Technical Writer

Job Description

Job Description

About Zipline

Zipline is the world's largest and most experienced drone delivery service. We are on a mission to serve all humans equally by ensuring access to food, medicine and essential goods anytime, anywhere. We design, build, and operate the world's largest autonomous logistics system, delivering critical supplies quickly and reliably. Today, Zipline operates on four continents, makes a delivery somewhere in the world every 30 seconds, and has completed millions of deliveries to date, including blood, vaccines, medical supplies, food, and retail products. 

Our customers include the world's largest and most prominent healthcare systems, governments, retailers, restaurants and global businesses who rely on us to save lives, reduce emissions, increase economic opportunity, and provide delivery from point A to point B as fast as possible. The drone is only 15% of what we've built to enable seamless, reliable, global operations.

Our system strengthens supply chains, reduces congestion, and gives people time back. With more than 140 million commercial autonomous miles safely flown, Zipline is redefining access to healthcare, consumer products, and food across the globe.

We operate at a global scale and are looking for practical problem solvers who thrive on real-world challenges and rapid growth. Our team is motivated by building systems that have a direct, meaningful impact on people's lives and by scaling the future of logistics. We are seeking people who sculpt from first principles, enjoy facing adversity, and can do the impossible at record breaking speeds.

Clear, accurate service documentation helps technicians maintain Zipline's aircraft and equipment safely and consistently. We're looking for a Technical Writer to own manuals and procedures that make complex systems understandable and give field teams the information they need at the point of work. Your first projects will focus on maintenance documentation for the Droid, Dock, and related site equipment. As priorities shift, you may also develop troubleshooting guides, service bulletins, and temporary revisions for other systems. You'll work with engineering, maintenance, operations, and other technical writers to research, validate, review, and publish content. You'll also help the team move from MadCap Flare to a GitHub-based workflow, with content that can be maintained and reused as Zipline grows. To do this well, you'll need to get close to the hardware and the people who service it. You'll ask precise questions, resolve gaps in source material, and stay hands-on through publication.

• Own assigned manuals and procedures from initial research through release and ongoing maintenance. Keep them accurate as hardware, software, and service processes change.
• Write maintenance procedures, inspections, troubleshooting guidance, and system descriptions. Make safety information, applicability, tools, parts, and prerequisites easy to find.
• Research engineering source material, observe maintenance work, and interview subject matter experts. Resolve conflicting information and confirm technical accuracy before publication.
• Coordinate reviews, approvals, and release dependencies. Track decisions and revisions, communicate blockers, and follow each change through to publication.
• Use field feedback and change requests to improve documentation. Work with partners to prioritize updates by safety, operational impact, and release timing.
• Organize content, terminology, navigation, and cross-references so technicians can quickly find the right instructions for their task and equipment configuration.
• Structure procedures and metadata for reuse across manuals and connected maintenance systems, including links among steps, parts, tools, and references.
• Help migrate manuals from MadCap Flare into Markdown/MDX in GitHub. Preserve approved content, applicability, safety information, and revision history while checking the published output.
• Improve templates, shared content, authoring guidance, and publishing workflows. Partner with software and systems teams to address tooling issues that affect documentation quality.
• Identify where photos, diagrams, or illustrations would make a procedure clearer, and work with engineers and illustrators to keep visuals accurate.

• A bachelor's degree in technical communication, English, engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience writing and maintaining technical documentation for complex hardware, software, or operational systems; include work samples that show clear, accurate instructions.
• Strong writing and editing skills, with the ability to make complex information clear and easy to follow.
• Ability to learn unfamiliar systems from technical source material, observation, and conversations with subject matter experts, then verify details before publication.
• Care with safety, applicability, revision control, and change management; sound judgment about when a technical question must be resolved before release.
• Ability to manage documentation projects, coordinate reviews and priorities across teams, and adapt to structured authoring and publishing tools such as GitHub or Markdown.

The starting cash range for this role is $97,000 - $165,000. Please note that this is a target, starting cash range for a candidate who meets the minimum qualifications for this role. The final cash pay for this role will depend on a variety of factors, including a specific candidate's experience, qualifications, skills, working location, and projected impact. The total compensation package for this role may also include: equity compensation; discretionary annual or performance bonuses; sales incentives; benefits such as medical, dental and vision insurance; paid time off; and more.

• Technical Writer: $97,000 - $140,000
• Senior Technical Writer: $114,000 - $165,000

Zipline is an equal opportunity employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws or our own sensibilities.

We value diversity at Zipline and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!

Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Zipline 's Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.