Senior Technical Writer

Anduril; Costa Mesa (CA); On-site; USD 146,000 - 194,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive benefits package

Equity grants

Job summary

Anduril in Costa Mesa, CA, is looking for a Senior Technical Writer to lead documentation efforts for military technologies. The successful candidate will partner with cross-functional teams to create user-friendly documentation and maintain the quality standards expected by government clients. This role requires a minimum of 7 years of experience in technical writing, particularly in the DOD sector, with expertise in XML documentation. The salary range is between $146,000 and $194,000 USD per year, complemented by competitive benefits.

Qualifications

• Must have extensive experience generating technical documentation in a DOD context.
• Experience with MIL-STD-40051 content creation is essential.
• Strong interpersonal skills required to communicate complex subjects clearly.

Responsibilities

• Generate user-focused technical documentation.
• Evaluate tasks and manage documentation roadmaps.
• Build a culture of technical documentation in the organization.

Skills

Technical documentation

XML-based documentation

Project management

Effective communication

Education

7+ years in technical writing

Tools

Raytheon Eagle

Siemens Rapid Author

Job description

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century’s most innovative companies to the defense industry, Anduril is changing how military systems are designed, built and sold. Anduril’s family of systems is powered by Lattice OS, an AI‑powered operating system that turns thousands of data streams into a real‑time, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of strategic competition, Anduril is committed to bringing cutting‑edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years.

ABOUT THE TEAM

Anduril’s Mission Success team is a cross‑functional group that partners with every business line and supports all products that Anduril builds. Our responsibilities include product operations, training and adoption, and user documentation. We are seeking an experienced senior technical writer to lead high‑profile and demanding programs for our government customers. We believe that the quality of our documentation should reflect the quality of products, which are world‑class.

ABOUT THE JOB

As a Senior Technical Writer, your mission is to partner with our Product and Operations teams to deliver accurate, updated, and easy‑to‑understand documentation on how to use Anduril products. You will do whatever it takes to organize our engineering and program delivery functions in this mission. In this role, you will work closely with Engineering, Operations, and various subject matter experts to understand our products, identify user workflows, and use documentation to close the gap. As such, the Technical Writer will play a foundational role in setting the bar for tone, voice, and quality across our written artifacts.

With Anduril’s focus on defense and national security, user documentation plays a critical role in ensuring front‑line operators know how to leverage the “Arsenal of Democracy.” Your mission is to make the process of learning how to operate systems as easy and seamless as possible, with exceptionally written and presented artifacts.

You will identify relevant stakeholders and lead them through a documentation roadmap with established key milestones and targets. This will require an in‑depth understanding of what teams are relevant to documentation, and what an organized effort toward collaboration entails. You are to ensure that stakeholders are engaged at the right time, and you will guide them toward a finished user‑facing document that plainly meets customer needs. Finally, you will work with our account teams to ensure that contract deliverables are accurate, on‑time, and in the right format.

Written content artifacts under this charter may include things like: technical manuals, operational manuals, maintenance manuals, procedures, checklists, templates, user guides, troubleshooting guides, and release notes. You will partner with account, product, and engineering teams across all phases of product development to ensure users have the right documentation available.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Generate, review, and edit documentation that is user‑focused. Work with Engineering and Operations to deliver task, conditions, standard‑centric documentation.
• Research Anduril products and scope Tech Data deliverables for Programs of Record with DOD customers, and write Data Modules in Mil‑Std‑40051‑E XML, using Raytheon Eagle (eventually migrating to Rapid Author).
• Evaluate and prioritize tasks required to successfully support product documentation efforts and keep them on track. Help drive the best decision for the company by using a data‑driven approach and consider input from stakeholders to ensure well‑informed decisions. You should be prepared to fill gaps that represent risks to the documentation roadmap.
• Communicate and help manage expectations. Ensure risks are noted with adequate time, mitigations are identified, and resources are allocated.
• Help build a culture of technical documentation by creating process and training for others to contribute content. Refine our product maturity framework so that documentation is a meaningful step toward productization of new systems.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 7+ years of demonstrated excellence generating XML‑based technical documentation, preferably in a DOD space.
• Experience reading and interpreting engineering documentation.
• Experience building MIL‑STD‑40051 content (preferably using RTX Eagle).
• Strong communication (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills, with emphasis on technical subjects.
• Must thrive with autonomy and responsibility, managing competing priorities and tight deadlines. Impeccable project‑management skills.
• Passion for excellent documentation and user experience.
• Must be eligible for Secret and higher security clearance (US).

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Military exposure and experience, particularly with military technical documentation writing and formatting standards, guidelines, and verbiage (S1000D, MIL‑STD‑40051, etc).
• Previous experience creating technical documentation for DOD products.
• Experience with Siemens Rapid Author.
• Experience documenting software UIs in an Agile environment.

Salary Range

$146,000 – $194,000 USD per year.

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full‑time offers; and are considered part of Anduril’s total compensation package. Additionally, Anduril offers top‑tier benefits for full‑time employees, including:

Benefits

At Anduril, we invest in our people. Our comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures you’re supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next.