Free knowledge leads to a fairer world. Wikipedia is the most important online knowledge collection of our time. The German Wikipedia alone records almost 1 billion page views per month for a total of 3 million articles. We - Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. - support the volunteers of Wikipedia and its sister projects, develop free software, such as Wikidata, and advocate for free access to knowledge, the opening of education and research, and more common good orientation in data policy.
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For our Software & Development Department, based in Berlin, we are looking for an Interim Engineering Manager (all genders), full-time (32 - 40 hours / week) as soon as possible for a 12-month contract.
This position is designed as a hybrid working model with regular presence in our Berlin office.
About the position & the team:
We seek an experienced Interim Engineering Manager (all genders) to join our Software & Development Department to lead the Wikibase Cloud Engineering Team while their Engineering Manager is unavailable for a longer period of time. This position is primarily people management, focusing on our developers' personal and professional growth, with an understanding of evaluating and suggesting improvements to engineering processes.
Wikibase Cloud is a collaborative space for individuals and groups to contribute, edit, and curate information in a structured way to help you transform your data into meaningful knowledge. Wikibase Cloud makes it easy and quick to host your Wikibase with no need for your own infrastructure. Wikibase Cloud opens the doors to efficient data management, sharing, and discovering insights in a collaborative environment.
Wikimedia Deutschland's Software Development department includes seven different product teams working on Wikidata, Wikibase, Technical Wishes, and Fundraising Technology. Our tasks include live platform operations, backend maintenance, feature development, cloud services, testing procedures and analysis, API development, and systems maintenance to integrate various services with our Wikimedia websites (e.g., Wikidata.org, de.Wikipedia.org).
The engineering manager mentors and leads a team of software engineers who improve our products’ software, which includes developing new features, maintaining existing features and infrastructure, as well as supporting the annual and strategic goals.
What you’ll be doing:
- Lead the team of six Wikibase Cloud engineers, build features that support the development of this product team, enabling our communities to achieve their visions.
- Support engineers, product managers, community communication & partnership managers, researchers, and designers in building products and services used by hundreds of millions of people around the world.
- Collaborate with other engineering managers and functional team leads on development, technical guidance, and engineering processes.
- Evaluate engineering processes and provide suggestions for improvement to Engineering and Product Leadership.
- As the Interim Engineering Manager, you will mentor an existing engineering team while supporting the personal and professional growth of our engineers.
- Mentor and support the engineering team to maintain a high work and life quality, build trust within the engineering and product teams, while fostering adoption of new ideas.
- Support the teams to align development with the values and goals of the organisation.
- Represent team members within the organisation and our communities.
- Coordinate with other WMDE product teams and organisational departments.
What makes you right for this role:
- Experience as an inclusive team engineering leader within a collaborative, product-driven, agile software development environment.
- Experience in collaboratively managing and growing diverse and inclusive software development teams that work together in cross-functional team settings - with engineers, UX specialists, and product managers as strong collaborators.
- Experience managing a hybrid/remote software engineering team.
- Experience contributing to the empowerment of team members and the product team.
- Established interpersonal and external communication, collaboration, and conflict mitigation skills.
- Proficient written and verbal communication skills in English.
Interested?
Please send us your detailed application documents (Resume & Motivational Letter (yes, we read them)) via our job portal until 31st October 2025. We kindly ask you to refrain from application photos and information on date of birth, marital status and parents.
Wikimedia Germany is committed to equal opportunities and does not discriminate on the basis of, for example, ethnic origin, citizenship, religion or belief, political or other convictions, gender, age, disability, or sexual identity. We would like to address you in the way which feels most comfortable for you so please share your preferred name and pronouns if you wish.
