Aerospace Technical Writer: Launch & Systems Docs

Xona Space; Burlingame (CA); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Xona Space is seeking a Technical Writer in Burlingame, CA to embed with the program team and support engineering, launch, and manufacturing with a focus on ICDs, test procedures, design specs, and review packages. You will craft clear, accurate documentation and help scale standards as the team grows.

You'll collaborate with engineers across bus, payload, GNC, and flight software, manage launch documentation, and develop templates for manufacturing work instructions and SOPs, enabling

Qualifications

• 4–7 years of technical writing experience in aerospace, defense, hardware manufacturing, or a similarly technical field.
• Comfortable working directly with engineers to extract technical content and translate it into clean, usable documentation — ICDs, test procedures, design specs, and review packages.
• Proven ability to build clear documentation templates and review technical content for accuracy, clarity, and consistency.
• Self-directed and able to manage multiple documentation workstreams simultaneously in a fast-moving environment.
• Comfortable asking questions when requirements are unclear — we value clarity over assumptions.

Responsibilities

• Engineering Documentation: support engineering teams across bus, payload, GNC, FSW, and subsystems in producing and maintaining technical documents including ICDs, test procedures, design specs, and review packages.
• Launch Documentation Management: own the organization, tracking, and on-time delivery of launch campaign documentation, including readiness review packages and compliance documents.
• Contract Documentation: generate, edit, and maintain contract deliverable documentation ensuring timely delivery against contractual requirements.
• Mission Operations: develop SLA definitions with other teams and document escalation paths for reliable on-orbit operations and regulatory compliance.
• Document Control: establish organization, versioning, and accessibility of technical documentation and set up scalable systems.
• Cross-Site Coordination: work across geographically distributed teams and travel between sites as needed.
• Work Instructions & SOPs: build and maintain templates and ensure content aligns with templates.
• Process Building: develop lightweight documentation standards and templates for growth.

Skills

Technical writing

Engineering collaboration

Templates development

Self-management

Clear communication

Cross-functional coordination

Tools

Confluence

Google Workspace

Job description

Xona Space is seeking a Technical Writer in Burlingame, CA to embed with the program team and support engineering, launch, and manufacturing with a focus on ICDs, test procedures, design specs, and review packages. You will craft clear, accurate documentation and help scale standards as the team grows.

You'll collaborate with engineers across bus, payload, GNC, and flight software, manage launch documentation, and develop templates for manufacturing work instructions and SOPs, enabling