[Hiring] Senior Technical Writer @dbt Labs

Role Description

We are looking for a passionate and motivated Senior Technical Writer to join our Product Documentation team as we support the company in achieving top-priority objectives & key results 🚀. Documentation at dbt is both a community asset and a foundational product surface. The Documentation team accelerates product adoption and user success by helping data practitioners learn, explore, and confidently use dbt.

We operate using a docs-as-code and docs-as-a-product approach within an open-source model, partnering closely with Engineering, Product, Developer Experience, and customer-facing teams. By balancing deep product knowledge with a beginner’s lens, we not only create accurate, easy-to-read documentation for humans and bots alike, but also surface insights that drive product improvements.

In this role, you’ll help new users reach their “a-ha” moment faster, support experienced practitioners as they expand into new areas of the ecosystem, and uphold the clarity, accuracy, and trust that our community depends on.

Key Responsibilities & Duties

• New feature writing for Product - 45%
  • Consistently creates effective docs plans for new feature writing projects.
  • Starts conversations in key places, and involves stakeholders to keep everyone well-informed and focused on a world-class customer experience.
  • Raises issues or suggests improvements to new features that advocate for user needs.
• Docs projects writing - 20%
  • Identifies and advocates for medium to large docs projects.
  • Mentors less-senior writers on how to manage their time spent in docs-driven projects alongside new feature ships.
  • Independently prioritizes the highest impact work beyond new feature ships.
• Addressing ongoing issues - 20%
  • Independently troubleshoots issue requests, and helps less-senior writers learn how to do the same.
  • Has a solid understanding of when a swathe of issues can be folded into a larger content strategy improvement project instead of addressing each issue singularly.
  • Independently notices overarching issues in our docs and figures out how to address them.
  • Focuses on more complex issues, while analyzing data across multiple dimensions to evaluate solutions and drive decisions.
  • Triages and reviews open source PRs and issues, and alerts the team when these are piling up.
• Peer reviewing - 15%
  • Provides and explains their insightful and compassionate editorial and technical feedback when reviewing the work of peers.
  • When providing feedback, consistently notices gaps in pages outside of the pages contained in the pull request they’re reviewing.
  • Gains agreement, consolidates differing opinions, and enables team to move forward.
  • Reviews are consistently centered around clarifying the experience for users.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years writing technical documentation for developer tools, including a solid understanding of version control and single-sourcing content, and experience managing documentation systems.
• Strong ability to plan, prioritize, and carry out complex writing projects with high attention to detail along the way.
• Ability to compassionately give and receive editorial and technical feedback.
• Communicate clearly and concisely, especially when working asynchronously or with a distributed team.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with dbt or data.
• Previous experience as a senior member of a formal documentation team working collaboratively with other writers, editors, and teams.
• Worked asynchronously as part of a fully-remote, distributed team.
• A plus if you have experience contributing to or maintaining an open source project.

Company Description

dbt Labs is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building an inclusive team that welcomes diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Even if your experience doesn’t perfectly align with the job description, we encourage you to apply—we value potential just as much as a perfect resume.

Want to learn more about our focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at dbt Labs? Check out our DEI page.

dbt Labs reserves the right to amend or withdraw the posting at any time. For employees outside the United States, dbt Labs offers a competitive benefits package. RSUs or comparable benefits may be offered depending on the legal or country limitations.