We deliver open source to the world faster, more securely and more cost effectively than any other company.
We develop Ubuntu, the world’s most popular enterprise Linux from cloud to edge, together with a passionate global community of 200,000 contributors. Ubuntu means 'humanity to others'​. We chose it because it embodies the generosity at the heart of open source, the new normal for platforms and innovation.
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As a technical author, you’ll be part of an engineering team, focused on a specific Canonical product.
You will lead the team effort to create, maintain and improve documentation that serves the needs of the product's users, embracing the principles of the Diátaxis documentation framework.
You will have a broad impact on - and responsibility for - the quality of the user experience with the product, and will contribute towards the long-term success of the project itself.
As the technical author on the team, you will collaborate with software developers, product managers, community members, other documentation authors, information architects, quality assurance engineers and technical support engineers to develop clear documentation for complex technical topics.
You will have an important role in a company-wide effort to establish excellence in documentation, across all aspects of its practice.
What You'll Do
Create, maintain and improve tutorials, how-to guides, reference guides and explanatory material.
Address the needs of users including developers, system administrators and end-users.
Use and explore the product in depth, to help discover where the documentation needs to be improved.
Review, road-test and improve practical guides.
Update reference and explanation material in collaboration with colleagues
Improve and correct documentation based on feedback from users and technical support.
Read design documents and specifications.
Build, install, and use pre-release software to assist in generating proper instructions.
Standardise the structure, presentation, style and language of content across products.
Actively improve documentation, through attention to practice, process, tools and users’ needs.
Contribute towards the development of documentation as a professional discipline at Canonical.
Our Best Candidate
Is qualified with a B.Sc / BA or equivalent in Technical Communication, English, or Computer Science.
Is a technical author who's comfortable working with, reading and writing code, or a programmer/developer with a record of producing excellent documentation
Has software development experience in Python, JavaScript or other suitable languages.
Is familiar with application deployment, system operations, and infrastructure management.
Is experienced working in a technical writing position.
Has excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Has the ability to assimilate technical information rapidly from a variety of sources.
Has the character and flexibility to work in a fast-paced environment.
Is familiar with command line UNIX/Linux.
Is effective working in a distributed team.
Is confident using Ubuntu Desktop for all of the above.
Is familiar with Git or other version control systems.
Has knowledge of HTML and Markdown.
Is able to travel twice a year for up to two weeks for events.