We are please to announce the upcoming launch of the recruiting process for the Chief Communications Officer.
As part of the process, we wanted to share the job description (below). A big thank you to the Communications team for their collaboration, support and guidance in creating it.
We also wanted to out put a call, if you have any nominations or recommendations, we'd love to hear from you. Just email me directly over the next few days.
Thanks! Joady
Job Title:
Chief Communications Officer
Summary
The Wikimedia Foundation is looking for a creative, collaborative, forward-thinking Chief Communications Officer to join our executive team in San Francisco, California. We’re looking for a leader who is mission-driven, transparent by default, has a truly global worldview, and can champion our values and voice in the world. You will lead a highly collaborative, multidisciplinary team of eleven storytellers, media strategists, marketers, and designers. Together, you will share our story and vision with the world, with the purpose of raising awareness of and increasing engagement in our work.
The Wikimedia Foundation is an open and transparent organization operating within a decentralized global network of volunteers. We tend to speak openly rather than aiming to control or restrict access to information about us. We seek to inspire, engage, and bring people along in our free knowledge vision.
As CCO, we’d like you to do these things:
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Work with the executive team to think and act in service of the future of our projects (e.g. How does our story and message advance our strategic objectives? What kind of communications, marketing, or engagement strategy will we need to grow our work in the world? How will we better define and position our brand? Which stories do we want told about us? To what end?). -
Lead the collaborative definition of long-term strategies to increase awareness and relevance of our brand, meeting priorities in audience growth and development (including contributors, readers, and donors), international language growth, open culture advocacy, and media relations. -
Develop and lead messaging campaigns that achieve global impact in support of the Wikimedia movement’s strategic needs. -
Lead a strong, diverse communications team guided by a clear vision. -
Co-create the vision and direction for the team -
Clarify and / or delegate the planning to work toward that vision: the roles, the responsibilities, the tools, the budget -
Counsel and mentor the team across a broad range of disciplines (e.g., brand, identity, digital and social media, PR, messaging, marketing, audience growth and development) -
Build a sustainable system and culture for team members’ continued professional growth and advancement -
Create clear workflows for Foundation staff and Wikimedia volunteers to collaborate with the Communications team -
Develop succession planning.
-
Serve the Wikimedia vision by working collaboratively with and empowering people to tell our story and narrate the movement. -
Support the Foundation, Executive Director, and leadership in public messaging, issue management, and internal communications. -
Be a compelling advocate for the Wikimedia movement and Foundation. -
Oversee and guide the work of staff and volunteers in the continued development of communications systems that utilize contemporary publishing practices and reach diverse audiences with engaging content.
We’d like you to have this experience and these skills:
-
10+ years in strategic-level communications and marketing (or marcom) roles -
Proven track-record of leading high-impact global marketing and communications initiatives with measurable results -
Experience leading multi-disciplinary teams, developing talent, and creating systems for creative and sustainable workflows -
A clear, effective communications style, including experience guiding messaging for major organizations, political candidates, or movements -
Significant experience navigating complex international organizations, movements, or networks -
Experience and comfort in a highly collaborative, transparent environment -
A track record of building consensus among large, dispersed stakeholder groups. Must have informed cultural sensitivities, intellectual curiosity, and a deep passion for the Wikimedia mission
And it would be even more awesome if you had the following:
-
Experience with the internet industry including comfort with concepts and vocabulary related to product development and engineering -
Familiarity with internet-related issues: laws limiting freedom of expression, open culture/free culture, the free and open source software movement, and online surveillance, privacy and security -
Significant skilled personal use of communications, creative, and social technologies -
The ability to work in a fast-moving, highly-diverse grassroots environment, while effectively prioritizing and leading a variety of activities -
Experience working with nonprofit organizations is a plus -
Fluency or familiarity with languages in addition to English are a plus. -
Having lived or worked outside your country of origin is a plus -
Experience as a member of a volunteer community is a plus
About the Wikimedia Foundation:
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that supports and hosts Wikipedia and several other Wikimedia free knowledge sites. Every month, the Wikimedia sites are accessed by more than a billion unique devices. Wikipedia consists of more than 40 million articles across hundreds of languages. Every month, more than 70,000 volunteer editors contribute to Wikipedia. Based in San Francisco, California, the Wikimedia Foundation is an audited, 501(c)(3) non-profit that is funded primarily through donations and grants. It currently employs over 240 staff members.
At the Foundation, we build technology to help people everywhere access Wikipedia, across devices and in nearly 300 languages. We engineer privacy for our readers and editors so they can safely and securely explore Wikipedia. We create programs https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Zero and initiatives to make Wikipedia freely available to more people in more parts of the world. We build new tools https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Content_translation for the community of editors so they can continue to improve and grow Wikipedia. Roughly a quarter of our budget goes to supporting the community that make the site possible, including through grantmaking programs https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:Start that enable volunteers and enrich the information on the sites.
The Wikimedia Foundation is an equal opportunity employer, and we encourage people with a diverse range of backgrounds to apply.
Benefits & Perks*:
-
Fully paid medical, dental and vision coverage for employees and their eligible families (yes, fully paid premiums!) -
The Wellness Program provides reimbursement for mind, body and soul activities such as fitness memberships, massages, cooking classes and much more -
The 401(k) retirement plan offers matched contributions at 4% of annual salary -
Flexible and generous time off - vacation, sick and volunteer days, plus 19 paid holidays - including the last week of the year. -
Family friendly! 100% paid new parent leave for seven weeks plus an additional five weeks for pregnancy, flexible options to phase back in after leave, fully equipped lactation room -
For those emergency moments - long and short term disability, life insurance (2x salary) and an employee assistance program -
Pre-tax savings plans for health care, child care, elder care, public transportation and parking expenses -
Telecommuting and flexible work schedules available -
Appropriate fuel for thinking and coding (aka, a pantry full of treats) and monthly massages to help staff relax -
Great colleagues - diverse staff and contractors speaking dozens of languages from around the world, fantastic intellectual discourse, mission-driven and intensely passionate people
* for benefits eligible staff, benefits may vary by location
More Information:
http://wikimediafoundation.org
http://blog.wikimedia.org http://wikimediafoundation.org/
Hi Joady,
Thank you for publishing this. Overall I like this draft. I would like to offer two comments.
1. My impression is that WMF Communications is largely used to support fundraising, readership, and sometimes legal or advocacy topics. The department seems to be externally focused. I would like to see work by WMF Communications and/or WMF Community Engagement on developing a systematic "internal" communications system among content contributors and WMF departments. There are currently many internal communications flows, and while I think that there have been some noticeable improvements over the past few years (I particularly want to acknowledge the WMF Community Liaisons), there is a long way to go in systematizing and optimizing these communications flows. So instead of looking for a chief communications officer whose main strength is in marketing, sales, PR, or other forms of external communication, I would encourage WMF to seek a chief communications officer who has a track record of facilitating long-term improvement of internal communications in complex and diverse environments.
2. For the line in the JD draft which currently reads "A clear, effective communications style, including experience guiding messaging for major organizations, political candidates, or movements", I would encourage considerable caution about hiring someone into this role who has had a background in political campaigns. I would prefer that the individual have no affiliation with any political party. I can think of some organizations which are not aligned with a specific political party and which support civil rights issues which are likely to be largely compatible with WMF's mission, but I would still be very cautious about hiring someone who has any background in politics. Keeping in mind WMF's recent and controversial annual report, I think it is particularly important to hire a chief communications officer who can guide communications and the WMF organization away from involvement in political matters to the maximum extent possible while still supporting freedom of expression in the limited circumstances in which constraints on freedom of expression would impede Wikimedians' ability to communicate freely about matters of important public interest.
Thank you,
Pine
Pine -
I am hardly the best informed person, but even I know that Communications handles the Blog, the twitter feed, the Facebook feed, provides support to the Board, executive and C-levels for communication, and handles thousands of media requests a year. In other words, you're missing about 90% of your workload in your description. They also assist other departments with communication, both internal and external.
Your point #1, with respect to improving internal communication, is primarily handled by other departments within the WMF (Learning, Human Resources), with Communications as a resource rather than the primary messager. Your point #2 is pretty much irrelevant; some of the best communications leaders work for political campaigns, and they're usually "hired guns" rather than true believers. There are a few exceptions, but again, it's irrelevant, and not ethical to screen directly for political affiliation - and possibly illegal to do so.
Risker/Anne
On 27 May 2017 at 23:53, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Joady,
Thank you for publishing this. Overall I like this draft. I would like to offer two comments.
- My impression is that WMF Communications is largely used to support
fundraising, readership, and sometimes legal or advocacy topics. The department seems to be externally focused. I would like to see work by WMF Communications and/or WMF Community Engagement on developing a systematic "internal" communications system among content contributors and WMF departments. There are currently many internal communications flows, and while I think that there have been some noticeable improvements over the past few years (I particularly want to acknowledge the WMF Community Liaisons), there is a long way to go in systematizing and optimizing these communications flows. So instead of looking for a chief communications officer whose main strength is in marketing, sales, PR, or other forms of external communication, I would encourage WMF to seek a chief communications officer who has a track record of facilitating long-term improvement of internal communications in complex and diverse environments.
- For the line in the JD draft which currently reads "A clear, effective
communications style, including experience guiding messaging for major organizations, political candidates, or movements", I would encourage considerable caution about hiring someone into this role who has had a background in political campaigns. I would prefer that the individual have no affiliation with any political party. I can think of some organizations which are not aligned with a specific political party and which support civil rights issues which are likely to be largely compatible with WMF's mission, but I would still be very cautious about hiring someone who has any background in politics. Keeping in mind WMF's recent and controversial annual report, I think it is particularly important to hire a chief communications officer who can guide communications and the WMF organization away from involvement in political matters to the maximum extent possible while still supporting freedom of expression in the limited circumstances in which constraints on freedom of expression would impede Wikimedians' ability to communicate freely about matters of important public interest.
Thank you,
Pine _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Risker,
Your point #1, with respect to improving internal communication, is primarily handled by other departments within the WMF (Learning, Human Resources), with Communications as a resource rather than the primary messager.
If WMF wants to have a different department lead efforts on internal communication (my impression is that currently no one is actually leading efforts in a holistic way) that would be OK with me. My impression is that as WMF is already strong on external communication, and I think that WMF should hire for what it needs rather than what it already has. If WMF would like to have someone outside of the Communications Department take the lead role -- and actually does assign somebody with relevant experience to work on this as one of their primary responsibilities -- then perhaps hiring an external communications expert into the chief communications officer role would still be OK.
Your point #2 is pretty much irrelevant; some of the best communications leaders work for political campaigns, and they're usually "hired guns" rather than true believers.
There are a few exceptions, but
again, it's irrelevant, and not ethical to screen directly for political affiliation - and possibly illegal to do so.
Hmm. I don't know what percentage of political campaign communications leaders are "hired guns", but I'm not sure that this is a risk that I would want to take. That said, I hadn't considered your point that screening out candidates with work histories in politics might be considered an illegal practice; thanks for bringing that up. I'll defer to WMF HR and WMF Legal on that. I wonder whether screening out all paid jobs for political parties or campaigns (regardless of which affiliation or campaign was involved) would trigger the same kind of legal scrutiny as screening out one party or another (which I'm fairly certain would be a violation of U.S. employment laws). Perhaps this could get into such complicated legal territory and provide enough opportunities for lawsuits that it would be best to do as you suggest rather than risk lengthy and expensive litigation. I disagree that this issue is "irrelevant", but thanks for pointing out that this kind of screening may have its own kind of risks which I hadn't considered.
Pine
Pine
I agree with Risker that it would be improper to select candidates on the basis of their own personal political views. But I do agree with your point that expertise in the field of party-political camapigning would not be an appropriate criterion for the post of CCO.
"Rogol"
On Sun, May 28, 2017 at 5:45 AM, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Risker,
Your point #1, with respect to improving internal communication, is primarily handled by other departments within the WMF (Learning, Human Resources), with Communications as a resource rather than the primary messager.
If WMF wants to have a different department lead efforts on internal communication (my impression is that currently no one is actually leading efforts in a holistic way) that would be OK with me. My impression is that as WMF is already strong on external communication, and I think that WMF should hire for what it needs rather than what it already has. If WMF would like to have someone outside of the Communications Department take the lead role -- and actually does assign somebody with relevant experience to work on this as one of their primary responsibilities -- then perhaps hiring an external communications expert into the chief communications officer role would still be OK.
Your point #2 is pretty much irrelevant; some of the best communications leaders work for political campaigns, and they're usually "hired guns" rather than true believers.
There are a few exceptions, but
again, it's irrelevant, and not ethical to screen directly for political affiliation - and possibly illegal to do so.
Hmm. I don't know what percentage of political campaign communications leaders are "hired guns", but I'm not sure that this is a risk that I would want to take. That said, I hadn't considered your point that screening out candidates with work histories in politics might be considered an illegal practice; thanks for bringing that up. I'll defer to WMF HR and WMF Legal on that. I wonder whether screening out all paid jobs for political parties or campaigns (regardless of which affiliation or campaign was involved) would trigger the same kind of legal scrutiny as screening out one party or another (which I'm fairly certain would be a violation of U.S. employment laws). Perhaps this could get into such complicated legal territory and provide enough opportunities for lawsuits that it would be best to do as you suggest rather than risk lengthy and expensive litigation. I disagree that this issue is "irrelevant", but thanks for pointing out that this kind of screening may have its own kind of risks which I hadn't considered.
Pine _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Hoi, I would dearly love the eye of a professional marketing person, someone who cares about customers, to give a good look at the whole of our product range. The problem is that many see the community as one entity, and its members as the objective for the Wikimedia Foundation. The reality is that our customers are the people who consume what we do; our readers.
For our own consumption it is wonderful to see that we have a tiny error rate. This is defined as the percentage of errors in our existing content. However as a market our top product covers only some 30% of who we target and what it offers is biased in that it does not provide the information needed in our emerging markets [1]. At a WMF strategy meeting the notion that the information that we do not cover is an error in itself was not accepted; this idea was too awful, an idea not to entertain.
A case in point; today in a Dutch newspaper a Syrian refugee laments the lack of available information about Syria [2].
When a whopping 50% of potential information is lacking, you could say "but that is not what our readers are looking for". You could but we do not know what people are looking for and not finding and this invalidates the argument. Even so, we have over 280 Wikipedias and the answer to this question will be different on every one of these projects. There has been great research on suggesting what people could write about. This is effective. Many people will be motivated when they are told "This is the most asked not found subject.. Could you please?" and "You started this month an article on ***. So many people read it so far! :) ". You may say this takes research ... YES PLEASE!
When we want to bootstrap small Wikipedias, the first thing we need is content. There are many strategies and this [3] is one. We first need content that is linked and an emerging community of writers and do remember, we did not require sources in the beginning, that came later.
We do not consider our other projects like Wikisource; it is only functional for editors not for readers. We need to market these projects as well.
When you have read all this so far (thank you) you will wonder what this has to do with a communication officer; the message this person has to convey is not about "us" but about what we do, where there are opportunities and how we serve our market. So imho we need more business marketing than political marketing because as a business we are exposed; when we do not cover our subjects, we can easily be replaced. Thanks, GerardM
[1] http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.nl/2017/04/wikidata-user-stories-sum-of-all....
[2] http://www.volkskrant.nl/4497302?utm_source=VK&utm_medium=email&utm_... [3] http://ultimategerardm.blogspot.nl/2017/05/teaching-wikipedia-using-local-ne...
On 28 May 2017 at 05:53, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Hi Joady,
Thank you for publishing this. Overall I like this draft. I would like to offer two comments.
- My impression is that WMF Communications is largely used to support
fundraising, readership, and sometimes legal or advocacy topics. The department seems to be externally focused. I would like to see work by WMF Communications and/or WMF Community Engagement on developing a systematic "internal" communications system among content contributors and WMF departments. There are currently many internal communications flows, and while I think that there have been some noticeable improvements over the past few years (I particularly want to acknowledge the WMF Community Liaisons), there is a long way to go in systematizing and optimizing these communications flows. So instead of looking for a chief communications officer whose main strength is in marketing, sales, PR, or other forms of external communication, I would encourage WMF to seek a chief communications officer who has a track record of facilitating long-term improvement of internal communications in complex and diverse environments.
- For the line in the JD draft which currently reads "A clear, effective
communications style, including experience guiding messaging for major organizations, political candidates, or movements", I would encourage considerable caution about hiring someone into this role who has had a background in political campaigns. I would prefer that the individual have no affiliation with any political party. I can think of some organizations which are not aligned with a specific political party and which support civil rights issues which are likely to be largely compatible with WMF's mission, but I would still be very cautious about hiring someone who has any background in politics. Keeping in mind WMF's recent and controversial annual report, I think it is particularly important to hire a chief communications officer who can guide communications and the WMF organization away from involvement in political matters to the maximum extent possible while still supporting freedom of expression in the limited circumstances in which constraints on freedom of expression would impede Wikimedians' ability to communicate freely about matters of important public interest.
Thank you,
Pine _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/ wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
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