Job openings/Fundraiser Data Analyst

YOU ARE ...

... a person who loves crunching numbers and writing code to help understand and improve Wikimedia's annual fundraiser. Wikipedia and its sister projects seem like a very exciting potential playground to you, and you enjoy the reward of discovery as a result of hard work.

You are resourceful, inquisitive, and collaborative. You enjoy an environment where immediate results are required. You value elegance, but you're not opposed to taking a messy, quick route to the truth when necessary. You are self-sufficient, self-driven, focused, and organized. You are a capable coder and understand how to write robust, maintainable open source statistics and analytical software. You can get answers very quickly from a simple, but sometimes messy, MySQL database. You are able to present requirements to developers and help them to understand the importance of your work, but you are also handy enough with Linux shell usage and scripting to mine your own data. You build bridges between your data, the developers and the rest of the team.

Above all, you are excited by the opportunity to support Wikimedia's free knowledge projects with data.

JOB TITLE

Fundraiser Data Analyst

REPORTS TO

Head of Annual Fundraiser

About analysis at the Wikimedia Foundation and the Community Department

The Wikimedia Foundation consists of three operating departments advancing the organization's mission: to empower and engage people around the world to collect and develop free educational content, and to disseminate it effectively and globally.

• The Global Development department expands Wikimedia's presence and programmatic activities world-wide, with special focus on disadvantaged and underrepresented communities. This includes support for Wikimedia's chapter organizations such as grantmaking, on-the-ground programs in key regions, and development of partnerships to expand mobile and offline access.
• The Technology department operates the Wikimedia Foundation websites, including Wikipedia, and it maintains and improves the underlying open source software (for example, by improving usability for entry-level volunteers or simplifying media uploading).
• The Community Department collaborates with and serves the broad Wikimedia community — including readers, donors and editors/contributors — to encourage the health and growth of Wikimedia communities and the projects they create and manage.

The work in all three departments is data-driven. In order to ensure that research is conducted effectively to support the specific programmatic work in each department, relevant research resources are hired into the department they are likely to interface with most. For example, analytics, usability and product research sits inside the technology department; community experiments and qualitative community research are organized in the community department; market research data is managed within the Global Development department.

All Community Department positions involve collaborating and communicating with community stakeholders intensively and publicly, grappling with problems that no one has ever solved before, navigating technological and social challenges and opportunities, and dealing with a high level of complexity and uncertainty. Candidates should have extremely high levels of skill and comfort in communication (especially writing), qualitative and quantitative analysis, management and self-management. Candidates who are not already deeply immersed in online collaborative communities will have to show an aptitude for quickly gaining deep understanding of our communities' technologies, practices, traditions and culture — and to become trusted and productive members of the Wikimedia community and movement.

JOB PURPOSE

The Fundraiser Research Analyst will be an integral member of the Fundraising project team. The primary role of this position is to work closely and collaboratively with the Fundraising team, Wikimedia Foundation technology team and outside consultants to coordinate and participate in the collection, interpretation and evaluation of fundraising technical data. The Research Analyst will create reports, charts, graphs, maps and tables that will be designed to concisely, clearly and meaningfully convey information for both a lay audience and for fundraising experts.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

• Collect, normalize and analyze new fundraising data on a daily — often minute-to-minute — basis.
• Maintain the data and results in a highly organized and accessible system
• Work closely with technology team to establish procedures for procurement of data; recommend new methods for collection and documentation of data.
• Coordinate and participate in the preparation and presentation of reports, visualizations and analysis, capture progress, trends, and appropriate recommendations or conclusions.
• Willingness to toss out the playbook and approach a problem alternatively
• Other duties as required.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Advanced degree in computer science and/or math, or equivalent experience
• 2+ years experience working in a Linux/Unix server environment
• 2+ years experience with scripting languages, such as PHP, Perl, Ruby, Python or shell scripting. Experience with low-level programming languages is a plus.
• Strong ability to analyze and synthesize quantitative and qualitative data from primary and secondary sources, and proven ability to create simple, meaningful reports.
• General experience with database storage systems, with previous experience working with MySQL or similar database in a production environment
• Proficient English speaker

CANDIDATE CHARACTERISTICS

• Creative, highly motivated self-starter with responsible work habits and high levels of communication
• Relevant hands-on experience and eagerness to learn and try new concepts is a key success factor
• Able to operate effectively in multiple cultural and technical contexts, able to work remotely as part of a globally distributed team
• Comfortable using a wide variety of communications/collaboration tools including wikis, mailing lists and IRC; comfortable in a highly collaborative, consensus-oriented environment
• Experience with Wikipedia and/or Wikimedia or wiki platforms is a plus; active participation as a Wikimedia volunteer would be an asset, though not a prerequisite.
• Previous experience with the PHP scripting language, Open Web Analytics or other analytics software is plus
• Any other free/open software development experience highly welcome; understanding of the free culture movement is a plus
• Experience with high traffic web site architectures and participatory production environments and operations is a plus