Posted today · be early
Senior Data Scientist, Safety & Security
Wikimedia Foundation
Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Ghana +14 moreremotePosted 1 day ago
Skill Required
Data-ScientistData-ScienceProduct-AnalyticsTrust-and-SafetySecurity-AnalyticsSafety-Data-ScientistSenior-Data-ScienceData ScientistsecurityMachine LearningStatisticsanalyticaldevelopinganalyticsbuildingAirflowTestNGPythondesignSparkHivedbtSQLandAIFulltime
Key highlights
- Anticipated annual U.S. pay range for the role is US$109,563 to US$173,129, adjusted to hire location for non-U.S. applicants
- The role requires availability for critical meetings and synchronous collaboration between 13:00 and 19:00 UTC
- The Wikimedia Foundation is a remote-first organization with staff and contractors based in 40+ countries
- Must-have qualifications include fluency in R or Python and SQL, experience with large-scale data tools (Hive, Presto, Druid, Spark), and experience collaborating with product teams to evaluate user-facing online platform features
- Preferred qualifications include prior experience in trust & safety, information security/privacy, or fraud/anti-abuse, and experience with open-source data tools like Superset or Growthbook
- The organization does not consider applicant salary history when setting compensation, which is based on skills, experience, and location
Role overview
Wikipedia is a globally trusted free knowledge source, read by over 1 billion people monthly in more than 300 languages, operated independently by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation and funded primarily by small donations. The Foundation is hiring a Senior Data Scientist, Safety & Security to join its Product Analytics team, to support the development and execution of Wikipedia’s anti-abuse and security strategy. In this role, the hire will inform product development strategy by collaborating with product managers, engineers, and cross-functional teams to ensure platform features and interventions deliver intended impact. They will partner closely with the Product Safety and Integrity team to apply cutting-edge AI and machine learning to complex safety and security challenges, amplifying the team’s roadmap impact through creative data analysis, metric development, and data strategy advancement. The role sits at a pivotal time for Wikipedia, as AI transforms how people access knowledge and creates new safety risks and opportunities for the platform.
Responsibilities
- Set strategy for measuring the success of bot detection and inauthentic account activity (sockpuppetry) mitigation efforts
- Provide analysis to inform development of new heuristics and approaches to detect potentially abusive activity on the platform
- Collaborate with research scientists and security engineers to develop and evaluate AI models to identify malicious user-authored code
- Serve as a strategic partner for product managers, engineers, designers, and other product development team colleagues
- Proactively make recommendations on product direction and data strategy, surface insights, and interpret results
- Deliver accurate quantitative data and insights in a timely manner to inform strategy, guide product decisions, and assess product development work impact, balancing needs to operate in a fast-changing environment with appropriate analytical rigor
- Clearly communicate results and data-backed recommendations to cross-functional stakeholders to ensure understanding and guide decision-making
- Build and execute measurement strategy, evaluate experiments using Bayesian and Frequentist approaches, and perform quantitative research to inform product decisions
- Develop queries and code to work with large-scale internal and external data repositories, using AI assistants and tools including Apache Iceberg, Hive, Druid, Presto, and Spark
- Build automated, self-service dashboards for product teams to track success and health metrics using tools such as DBT, Airflow, and Superset
- Help product team members instrument features, perform data quality assurance, and use tools for running A/B tests
- Demonstrate good judgment in prioritizing workload and selecting appropriate analytical methods and techniques
Requirements
- Experience with experimental design and statistics or machine learning methods
- Experience using AI coding assistants for data analysis and other technical tasks
- Fluency in R or Python, and common version control and command-line-based tools, for data analysis, statistical modeling, simulation, visualization, and reporting
- Fluency in SQL and working with large scale data using tools such as Hive, Presto, Druid, and Spark
- Experience collaborating with product development teams in a fast-paced environment to test, analyze, and evaluate user-facing features for an online platform
- Ability to explain data and insights clearly to non-specialist audiences and gain their understanding and confidence
- Curiosity and critical thinking skills; status as a lifelong learner who evaluates situations through multiple lenses
- Empathy towards and commitment to work with Wikimedia volunteer communities, plus discretion and competence in handling sensitive or confidential data
- Commitment to the mission of the Wikimedia Foundation and its values and guiding principles
- Self-motivation and ability to navigate ambiguity and complexity, with ability to find solutions that embrace the complex Wikimedia ecosystem, limited resources, and ambitious guiding principles
- Availability for critical meetings and synchronous collaboration between 13:00 and 19:00 UTC
Nice to have
- Prior experience working in areas related to trust & safety, information security and privacy, or fraud and anti-abuse
- Exposure to and interest in ethical data management and privacy practices
- Contributed to Wikimedia projects or have experience working in other open source projects
- Experience with Superset, Growthbook, or other open-source testing, data visualization, or reporting tools
Additional details
- The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit operator of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia free knowledge projects, with a vision of a world where every person can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. It hosts Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects, builds software for reading, contributing to, and sharing Wikimedia content, supports volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocates for policies that enable free knowledge to thrive.
- The Wikimedia Foundation is a U.S. 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization that relies on donations from millions of individuals (average donation of ~$15) and institutional grants and gifts, with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.
- The Wikimedia Foundation is an equal opportunity employer that values a diverse workforce and continuously strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. It encourages people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply, and does not discriminate against any person based on 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 and contractors based in 40+ countries.
- Salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are set in a way that is competitive, equitable, and consistent with the organization’s values and culture. The anticipated annual pay range for U.S.-based applicants to this role is US$109,563 to US$173,129, with offered pay determined by individualized factors including cost of living in the hire location. For applicants located outside the U.S., the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. The organization neither asks for nor takes into consideration the salary history of applicants, and compensation for a successful applicant will be based on their skills, experience and location.
- The organization is currently able to hire in the following locations: U.S. states: 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, and Wyoming (with * denoting U.S. territories or federal districts); countries: Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Non-U.S. employees are hired through a local third-party Employer of Record (EOR) and must have current work authorization in their location. The organization periodically reviews this list to streamline to ensure alignment with its hiring requirements.
- All applicants can reach out to their recruiter during the interview process to understand more about the specific pay range for their location.
- Qualified applicants requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability may contact the organization at the provided contact method or +1 (415) 839-6885.
- Additional organizational information is available via links to U.S. Benefits & Perks, Applicant Privacy Policy, Wikimedia Foundation overview, what makes Wikipedia different from social media platforms, Wikimedia projects, the organization’s tech stack, movement news, Wikimedia Blog, and Wikimedia 2030.
- This job description was originally posted on Himalayas.
