Technical Writer, Engineering

Apple • San Diego, CA

7h

About The Position

This is a truly unique technical writing role, at Apple and in the industry. You won’t be writing about apps and features after they’ve been built. By doing a combination of spec writing and UX writing, you will help shape what we build, and play a key role in taking apps and features from the conceptual stages through development and testing. You will gather information about how apps should behave from Design, Product Management, Engineering, and other stakeholders. Then, you’ll distill that information into clear, understandable specifications that allow Engineering and QA to build and test world-class apps and features. These specifications capture use cases, edge cases, and functional requirements, and they are an indispensable part of the software development process. In addition to writing specs for internal audiences, you will write user interface copy that will be read by millions of people on their Apple devices. You will be responsible for crafting clear, concise, user-friendly copy, workshopping that copy with a cross-functional team, and occasionally presenting your proposed copy to senior executives.

Requirements

• At least 1 year of software-related technical writing experience.
• Be able to understand and document complex apps available on multiple platforms, including Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
• Experience gathering requirements and other information from stakeholders, and translating that information into documentation.
• Be able to think through complex use cases, and have a knack for uncovering use cases and edge cases that others haven’t thought of.
• Demonstrate an ability to write structured, detailed specs based on the information you’ve gathered and the use cases you’ve thought of.
• Excellent composition and grammar skills, and experience adapting your writing to adhere to a style guide.
• Meticulous note-taking and organizational skills.
• Each day will bring new information about a wide variety of topics that you must be able to capture and organize, to write about later.
• Experience presenting your work to large audiences, or openness to doing so.
• You will lead documentation review meetings where you present specifications and UX copy proposals to audiences of 5–50 people, including senior executives.
• Ability to create and follow a documentation schedule.
• You must be able to accurately estimate how long it will take to reach milestones, meet the deadlines you set for yourself, and communicate changes well in advance, should deadlines need to change.
• Understand the software development life cycle.
• Work with minimal direction toward predetermined goals, and be able to quickly become proficient with new tools and apps.
• Independently anticipate and resolve problems in a fast-paced environment.
• BS/BA degree required in Technical Writing, Professional Writing, English, Communication, Computer Science, Engineering, Journalism, or other related field.
• Love technical writing!

Nice To Haves

• Experience writing use cases, requirements specifications, or user flows.
• Experience writing copy for user interfaces (UX writing).
• Experience working on or writing about subscription-based apps or services.
• Familiarity with concepts, use cases, and user flows specific to subscriptions.
• Experience documenting requirements shared across multiple apps.
• Experience leading documentation review meetings—facilitating discussion, encouraging participation, taking meeting notes, logging action items related to the documentation, and following up with stakeholders on their action items.
• 3+ years of technical writing experience with complex apps, or an advanced degree in Technical Communication.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level