, for younger audiences.
• Experience acting as a researcher, both in-person and with remote participants
• Have familiarity with Free Knowledge and/or Open Source communities
• Speak more than one of the nearly 300 languages of the users you’ll be designing for

Team requirements

• Attendance of mandatory design team meetings weekly on:
• Tuesdays from 15:00-16:00 UTC (11a-12p ET / 8a-9a PT)
• Thursdays from 14:00-15:20 UTC (10a-11:20p ET / 7a-8:20a PT)
• Availability for team meetings and synchronous collaboration with product team from 17:00 UTC to 21:00 UTC (1p-5p ET / 10a-2p PT) 

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that 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 freely. 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. 

The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations 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.

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.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a remote-first organization with staff members including contractors based 40+ countries*. Salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are set in a way that is competitive, equitable, and consistent with our values and culture. The anticipated annual pay range of this position for applicants based within the United States is US$134,133 to US$208,254 with multiple individualized factors, including cost of living in the location, being the determinants of the offered pay. For applicants located outside of the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. We neither ask for nor take into consideration the salary history of applicants. The compensation for a successful applicant will be based on their skills, experience and location. 

*Please note that we are currently able to hire in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America and Uruguay.  Our non-US employees are hired through a local third party Employer of Record (EOR). 

We periodically review this list to streamline to ensure alignment with our hiring requirements. 

All applicants can reach out to their recruiter to understand more about the specific pay range for their location during the interview process.

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.

More information

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