FYI.

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Erik Moeller erik@wikimedia.org Date: Fri, Feb 21, 2014 at 2:40 PM Subject: Update on WMF Director of TechOps To: All Wikimedia Foundation Staff

Hi folks,

in consultation with Faidon and Mark, we've decided not to immediately post the Director of TechOps job. Instead, Mark Bergsma will continue to fill the role indefinitely. This is an exploration - he wants to see whether he can balance compelling technical work with the managerial side of the role in a manner that makes him happy and serves the organization's needs.

It makes a lot of sense to me. Hiring leadership roles is always high-risk in our complex environment, and with the VPE/ED hires around the corner, there's already a lot of risk to deal with. So I'm grateful Mark's willing to continue to step in, and perhaps he will actually enjoy the hybrid tech/management role in the long run. :) Given that the team is heavily distributed, it's less of an issue that he is not based in SF.

To ensure that the responsibilities are manageable and to support the team going forward, we're preparing a Technical Project Manager role that will also include some procurement/vendor negotiations responsibilities. The person will need to have ops/infrastructure experience to be able to hit the ground running. Internal applicants will be welcome, of course.

On a side note, Engineering/Product is also hiring an additional admin staff member to support the department's growing administrative support needs, which should also help with the overall workload.

Thanks again to Mark and the whole team for making this work. :)

Erik

-- Erik Möller VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation