Software Engineering Internship Program (2027) - Wikimedia Foundation

About the Wikimedia Foundation

The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia – one of the most popular websites in the world, accessed by over 1.8 billion unique devices every month. It is the only non-profit in the top 50 websites, supported by a community of millions of individual donors around the world.

Program Overview

We are looking for graduates, non-graduates, or those seeking a career change who are interested in developing software engineering skills through an immersive “learn on the job” internship program.

As an intern, you will be embedded into an engineering team within our Product and Technology departments and assigned a primary project with clear deliverables. Alongside your manager and dedicated mentor, you will learn the inner workings of our open source code that helps to create “a world in which everyone can freely share in the sum of all knowledge”. You will work with software that serves over half a billion page views per day through Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects.

• Duration: 4 months (late February to late June 2027)
• Schedule: 40 hours/week paid experience
• Location: 100% Remote (US)
• Application Deadline: November 20, 2026

We provide laptops and necessary software installed for the duration of the program.

Potential Team Opportunities

• Mobile Apps Engineering Team: Constructing native Android and iOS applications for the Wikimedia Foundation.
• Editing: Developing editing tools across MediaWiki, including VisualEditor, DiscussionTools, Edit check, and Suggestion Mode.
• Data Platform Engineering: Building privacy-aware data infrastructure, platforms, and services empowering contributors and internal teams.
• Release Engineering: Creating tools, infrastructure, and automation for continuous integration, testing, and deployment across projects.
• Connection Team: Improving experiences for campaign and event organizers to better understand community impact.
• Tools Infrastructure & Observability: Providing scalable cloud hosting (Cloud VPS/Toolforge) and insight into production systems and code performance.

Candidate Requirements

• Basic experience with at least one backend or frontend programming language (e.g., PHP, JavaScript, Python) OR mobile language (Kotlin, Swift), OR a demonstrated interest in cybersecurity/privacy.
• Basic experience with databases.
• Basic experience with at least one scripting language.
• Ability to work independently and be resourceful in solving problems.
• Ability to stay accountable to deliverable deadlines.
• Effective and inclusive communication skills across diverse cultural and language communities.
• Willingness to learn, a positive attitude, empathy, and curiosity.
• Comfort working in a transparent, collaborative, and open-source environment.
• Passion for free knowledge, open culture, and equity in education.

Nice-to-Have / Role-Specific Skills

• Basic querying and data manipulation with SQL or other query languages.
• Linux and command-line knowledge.
• Foundational understanding of networking, operating systems, or distributed systems concepts (latency, throughput, error rates).