Research Scientist

Join to apply for the Research Scientist role at Wikimedia Foundation

We’re hiring a research scientist who is 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 the Wikipedia model. This role is fully remote; candidates must be located within the UTC+3 to UTC−8 time zones due to team collaboration requirements.

We’re accepting applications through 15 January 2026, with a start date by or before April 2026.

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

• Contribute groundbreaking research focused on Wikipedia’s core content policies, the integrity of its knowledge and communities, and the resilience of its model.
• Discover, read, and evaluate existing research and press coverage on Wikipedia content and its core content policies.
• Conduct flawless analyses and coordinate work with peers in Research, Communications, Legal, Trust & Safety, and Security in response to incidents.
• Design and execute thorough experiments to collect, clean, and analyze data, and/or develop and evaluate machine learning models.
• Document and publicly communicate the process and results of your research.
• Engage with the global community of Wikimedia researchers to socialize the team’s work and raise awareness about relevant research questions.
• Actively engage in a collaborative, consensus‑oriented environment as part of a globally‑distributed team.
• Provide research consulting to teams within the Wikimedia Foundation, affiliates, and the Wikimedia volunteers.

Note: The role reports to the Applied Science Manager and requires working in different time zones 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 standard working hours, including evenings or weekends. The role also includes the expectation of travel up to four times per year.

• 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 cross‑team and cross‑functional audiences.

• 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.

• Commitment to our mission, values, and guiding principles.
• Ability to effectively and responsibly communicate and actively listen.
• Ability to analyze trade‑offs 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.

The Wikimedia Foundation is the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia free‑knowledge…