Senior Technical Writer
Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. Ginkgo is constructing, editing, and redesigning the living world in order to answer the globe’s growing challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Our bioengineers make use of an in-house automated foundry for designing and building new organisms.
Team Introduction
You will be a member of the Digital Technology Knowledge Management (DTKM) team, a team of technical writers and knowledge management specialists who work remotely from across the United States. The DTKM team works alongside product managers, product designers, software engineers, and scientists to ensure the scientists have the software tools and accompanying documentation and training content they need to do their work efficiently. The team also provides the broader Digital Technology department with technical documentation and knowledge management support.
Job Description
In this role, you will be responsible for documenting our in-house scientific software and workflows for end users, maintaining and organizing that content to keep it up-to-date and easy to find, and writing documentation for other Digital Tech needs. In addition, you will contribute to the overall knowledge management strategy and processes within the department to ensure the vast amounts of knowledge is properly documented. The ideal technical writer has excellent communication and organizational skills, has a background in biology or a strong interest in learning the field, and works effectively in a complex and fast-paced environment with shifting priorities.
This is a remote position with the option to work on-site in Boston, MA or Emeryville, CA. Remote and Emeryville-based employees are expected to travel to our Boston headquarters approximately four times per year for three to five business days.
Responsibilities
- Work with internal teams to obtain an in-depth understanding of technical information from subject matter experts
- Develop, organize, write, and maintain user-friendly content (e.g., software documentation, job aides, technical specifications, and user training) to translate complex information into clear, concise, and engaging content for multiple audiences
- Evaluate and improve current content
- Educate stakeholders on technical writing and knowledge management principles/supporting technologies and guide others to develop their documentation practices
- Stay current on technical documentation, knowledge management, and document management best practices and new solutions in the industry, such as AI-enabled knowledge base solutions
- Break down complex problems into actionable steps for managing your projects
Minimum Requirements
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English
- Ability to quickly grasp complex technical and scientific concepts and clearly explain those concepts to others in writing
- Demonstrated ability managing against deadlines, including coordinating others to help meet these deadlines
- Ability to thrive and stay calm in a fast-paced, high-pressure, ever-changing environment
- Willingness to be proactive, working both independently and collaboratively
- 5+ years of software technical writing or related experience in a role requiring extensive written or verbal communication
- Bachelor's degree. No Bachelor’s, but equivalent training will be considered.
Preferred Capabilities and Experience
- Degree in biology, education, computer science, knowledge management, technical writing, or a related field
- Experience working in Life Sciences, biotech, or education a plus
- Knowledge of/experience with a variety of work management and documentation tools, e.g., Google Suite, Atlassian Suite including Confluence and Jira, Git, Whatfix, and Moveworks
Total compensation for this role is market driven, with a starting salary of $110K+, as well as company stock awards. Base pay is ultimately determined based on a candidate's skills, expertise, and experience. We also offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental & vision coverage, health spending accounts, voluntary benefits, leave of absence policies, Employee Assistance Program, 401(k) program with employer contribution, 8 paid holidays in addition to a full-week winter shutdown and unlimited Paid Time Off policy.
To learn more about Ginkgo, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com/press/ or check out some curated press below:
- What is it really like to take your company public via a SPAC? One Boston biotech shares its journey (Fortune)
- Ginkgo Bioworks resizes the definition of going big in biotech, raising $2.5B in a record SPAC deal that weighs in with a whopping $15B-plus valuation (Endpoints News)
- Ginkgo Bioworks CEO on scaling up Covid-19 testing: ‘If we try, we can win’ (CNBC)
- Ginkgo raises $70 million to ramp up COVID-19 testing for employers, universities (Boston Globe)
- Ginkgo Bioworks Redirects Its Biotech Platform to Coronavirus (Wall Street Journal)
- Ginkgo Bioworks Provides Support on Process Optimization to Moderna for COVID-19 Response (PRNewswire)
- The Life Factory: Synthetic Organisms From This $1.4 Billion Startup Will Revolutionize Manufacturing (Forbes)
- Synthetic Bio Pioneer Ginkgo Raises $290 Million in New Funding (Bloomberg)
- Ginkgo Bioworks raises $350 million fund for biotech spinouts (Reuters)
- Can This Company Convince You to Love GMOs? (The Atlantic)
We also feel that it’s important to point out the obvious here – there’s a serious lack of diversity in our industry, and that needs to change. Our goal is to help drive that change. Ginkgo is deeply committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its practices, especially when it comes to growing our team. Our culture promotes inclusion and embraces how rewarding it is to work with people from all walks of life.
We’re developing a powerful biological engineering platform, so we must remain mindful of the many ways our technology can – and will – impact people around the world. We care about how our platform is used, and having a diverse team to build it gives us the best chance that it’s something we’ll be proud of as it continues to grow. Therefore, it’s critical that we incorporate the diverse voices and visions of all those who play a role in the future of biology.
It is the policy of Ginkgo Bioworks to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees, employment applicants, and EOE disability/vet.
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