Research Scientist

Please note: While this is a fully remote role, candidates must be located within the UTC+3 to UTC−8 time zones due to team collaboration requirements.

We’re hiring a Research Scientist strongly committed to the principles of free knowledge, open source, privacy, and collaboration to join the Research team. As a Research Scientist, you will conduct applied research on the integrity of Wikipedia knowledge, its communities and their work, and the Wikipedia model. We’re accepting applications through 15 January 2026, with a start date by or before April 2026.

You will join an interdisciplinary team of Research Scientists, Research Engineers, UX Researchers, Survey Specialists and Research Operations Officers. You’ll work remotely with team members spread between Europe, North America and the Middle East.

Examples of recent research questions you may contribute to include::

• How does the platform and its community navigate election times? (more)

• What is the role of Wikipedia in the landscape of online disinformation? (more)

• What guidance can we provide to researchers studying neutrality on Wikipedia? (more)

You can learn more about what the team has done in the past six months by reading our biannual report.

Note: This role reports to the Applied Science Manager and requires working in different timezones with availability for critical meetings and synchronous work between 15:00 to 19:00 UTC. The role may require occasional participation in incident response activities outside of the candidates' standard working hours, including evenings or weekends. The role also includes the expectation of travel up to four times per year.

You will be responsible for:

• Contributing groundbreaking research with a particular focus on Wikipedia’s core content policies, the integrity of its knowledge and communities, and the resilience of its model.

• Discovering, reading, and evaluating existing research and press coverage on Wikipedia content and its core content policies

• Conducting flawless analyses and coordinating work with peers in Research, Communications, Legal, Trust and Safety, and Security in response to incidents

• Designing and executing thorough experiments to collect, clean, and analyze data, and/or to develop and evaluate machine learning models

• Discussing, documenting, and communicating the process and results of your research publicly

• Engaging with the global community of Wikimedia researchers to socialize the team’s work and raise awareness about relevant research questions

• Actively engaging in a collaborative, consensus-oriented environment as part of a globally-distributed team and organization

• Providing research consulting to the teams in the Wikimedia Foundation, affiliates, and the Wikimedia volunteers

Skills and experience:

• PhD degree in computer science, information science, statistics, or a related technical field

• Demonstrated ability to work on problems with both social and technical components in mixed method settings. Experience with knowledge integrity research is highly preferred.

• Proficiency in Python for data analysis, manipulation, and machine learning model development.

• Experience with Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing tools.

• Understanding of Large Language Models and their applications in research.

• Ability to assess the scientific rigor of empirical research publications studying online communities.

• Contributions to research communities, including a strong record of scholarly publications and experience serving on program committees for relevant conferences and journals.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, including the ability to communicate complex technical issues to a cross-team and cross-functional audience

Additionally, we’d love it if you have:

• Deep knowledge of the Wikimedia ecosystem and how its projects operate

• Experience with volunteer or open source communities

• Experience with the Hadoop ecosystem, and analytical tools such as Hive or Spark.

• Experience working in large, matrixed organizations

Qualities that are important to us:

• Commitment to our mission, values, and guiding principles

• Ability to effectively and responsibly communicate and actively listen

• Ability to analyze tradeoffs between velocity and rigor of research projects

• Self-motivated and proactive

• Curiosity and commitment to learn

• Comfortable with working in the open and public exposure in multicultural and transparent environments

• Poised and effective in the face of changing requirements or senior leadership interactions.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free knowledge projects. Our vision is a world in which every single human can freely share in the sum of all knowledge. We believe that everyone has the potential to contribute something to our shared knowledge, and that everyone should be able to access that knowledge freely. We host Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects, build software experiences for reading, contributing, and sharing Wikimedia content, support the volunteer communities and partners who make Wikimedia possible, and advocate for policies that enable Wikimedia and free knowledge to thrive.

The Wikimedia Foundation is a charitable, not-for-profit organization that relies on donations. We receive donations from millions of individuals around the world, with an average donation of about $15. We also receive donations through institutional grants and gifts. The Wikimedia Foundation is a United States 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization with offices in San Francisco, California, USA.

As an equal opportunity employer, the Wikimedia Foundation values having a diverse workforce and continuously strives to maintain an inclusive and equitable workplace. We encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply. We do not discriminate against any person based upon their 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 including contractors based 40+ countries*. Salaries at the Wikimedia Foundation are set in a way that is competitive, equitable, and consistent with our values and culture. The anticipated annual pay range of this position for applicants based within the United States is $113,174 to $171,720 with multiple individualized factors, including cost of living in the location, being the determinants of the offered pay. For applicants located outside of the US, the pay range will be adjusted to the country of hire. We neither ask for nor take into consideration the salary history of applicants. The compensation for a successful applicant will be based on their skills, experience and location.

*Please note that we are currently able to hire in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Peru, Poland, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America and Uruguay. Our non-US employees are hired through a local third party Employer of Record (EOR).

We periodically review this list to streamline to ensure alignment with our hiring requirements.

All applicants can reach out to their recruiter to understand more about the specific pay range for their location during the interview process.

If you are a qualified applicant requiring assistance or an accommodation to complete any step of the application process due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected] or +1 (415) 839-6885.

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