Senior Technical Writer

SPAN Digital is a software solution development firm. We strategize, design, and develop software solutions for our clients and customers ranging from startups to global brands. We help engineering teams successfully overcome the challenges associated with the accelerating pace of change in software development, allowing them to build better digital solutions. Our Services teams work side-by-side with our clients' engineering teams to develop prototypes, proof-of-concepts, production services, major product enhancements, and documentation. Our Product teams distill the knowledge we gain from our custom Services work into tools and SaaS products that are designed to support engineering teams facing today's challenges.

Need
SPAN Digital is a growing premium software product and consulting company, headquartered in San Francisco, USA, with Development offices in Cape Town, South Africa, and Guadalajara, Mexico. We are looking for a Senior Technical Writer for a 7-8 month contract period.

As a contract Senior Technical Writer, you will produce engineering documentation for our high-profile clients, collaborate on knowledge management initiatives, and contribute to the overall success of our products and services. This role will serve as a central point of contact for client engineering teams and represent SPAN's documentation expertise and approach, while working collaboratively with project management and organizational leadership support. You will work along with a team of talented Tech Writers who collaborate with developers, quality engineers, product managers, and usability experts, both for our client teams and internally within SPAN, to deliver high-quality technical documentation for engineering teams.

***This is a great opportunity to work on a variety of engaging projects for top-tier Silicon Valley clients.***

Responsibilities

• Produce high-quality, well-structured engineering documentation that meets the learning objectives of the intended audience

• Lead the documentation workstream as primary owner, driving all aspects from strategy through delivery

• Serve as the first point of contact for the client relationship, establishing trust and credibility with client stakeholders while coordinating with SPAN project management and leadership as needed

• Manage stakeholders across multiple levels of the organization, facilitating productive working relationships with subject matter experts, engineering leads, and product and project managers

• Make content strategy decisions and recommendations that align with user needs, product roadmaps, and documentation best practices

• Work with internal and client-facing teams on product and services engineering documentation, from requirements to completion

• Manage documentation and knowledge management projects to completion within timeline and budget targets

• Design the structure of the documentation deliverable, using our pre-defined templates and procedures for knowledge management solutions

• Identify relevant learning objectives for each area of the documentation

• Analyze and inventory existing and potential content, identifying opportunities for reuse, and areas where new content is required

• Leverage new technologies to accelerate documentation production while maintaining high technical quality standards

• Effectively facilitate working sessions with a wide variety of subject matter experts at various levels of involvement and understanding of the documentation process

• Coordinate the review and approval process at various levels of scrutiny with the client (internal or external), ultimately securing their acceptance and sign-off of the end-to-end deliverable

• Estimate in advance the time and effort required for each initiative, creating a high-level plan, and an accompanying resourcing estimate

• Deliver projects in line with the agreed plan and resourcing, escalating issues and risks in a timely manner as they arise

• Perform the above duties within SPAN's proven approach to knowledge management and documentation services

Requirements

• Proven work experience in technical writing, creating engineering documentation, or equivalent technical content

• Experience with in-development technical platforms that have little to no pre-existing documentation and require new documentation from the ground up

• Proven ability to maintain productive relationships across diverse client expectations and navigate challenging stakeholder dynamics

• Must be comfortable making day-to-day decisions independently while knowing when to escalate strategic issues

• Ability to break down complex, technical concepts and create high quality documentation targeted to various audiences

• Ability to deliver high-quality documentation with attention to detail

• Ability to quickly grasp complex technical concepts, and articulate them clearly in text, graphs, and diagrams

• Project management skills are necessary to create project plans, coordinate with internal and external teams, and report on the status of the project

• Ability to work independently and proactively, while also effectively collaborating and taking general direction from project leaders

• Strong verbal and written communication skills

• Extensive experience working in a team environment in multiple time zones

• Strong working knowledge of Google Workspace

• Experience working and managing agile engineering projects

• Experience working in a customer-facing environment

• Experience with learning-based systems and documentation and Content Management Systems (CMS)

• University degree in English, Communication, Journalism, Education, Engineering, or equivalent 

You'll love it here if:

• You are allergic to hierarchical, bureaucratic, business-card cultures

• You're sad many of the greatest minds in our generation are busy tricking people into clicking on ads

• You want to work with very smart people from different backgrounds

• You are a voracious learner & an eager teacher of others

• You want to be led from the front, not commanded from the rear

• You don't tolerate intra-office posturing or other douchebaggery

What we offer:

• Flexible work schedule

• Employee-centric organization

• Coaching and Mentorship 

• Learning organization based on a reverence for expertise & craftsmanship