Job openings/Software Developer Backend

YOU ARE ...

... an experienced PHP/MySQL software developer with operations experience. You want to work with an existing team of rock star engineers. You are passionate about Wikimedia's mission to bring free knowledge to every person on the planet. You recognize the importance of building a global community of supporters for these efforts, and you are excited about the opportunity to apply your skills towards that goal as a fundraising software developer.

Ideally, you're not unfamiliar with the MediaWiki software platform used by Wikimedia. You understand the principles of open source software development, the importance of testing and documentation, and the common pitfalls in developing secure web applications. You can competently optimize database queries, adjust server configuration settings, and develop new features.

You enjoy the technical challenges associated with managing a database of hundreds of thousands of records, and want to support the production pipelines making it happen.

You thrive in a team of smart open source developers, and you're looking forward to making an impact. If much or all of this applies to you -- please send us a thoughtful application letter and tell us why you're the right person for the job! :-)

Job Title

Software Developer

Reports To

Director of Features

Job Summary

• Design and develop back-end components to support MediaWiki extensions.
• Develop new features and enhance existing features for Wikimedia sites.
• Work on a variety of projects including user-facing feature, support systems such as fundraising, survey tools, etc., depending on priority.
• Help improve efficiency, scalability, and stability of various system components.
• Maintain software (e.g. bug fixes).
• Cross-review commits by other developers working on extensions.
• Conduct design and code reviews.
• Support testing efforts for feature deployments.
• Participate in periodic technology meetings for design, development and testing.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of related work experience preferred.
• 3+ years of experience building web applications.
• B.S. or M.S. in Computer Science or related field preferred.
• Extensive experience building large-scale server applications.
• Expert knowledge developing and debugging in Linux (LAMP) environments.
• Excellent knowledge of PHP.
• Excellent knowledge of MySQL and other relational databases.
• Experience with operating system internals, filesystems, programming language design, compilers, distributed systems, or server architectures.

Additional Qualifications

• Excellent knowledge of other scripting languages such as bash and Python a plus.
• Experience working in an open source project.
• Experience in the Wikipedia community a plus.