Senior Technical Writer

Bixal•Fairfax, VA

5d•$120,000 - $130,000

About The Position

We are seeking a Senior Technical Writer to support a federal Digital Services Platform Engineering contract. This team builds and operates the secure, standardized engineering platform (source control, CI/CD, observability, infrastructure-as-code, and SaaS tooling) that powers the agency's mission-critical loan origination, servicing, repayment, and collections systems. The Senior Technical Writer will produce and maintain the architecture documentation, engineering standards, runbooks, and developer-facing guidance that make this platform understandable, adoptable, and auditable for engineering teams working with sensitive financial data. This work aligns with human-centered design, Agile methodologies, and government digital services best practices to ensure a secure, well-documented, and confidence-building developer experience. This is a full-time position with a defined performance period of one year with additional option year periods. This role offers you a unique opportunity to make a meaningful impact on a project that aligns with Bixal’s mission of delivering innovative, human-centered solutions. While the role has a fixed duration, we are committed to transparency and collaboration, keeping you informed about contract updates and new opportunities. At Bixal, we support your professional journey, ensuring your experience reflects our inclusive, purpose-driven culture and prepares you for future success.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical field, plus at least eight (8) years of relevant experience.
Hands-on experience working within a software engineering or technical product environment (e.g., as a developer, engineer, or technical product team member) with a demonstrated strength in writing and documentation.
Familiarity with developer platform tooling such as GitLab, Datadog, Jira, Confluence, Slack, or Figma, and with concepts like CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, and SLOs.
Demonstrated ability to design clear, action-oriented, and plain-language content for complex digital workflows involving sensitive or transactional data.
Proven track record reducing confusion, form errors, and abandonment through structured microcopy, guidance patterns, and progressive disclosure.
Strong understanding of accessibility standards, inclusive language practices, and compliance-driven content constraints.
Experience partnering closely with product, legal, compliance, and engineering to ensure content accuracy and implementation integrity.
Uses usability findings and performance data (completion rate, error rate, support contacts) to iteratively refine content and improve customer confidence.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with experience in writing, revising, sourcing, and aggregating content.
Ability to obtain and maintain a High Risk Public Trust clearance.

Nice To Haves

Experience with federal financial aid systems or government digital transformation.
Previous coding/engineering experience.
Knowledge of student financial aid processes, loan servicing, or public service technology.

Responsibilities

Write and maintain the Platform Engineering Architecture Blueprint, reference architectures, and Golden Path Templates, translating complex technical designs into clear, action-oriented guidance for engineering audiences.
Reduce developer confusion, onboarding friction, and support tickets by producing structured Engineering Standards Catalogs, golden-path documentation, and progressive, task-oriented guidance.
Author and maintain platform operations runbooks, architecture decision records (ADRs), and incident/change-management documentation for CI/CD, observability, and infrastructure-as-code workflows.
Partner closely with platform engineers, security engineers, and technical product managers to ensure documentation accuracy and implementation integrity across all supported SaaS and infrastructure tools.
Apply accessibility standards, inclusive language practices, and compliance-driven content constraints to documentation supporting mission-critical financial systems and their audit requirements.
Develop Developer Onboarding Toolkit and Self-Service Platform Portal content, including setup guides, service catalogs, and searchable knowledge repositories.
Research the underlying systems, policies, and workflows behind each documentation request so content is accurate and well-informed.
Use adoption metrics, developer feedback (e.g., Developer NPS), and support-ticket trends to iteratively refine documentation and improve developer confidence in the platform.
Support Compliance Posture Reports and Quarterly Platform Maturity Assessments by clearly documenting policy adherence and remediation efforts.
Other relevant duties as qualified and trained to perform