Senior Technical Writer

Materialize is the streaming SQL database company that makes it easy for any developer or analyst to understand streaming data, answer complex questions and build intelligent applications using standard technology. Whether it’s delivering personalized experiences, accurately identifying fraud, building predictive AI, or discovering new business opportunities, the ability to run complex queries on multiple streams of data and keep their answers up to date is critical to making better decisions about the changing world around us.

We are focused on bottom-up developer adoption, our core software is free to use and source available, our business model is a cloud product that handles management of Materialize and lets businesses focus on building value. We have a vibrant developer community on Slack and as much as possible we work in public on GitHub.

The Materialize team includes engineers who were early employees of Cockroach Labs, Ververica, and Stripe. Our work builds on top of Timely Dataflow and Differential Dataflow, both created by our co-founder Frank McSherry, a world-leading computer scientist with decades of award-winning research in all aspects of data.

Kleiner Perkins, Redpoint Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Partners.

As a Senior Technical Writer, you will directly report to the Head of Developer Experience (Developer Experience sits independent of Marketing and Product) and own the content that developers use to learn and make the most out of Materialize.

You will do that by becoming an expert on our technology, and acting as the spokesperson for our Documentation, organizing our process, building our style guide, and collaborating with other Technical Writers on the team to support them.

Work will vary across documenting features, creating conceptual overviews, writing guides about solving specific problems with Materialize, and even coming up with SQL and code examples that illustrate how developers can be more successful in working with Materialize.

You will also collaborate with Product Managers, Product Designers, Developer Advocates, and Engineers to build an understanding of the initiatives we're pursuing, and the kind of learning materials which would make them more impactful.

You will be able to work fully remotely, using GitHub and Markdown extensively as writing and collaboration tools.

We believe that the right person would have the following:

• Experience in structuring a writing practice by maintaining the process and supporting tools, along with coaching other Technical Writers
• Context about working with developer tools in the data space: e.g. databases, message brokers, ETL tools, data warehouses, general SQL, or other data products.
• Ability to convey complex technical concepts in a concise way
• Taste for consistent writing, by adopting and evolving a style guide
• Good understanding and experience working with GitHub for collaboration (pull requests and reviews)
• 3+ years of proven experience writing about technical topics, whether this be blog posts, specs, or formal employment as a Technical Writer

The following would also be super helpful:

• Hands-on experience building applications or scripts involving a database
• Ability to build simple prototypes for testing features to better understand how they work 

You are likely to be a great addition to our team if you:

...have an ownership mindset. As part of a small team, you'll have an outsize impact on decisions and the way things are executed.

...stay nimble. As a growing startup, the team and strategy evolves quickly. Be ready to re-calibrate often and stay flexible.

...be kind and collaborative. Come in ready to share your ideas and listen to feedback.

We are a remote first organisation with an office based in New York City. Whether you work remotely, or from the office in NYC is entirely up to you! We offer generous relocation assistance if you prefer the latter.

• The opportunity to take the lead on key strategic objectives of Materialize and to exercise outsize impact on the overall direction of the organization
• Competitive compensation including a commensurate Stock Option Package
• 401K, or similar retirement funding for non-US residents
• Medical Cover, including Dental and Vision (or equivalent for non-US residents)
• A generous tech-budget to get you all the latest hardware and software that you need

Our recruitment process roughly follows the structure below:

• Introductory call with the Recruiting Team
• First interview with our Head of Developer Experience
• Technical Writing Assignment (we provide compensation for this)
• Second Interview with one of our Technical Writers
• Offer

If this sounds like an interesting opportunity, please apply via our website, and include your LinkedIn profile (or Resume), writing samples, or anything else that you think might give us a good sense of who you are.

We will generally be in touch within 7 business days to let you know the outcome of your application.

We understand it takes a diverse team of highly intelligent, passionate, curious, and creative people to develop the exceptional product we are building. Our dynamic team has incredible perspectives to share, just as we know you do, and we take great pride in being an equal opportunity employer.