brion at wikimedia
Aug 7, 2009, 10:49 AM
Post #1 of 3
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Upcoming tech hiring: CTO position split
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I'm very excited to announce some new upcoming hiring for tech... I've
also posted this on our tech blog which is mirrored on Planet Wikimedia:
http://techblog.wikimedia.org/2009/08/cto-position-split/
--
Back in 2005, Wikimedia brought me on as the Foundation's first paid
employee after two years leading MediaWiki development as a volunteer.
Naturally as the *only* member of the tech staff, I started at the top:
Chief Technology Officer.
In the 4 years since, we've gone from one tech employee to a dozen, from
50 servers to 350, from upstart novelty to established web juggernaut.
As our operations and our staff have grown over the years, so have my
responsibilities. Beefing up our tech staff is in some ways just like
adding servers to our data center -- we can get more things done with
less task switching, but scaling still has its overhead.
With the increase in administrative and organizational duties, I've been
less and less able to devote time to the part of the job that's nearest
and dearest to me: working with our volunteer developer community and
end users -- Wikimedians and other MediaWiki users alike -- who have
bugs, patches, features, ideas, complaints, hopes and dreams that need
attention.
The last thing I want to be is a bottleneck that prevents our users from
getting what they need, or our open source developers from being able to
participate effectively!
Multicore brain upgrades aren't yet available, so to keep us running at
top speed I've suggested, and gotten Sue & Erik's blessing on, splitting
out the components of my current CTO role into two separate positions:
As Senior Software Architect, I...
* maintain the MediaWiki development roadmap
* give timely feedback and review on feature ideas, patches and commits
* ensure that end-users and bug reporters are treated respectfully and
that their needs are met
* get developers & users involved and talking at local and worldwide
events as well as online
* represent the "face of the developers" interacting with our user
community (both Wikimedians and third-party MediaWiki users)
As CTO, I...
* set high-level strategic priorities with the rest of WMF
* handle administrative management for the Wikimedia Foundation's
technical department & internal IT
** budgeting
** vendor relations & purchase approval
** hiring & personnel details
* work with the fundraising side of WMF to seek out and make use of
potential resources:
** grants for projects we need
** in-kind donations of infrastructure
** sharing development work with like-minded orgs
* ensure that the operations team has what they need to address current
and predictable future site needs
* ensure that the developers have what they need and are coding smoothly
* plan and implement internship programs and volunteer dev events both
on-site and elsewhere
I'll continue to act in both roles until we've found a satisfactory
candidate to fill the CTO position (full job description will go up
soon), at which point I'll be freed up to concentrate on being a
full-time Senior Software Architect. (Yes, I'll review your patch!)
I will of course continue to work closely with our eventual CTO... the
idea is to find someone who'll make the decisions I would have wanted to
if I only had time. ;)
-- brion vibber (brion @ wikimedia.org)
CTO, Wikimedia Foundation
San Francisco
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