What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Technical Writer Contractor position at atomicmachines?
Atomic Machines is ushering in a new era of micromanufacturing with its Matter Compiler™ technology platform. This platform enables new classes of micromachines to be designed and built by providing manufacturing processes and a materials library that are inaccessible to semiconductor manufacturing methods. It unlocks MEMS manufacturing not only for device classes that could never be produced by semiconductor methods, but also for entirely new categories. Furthermore, this digital platform is fully programmable in the way 3D printing is digital—but whereas 3D printing produces parts of a single material using a single process, the Matter Compiler™ technology platform is a multi-process, multi-material system: bits and raw materials go in, and complete, functional micromachines come out. The Atomic Machines team has also created an exciting first device—made possible only through the Matter Compiler™ technology platform—that we will be unveiling to the world soon.
Our offices are in Emeryville and Santa Clara, California.
About The Role:
At Atomic Machines, we’re completely rethinking how things are built—and we need a Senior Technical Writer with a strong engineering background who can make our revolutionary technology easy to understand. In this role, you’ll use your technical expertise to transform detailed engineering concepts, cutting-edge manufacturing processes, and innovative product specs into clear, concise documentation. Your audience will include everyone from fellow engineers to new hires and future customers. You’ll be part of a small, passionate team shaping the company’s vision and products, and your work will be key in bringing a whole new category of devices to life. If you love the challenge of diving deep into technical details and explaining them in a way that sparks curiosity, we’d love to hear from you!
What You’ll Do:
- Write clear, concise “Theory of Operations” documents that break down system functionality and design choices.
- Create Work Instructions and SOPs so people can easily follow step-by-step processes.
- Document device operations and characteristics, highlighting performance metrics and technical specs.
- Work with engineers to capture how devices operate under different conditions.
- Work with engineering teams to document SOPs for assembling nodes.
- Work with manufacturing to develop Work Instructions for production use.
- Translate complex engineering data into easy-to-understand explanations and visuals.
- Create guides, schedules, and templates for new hires so they can hit the ground running.
- Keep an organized knowledge base of best practices, FAQs, and lessons learned.
- Partner with engineers, product managers, and designers to gather details and confirm accuracy.
- Serve as a go-to person for questions about documentation needs.
- Establish style guides and templates to keep content consistent and user-friendly.
- Continuously refine our approaches to ensure the highest quality documentation.
- Learn new tools and trends that can improve our docs and processes.
- Keep an eye on user feedback and champion documentation improvements whenever needed.
- The majority of work will be out of our Emeryville office with occasional support in our Santa Clara office.
What You’ll Need:
- A first-principles mindset — you question assumptions, break problems down to fundamentals, and prefer root-cause solutions over pattern-matching.
- Engineering background (BS, MS, or PhD in engineering, or BA with equivalent work experience).
- 10 years of experience in a technical writer, product manager, engineering, or field/support engineering background.
- Strong understanding of Technical Writing principles that you can demonstrate through past writing samples.
- Able to break down technical concepts so anyone can grasp them.
- You know how to talk to engineers, product managers, and designers to get the info you need and translate into clear concise documents.
- Comfortable with shifting priorities, quick changes, and a startup’s ever-evolving needs.
- You bring a “startup mentality” to the table, proactively tackling challenges and seeking innovative solutions.
- Strong knowledge of content development cycles, and documentation best practices.
- Ability to manage competing priorities and convey changes in priorities and expected delivery schedule to partner teams.
- Grant proposal writing experience (winning proposals, and executing) preferred.
