[Foundation-l] Job Opening at WMF - Project Manager

[Jennifer Riggs]

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking a term-limited (one year) full-time 
Project Manager for its new "Bookshelf" Project (text below). Feel free 
to share.

Link to WMF jobs: 
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Job_openings/Project_Manager_Bookshelf


Job Title: Project Manager

Employment Duration: August 2009 to September 2010.

Reports to: Head of Public Outreach

About the “Bookshelf Project”

In 2009–2010, the Wikimedia Foundation will be developing a slate of 
basic educational materials –print, online and video– to attract new 
authors and editors to Wikipedia. The collective set of these resources 
is internally being called “The Bookshelf.”

As a collaborative project, Wikipedia's success is based on the steady 
contributions of a global volunteer community of active contributors. 
The more people share their knowledge with others, the better and more 
diverse Wikipedia's content gets. We believe that raising and broadening 
participation is one of the keys to improve Wikipedia's overall quality 
and to eliminate cultural perspective gaps.

Currently, there are limited resources to attract new contributors and 
to teach them how to get involved. Most of them lack consistency and are 
often out of date. There are therefore still many basic educational 
resources that need to be developed. These materials will teach people 
about Wikipedia and how to edit Wikipedia; provide teachers with lesson 
plans (to use Wikipedia in the classroom); provide volunteers and local 
Wikimedia chapters with training resources to do their own outreach; and 
to enable people to be skillful and responsible creators and producers 
of encyclopedic content.

Job Summary

The Project Manager is responsible for successfully executing the 
Bookshelf project: for ensuring high quality outputs are developed on 
time and inside the project budget. The Project Manager will need a 
prior demonstrated experience in managing a complex print and media 
project, excellent communications skills, and a passion for doing 
high-quality work. Part of this job will include actively moderating 
volunteer and external expert discussions to help them be focused and 
productive.

Responsibilities

     * Create and get sign-off for the project plan, including 
review-and-refine cycles
     * Recruit and manage the dedicated project team and identify 
suitable outside contractors for video production
     * Plan and execute internal project communication (encompassing the 
project team, senior management, other departments, external expert 
groups, outside contractors and community stakeholders)
     * Keep the project on track: on time and on budget
     * Ensure all deliverables are of appropriate quality level, and 
success measures are met or exceeded

Required Qualifications

     * 5+ years of project management experience
     * Ability to work in a highly collaborative, consensus-oriented, 
highly-diverse environment
     * Ability to work effectively within Wikimedia's values and 
mission. Must be emotionally committed to free knowledge and willing to 
attune oneself to the larger Wikimedia community's norms and expectations
     * Passion for doing high-quality work
     * Ability to work effectively with graphic designers, writers, and 
outside contractors to ensure deadlines are met
     * Experience prioritizing and creating accountability towards 
critical milestones and deadlines
     * Ability to assess and report project status, and escalating risks 
to senior management
     * Excellent oral and written communication skills, with the ability 
to interpret and translate information to teams and individuals and to 
report effectively to senior management

Preferred Qualifications

     * Experience in education
     * Experience with non-profit
     * Prior demonstrated experience working in print and media production
     * Experience working with translations and/or international clientele

Salary

The salary is in the range of $74,000 to $85,000, commensurate with 
experience. Generous benefits are included.

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. is a US-registered 501(c)(3) 
tax-deductible non-profit charity dedicated to encouraging the growth, 
development and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to 
providing the full content of wiki-based projects to the public free of 
charge. The Wikimedia Foundation operates some of the largest 
collaboratively-edited reference projects in the world, including 
Wikipedia, one of the world's 10 most visited websites, Wiktionary, 
Wikibooks, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikinews and the Wikimedia Commons 
media repository. The organization has received numerous honors for its 
work, among them the Webby Award, the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica, 
the Japan Advertisers Association's Web Creation Award and the World 
Technology Award in Communications Technology.

The Wikimedia Foundation was created in 2003 to manage the operation of 
Wikipedia and its sister projects and is based in San Francisco, 
California. It currently employs 27 staff members. Wikimedia is 
supported by local chapter organizations in 21 countries or regions.
		

To Apply

Please send a CV and cover letter to jobs(at)wikimedia.org, before July 
20, 2009. Please put the position title (Project Manager "Bookshelf") in 
your subject line.

Applications that do not include a cover letter will not be considered. 
This position will be filled in June 2009. In your cover letter, please 
address:

     * Why the Wikimedia Foundation would benefit from your skills at 
this position
     * What factors have been important to project success in your 
previous experience

Please copy and paste the text of your CV into the e-mail, in addition 
to attaching the file.

Due to the volume of applications we receive, we regret that only those 
selected for an interview will be contacted.

This position is based in our San Francisco, CA. office.