Manager, Data Science (Product Analytics)

The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a Data Science Manager to lead the Product Analytics team, reporting to the Senior Director, Research and Decision Science. In this role, you will lead a team of data scientists whose insights guide strategies and tactics aimed at achieving our vision: a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. Your team partners with product managers, designers, engineers, and colleagues across the Wikimedia movement to produce and share actionable and accessible data and insights to inform decision-making within the Foundation and in Wikimedia communities. As the Data Science Manager for Product Analytics, you will manage a team of data scientists who help product development teams use quantitative data and insights to understand our audiences, inform strategy, guide product decisions, and assess the impact of new features. You will be accountable for the work your team delivers, and you will ensure timely delivery, data accuracy, and consistent reporting by creating shared data processes and procedures. And you will support the design of data products and tools that make critical data more accessible to stakeholders and decision makers. Candidates must be located within the UTC+1 to UTC-8 time zones, available for critical meetings and synchronous work between 14:00 and 22:00 UTC, and able to travel for offsites and conferences (up to 4 times per year).

You are responsible for:

• Timely delivery of accurate quantitative data and insights to inform strategy, guide product decisions, and assess the impact of product development work – balancing the need to operate in a fast-changing environment with appropriate rigor.
• People management for a team of roughly seven data scientists and nurturing a strongly collaborative and inclusive culture of trust, excellence, and empowerment.
• Mentoring team members on critical thinking, data-informed storytelling, technical skillset, and stakeholder partnership.
• Partnering with the Experiment Platform & Data Engineering teams to build and maintain data products that make data and insights accessible.
• Collaborating with product teams – especially product managers – and colleagues in the Research & Decision Science group to cultivate a practice of data-informed product development and decision making.
• Continuous development and improvement of experimentation and measurement best practices,
• Product health metrics,
• Visualizations,
• Reports for easier interpretation and increased accessibility.

Skills and Experience:

• Deep experience with experimental design and statistics applied to internet-scale audience or user experience data.
• Experience collaborating with product development teams in a fast-paced environment to test, analyze, and evaluate user-facing features.
• Prior experience as a people manager.
• Demonstrated commitment to equity, inclusion, and diversity.
• Experience with large-scale data processing & storage tools (we use Hadoop, Hive, Presto, Spark).

Qualities that are important to us:

• Ability to identify where data can have the most impact and clearly communicate findings and recommendations to partner teams.
• Empathy towards and commitment to work with the Wikimedia affiliates and volunteer communities.
• Discretion and competence in handling sensitive or confidential data.
• Curiosity and critical thinking skills; a lifelong learner who sees situations through multiple lenses.
• A coach and mentor with high emotional intelligence: evidenced by humility, tact, compassion, high levels of integrity, good listening skills.
• A facilitator with strong collaboration skills; an empowerment approach to open transparent management.
• Commitment to the mission of the organization as well as values/guiding principles.
• Self-motivated with an ability to navigate through ambiguity/complexity; resource-limited environment awareness.

Additionally we’d love it if you have:

• Exposure to ethical data management/privacy practices (preferred).
• Contributions or experience working in Wikimedia or other open source projects (preferred).
• Experience with Superset,
• Growthbook,

or other open-source testing/data visualization/reporting tools (preferred).

About the Wikimedia Foundation:

The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit organization operating Wikipedia & other free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world where every human can freely share knowledge. We build software experiences for reading/contributing/sharing content; support volunteer communities; advocate policies enabling free knowledge growth. The Foundation relies on donations from individuals worldwide (~$15 average donation), institutional grants/gifts; US 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization based in San Francisco CA USA.