Hi all,

Over the past few weeks, we have been working with Talent and Culture, Staff and executive teams to develop a job description (below) for the role. I would like to share it with you early as well, before the process starts. I am very grateful to our staff and leaders here at the WMF for collaborating on both the description and the process.

We also wanted to let you know that we’re beginning a process with Kathleen Yazbak from ViewCrest, to vet internal/interim C-level candidates. As you may recall, Kathleen helped vet Katherine as ED with the support of an internal team including Katie Horn and Lisa Gruwell. Kathleen took the time to understand our context, our culture, and meet with relevant stakeholders so to:

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Create a fair, consistent and timely process, -

Create a process that is transparent to staff, and therefore trustworthy, -

Keep interim leadership informed and engaged.

Talent & Culture and General Counsel roles will be the first to pilot the process. We've written the JDs for both with an eye for consistency across executive roles.

Thanks for engaging!

Best,

Amy

Job Title

Chief Talent and Culture Officer

Summary

The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a creative and collaborative Chief Talent and Culture Officer to join our executive team in San Francisco. As a leader of the Talent and Culture team, you’ll help us think and act in service of the future of our projects and the Foundation. We’re looking for a candidate who is mission driven, transparent by default, has a truly global view (e.g., honors and accepts a plurality of worldviews and cultures), and can can champion an open and transparent culture.

Role

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Work with the executive team to think and act in service of the future of our projects (e.g. What kind of talent will we need? Which kind of culture and structure will best support the work? Which systems and tools will support WMF best? How will we continuously learn together? How should we stretch and support the amazing humans we work with?). -

Champion an open, diverse culture (e.g., How will we lead diversity in recruiting? How will we build a diverse culture that reflects the multiplicity of views across our projects? How will we celebrate free speech, collaboration and create safe spaces?) -

Be a partner in continually leading organizational transformation and defining and developing our collective competencies for the future -

Develop a strong, diverse Talent & Culture team guided by a clear vision. -

Co-create the vision and direction for a team of ten. Ensure coherence of philosophy across the employee lifecycle. -

Clarify and / or delegate the planning to make it happen: the roles, the responsibilities, the tools, the budget. -

Counsel and mentor the team on a broad range of disciplines across the employee lifecycle: recruiting, hiring, benefits, compensation, onboarding, orienting, training and developing, performance, employee relations, promotion and off-boarding. -

Build a pipeline of successors. -

Help recruit and orient high-level talent for the Wikimedia Board of Trustees, the Wikimedia Endowment and key executive roles.

Requirements

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Candidate has mastered the role of Chief of Talent and Culture. They understand what Talent and Culture is all about: finding and cultivating the right talent and building the systems and culture to deliver on a mission. -

Candidate has a minimum 10-15 years experience leading talent, culture, HR and performance transformations. -

Candidate has a leading edge understanding of employment law, benefits and driving diversity in recruiting and managing. -

Candidate can earn the trust of others, has excellent interpersonal skills, excellent communication skills, an ability to judge talent and people, demonstrates discretion in managing difficult decisions and handling sensitive information, and can maintain a wide network of healthy successful relationships. -

Candidate must already understand or quickly grasp free culture values and the implications for building an open and transparent culture. -

Candidate has experience resolving challenging employee situations, in compliance with laws, regulations and Wikimedia policies:

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Strong training and experience in conflict resolution, including fact-finding and resolution of internal disputes consistent with legal requirements and Wikimedia policies. -

Strong, practical understanding of labor law rights and responsibilities. -

Candidate has a Bachelor’s degree. A Master’s degree or equivalent experience preferred. -

Candidate demonstrates knowledge and understanding of cultures beyond the United States, and the ability to work with an international, multicultural focus. -

Candidate ideally has experience in the nonprofit sector.

Amy Elder Director of Recruiting Wikimedia Foundation (415) 999-8140 Join Us: WorkWithUs https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Work_with_us Connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyelder Follow us on Twitter @wikimediaatwork

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