Technical Writer, GitHub Docs

The mission of the GitHub Docs team is to empower developers to accomplish their goals. We're looking for a technical writer to join our well-established and expanding global Documentation team.

You'll report to a Docs Content Manager and work cooperatively with the Docs team to produce task-based, user-facing help content that's tailored to a range of audiences and published on GitHub Docs.

The Docs Content team is highly distributed and we embrace an environment of asynchronous communication. You'll need strong communication skills and the ability to build working relationships with coworkers in locations around the globe.

All Docs Content writers should be adept communicators, able to provide reviews on the content their team members create. They must be empathetic as a writer, able to put themselves in the user's position and help solve problems before they're asked. In this role, you'll create a range of content from getting started guides to in-depth documentation on technical features.

If you're a patient, compassionate writer who loves crafting content that helps people use software, we'd like to hear from you!

Responsibilities

• Create helpful, scalable documentation for people learning to use GitHub's products and tools.
• Collaborate with product managers and other stakeholders to continuously improve existing documentation based on customer feedback and user research.
• Collaborate with the Docs Content team to plan, create, and maintain user-facing documentation.
• Review and provide feedback for draft user-facing documentation from other writers on the team.
• Review and provide feedback on documentation updates from people outside of the documentation team, like support or open source contributors.
• Communicate with teams across GitHub about user feedback, product direction and vision, and technical product information to inform the documentation we create.
• Contribute to the iteration of Docs Content team processes and workflows.

Minimum qualifications

• Ability to create high-quality user-facing content for software products
• Experience creating technical content
• Strong user advocate, especially for new users
• Ability to compassionately give and receive editorial and technical feedback
• Strong ability to plan, prioritize, and carry out complex writing projects with high attention to detail along the way
• Excellent communication skills, especially when working with a distributed team
• Familiarity with Git and GitHub

It would be helpful to have

• Experience working collaboratively with a team of writers or editors
• Experience contributing to or maintaining an open source project
• Curiosity and an interest in solving hard problems collaboratively
• Comfortable working with ambiguity
• Experience testing alpha or beta features with the goal of documenting and providing product feedback from a user perspective
• Experience documenting a technical product from early iterations to general availability

Here is an example of what we would expect

• Month 1, you're comfortable fixing bugs and navigating the Docs team's project. You've also met with folks across GitHub's product organization and have built a foundational understanding of GitHub's users and products.
• Month 2, you've begun tackling more complex projects already scoped by other members of the team. You've also completed your first (or second!) content design plan with the support of other writers and the content strategist on our team.
• Months 3 and 4, you're beginning to research and document new feature ships with the support of other writers on the team.
• Month 5, you're noticeably more comfortable discussing GitHub's products and users.
• Month 6, you're regularly picking up new work from our team's project board and volunteering to review the work of other writers.