Job openings/Communications
From the Wikimedia Foundation
WMF Job Description: Head of Communications
- Title
Head of Communications
- Purpose
The purpose of this job is to shape and define the public face of Wikimedia, including handling public relations, media relations and issues management.
- Summary
The purpose of this job is to liaise between the Wikimedia volunteer community and the media and public, ensuring that Wikimedia presents its best possible public face. This position works closely with the head of development, and the head of public outreach.
- Work with Wikimedia’s large and engaged volunteer community to collaboratively develop and execute media messaging;
- Triage all media inquiries, act as organizational spokesperson and redirect requests as appropriate
- Consult with and engage other professionals (e.g., designers, media bookers, issues management experts, etc.) on both a pro bono and paid basis, as required;
- Write, design and produce materials including press releases, plans, briefing documents and FAQs, sometimes under extremely tight deadlines;
- Create and maintain up-to-date media contact database;
- Create and maintain up-to-date volunteer media spokesperson database, including coordinating orientation and training as required;
- Coordinate Wikimedia speaking opportunities at conferences, symposia, etc.;
- Oversee the design, production and promotion of Wikimedia literature and merchandise.
- Qualifications
- University degree required;
- 7+ years of experience in media, public relations, communications or issues management, preferably with a highly visible organization;
- Excellent understanding of the American and international media landscape;
- Ability to successfully juggle multiple tasks, balancing the urgent against the important, and to draft, edit and proofread under pressure;
- Comfortable and proficient using a wide variety of communications and networking tools (e.g., mailing lists, IM, IRC, wikis, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.);
- Strong interpersonal skills including negotiating ability, flexibility, curiosity and sense of humor;
- The ability to speak multiple languages is a plus;
- Experience living or working outside the United States is a plus;
- Understanding of the free culture and open source software movements is a plus;
- The ideal candidate will be creative, motivated, and able to operate effectively in a highly-collaborative, consensus-oriented environment.
About the Wikimedia Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a US-registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible non-profit charity dedicated to encouraging the growth, development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world, including Wikipedia, one of the world's 10 most visited websites, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikinews and the Wikimedia Commons media repository. The organization has received numerous honors for its work, among them the Webby Award, the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica, the Japan Advertisers Association's Web Creation Award and the World Technology Award in Communications Technology.
The Wikimedia Foundation was created in 2003 to manage the operation of Wikipedia and its sister projects and is based in San Francisco, California. It currently employs 33 staff members. Wikimedia is supported by local chapter organizations in 27 countries or regions.
Apply
Please send a CV and cover letter to jobs
wikimedia.org before November 5, 2007. Please put the position title (Communications) in your subject line.
Applications that do not include a cover letter will not be considered. In your cover letter, please provide a brief analysis of one communications challenge you believe the Foundation faces, and how you might propose to address it.
Please copy and paste the text of your CV into the e-mail, in addition to attaching the file.
Due to the volume of applications we receive, we regret that only those selected for an interview will be contacted.
