Lead Technical Writer, Maritime & Undersea Systems

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 realtime, 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.

**ON-SITE IN COSTA MESA, CA. RELOCATION ASSISTANCE PROVIDED**

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 Technical Writer to create and maintain user documentation across our diverse business lines. We believe that the quality of our documentation should reflect the quality of our products, which are world-class.

ABOUT THE JOB

As a Lead Technical Writer, your mission is to partner with our Maritime 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 Lead 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 complex 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 which teams are relevant to documentation, and what an organized effort toward collaboration entails. You will 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 correct format.

Written content artifacts under this charter may include: 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-, condition-, and standard-centric documentation.
• Research Anduril products, scope Tech Data deliverables for Programs of Record with DoD customers, and write Data Modules in S1000D XML using RapidAuthor.
• Evaluate and prioritize tasks required to successfully support product documentation efforts and keep them on track. Help drive the best decisions for the company by using a data-driven approach and considering input from stakeholders. 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 processes and training for others to contribute content. Refine our product maturity framework so that documentation is a meaningful step toward the productization of new systems.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• 7+ years of demonstrated excellence generating XML-based technical documentation, preferably in a DoD space (highly prefer Navy/Maritime program experience).
• Experience reading and interpreting engineering documentation (e.g., schematics, CAD, or engineering drawings).
• Experience building structured content in XML utilizing tools such as XMetal, Arbortext, or similar.
• Strong communication (written and verbal) and interpersonal skills, with an emphasis on explaining highly technical subjects simply.
• Must thrive with autonomy and responsibility, managing competing priorities and tight deadlines with impeccable project-management skills.
• Passion for excellent documentation, technical accuracy, and user experience.
• Must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Secret security clearance (or higher).
• Ability to relocate, if not already local, to be onsite in Costa Mesa, CA.
• In this role, you will be subject to pre-employment and randomized substance screening, as required by the Company.

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 Naval or maritime hardware products (for DoD).
• Experience documenting software UIs in an Agile environment.

US Salary Range

$147,000—$196,000 USD

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. For more information, Explore Our Benefits.

Protecting Yourself from Recruitment Scams

Anduril is committed to maintaining the integrity of our Talent acquisition process and the security of our candidates. We've observed a rise in sophisticated phishing and fraudulent schemes where individuals impersonate Anduril representatives, luring job seekers with false interviews or job offers. These scammers often attempt to extract payment or sensitive personal information.

To ensure your safety and help you navigate your job search with confidence, please keep the following critical points in mind:

• No Financial Requests: Anduril will never solicit payment or demand personal financial details (such as banking information, credit card numbers, or social security numbers) at any stage of our hiring process. Our legitimate recruitment is entirely free for candidates.

• Please always verify communications:
  • Direct from Anduril: If you receive an email from one of our recruiters, it will only come from an @anduril.com address.
  • Via Agency Partner: If contacted by a recruiting agency for an Anduril role, their email will clearly identify their agency. If you suspect any suspicious activity, please verify the agency's authenticity by reaching out to contact@anduril.com.

• Exercise Caution with Unsolicited Outreach: If you receive any communication that appears suspicious, contains grammatical errors, or makes unusual requests, do not engage. Always confirm the sender's email domain is @anduril.com before providing any personal information or clicking on links.

• What to Do If You Suspect Fraud: Should you encounter any questionable or fraudulent outreach claiming to be from Anduril, please report it immediately to contact@anduril.com. Your proactive caution is invaluable in protecting your personal information and upholding the security and trustworthiness of our recruitment efforts.

Data Privacy

To view Anduril's candidate data privacy policy, please visit https://anduril.com/applicant-privacy-notice/.

By submitting your application, you consent to Anduril Industries using a third-party service provider to conduct pre-employment risk, integrity, and due diligence screening and assessing potential risks as part of your application process. This third-party service provider provides risk-intelligence services that may include analysis of sanctions and watchlists, adverse media, public-record information, and other lawful open-source or commercial data sources. This third-party service provider does not act as a consumer reporting agency. Use of this provider helps to ensure compliance with applicable laws and protect technology, intellectual property, and organizational security.