The Trade Desk

Senior Technical Content Designer (API)

The Trade Desk$151K — $189K *
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of technical writing or technical content design experience
  • Experience documenting SDKs, RESTful APIs, and GraphQL APIs; writing integration guides and developer-facing content
  • Proficient in Markdown, HTML, XML, CSS, or YAML for creating documentation
  • Familiarity with structured authoring principles and content reuse
  • Understanding of user experience evaluation frameworks for documentation

Responsibilities

  • Create clear, organized technical content for developers in Markdown and HTML
  • Design content architecture for diverse user types to enhance accessibility
  • Define and implement tagging strategies for content personalization
  • Update API documentation in GitLab repositories using Git
  • Contribute to content governance by establishing standards and quality metrics
  • Conduct UX evaluations and translate findings into content improvements
  • Collaborate with engineering to enhance authoring tools and workflows

Benefits

  • Comprehensive healthcare coverage with premiums for employees and dependents
  • Employer-matched 401k retirement plan
  • Short and long-term disability coverage
  • Tuition reimbursement for qualifying expenses
  • Generous parental leave and sick time policies
  • Paid vacation time with increasing hours based on tenure
  • Around 13 paid holidays per year
  • Employee Stock Purchase Plan with discounted stock purchase option
Full Job Description
What You'll Be Doing

The Senior Technical Content Designer (API) creates technical content primarily for developers and integration partners. You'll join a high-performing technical writing team, reporting to the Senior Manager, Technical Content. Your day-to-day partners include product managers, engineers, technical account managers (TAMs), and other teams across the organization.
  • Write clear, accurate, well-organized documentation for a developer audience in Markdown and HTML, covering APIs, SDKs, integration guides, quickstarts, and workflow-oriented narratives.
  • Design content architecture across orientation, decision, and implementation layers, ensuring different types of users (advertisers, providers, sellers) can find, understand, and act without relying on a TAM.
  • Write with structure and precision that serves both human readers and AI-assisted workflows-clear information hierarchy, consistent terminology, and complete context at every entry point.
  • Define and implement conditional content and tagging strategies, including persona routing, protocol dimensions (REST vs. GraphQL), and environment conditions.
  • Update API and integration documentation in GitLab repositories using Git (branching, pull requests, merging to main).
  • Contribute to content governance frameworks by defining ownership, freshness policies, and quality standards as the platform scales across federated contributors.
  • Conduct UX and heuristic evaluations of the documentation experience; translate findings into concrete content and structural improvements.
  • Collaborate with engineering on authoring toolchain improvements: reducing page replication, improving multi-portal support, and automating reference generation.
  • Monitor and respond to user feedback to continuously improve content quality and coverage.
  • Write end-user documentation and UI copy as needed.


Requirements

Experience & Background
  • 7+ years of technical writing or technical content design experience
  • Proven experience documenting SDKs, RESTful APIs, and GraphQL APIs; writing integration guides and developer-facing content, including providing and maintaining code samples
  • Experience working in a docs-as-code environment using Git, GitHub, GitLab, or similar tools
  • Ability to work with Markdown, HTML, XML, CSS, or YAML to write, edit, and troubleshoot deliverables

Content Design & Architecture
  • Familiarity with structured authoring principles: single sourcing, conditional content, content modeling, and writing for reuse
  • Understanding of how well-structured, consistently written content performs better in AI-assisted search and retrieval-and the discipline to write that way by default
  • Ability to evaluate documentation UX using established frameworks (such as heuristic evaluation, user journey analysis) and translate findings into actionable improvements
  • Experience with or strong interest in content governance: establishing standards, ownership models, and scalability frameworks in multi-contributor environments

Writing & Communication
  • Exceptional writing, editing, and critical thinking skills: you ask hard questions of SMEs, advocate for the reader, and can tell the difference between what's technically accurate and what's actually useful
  • Familiarity with technical writing style guides and best practices (Microsoft Writing Style Guide, Google Developer Documentation Style Guide, or equivalent); experience applying or contributing to a team style guide
  • Ability to develop cross-functional rapport with product managers, engineers, product marketing, account managers, and other stakeholders
  • Ability to learn complex systems quickly and take responsibility for your assigned area
  • Commitment to creating high-quality, accessible developer documentation experiences

Tools & Workflow
  • Deep familiarity with code editors and developer tooling (Visual Studio Code or equivalent)
  • Familiarity with project management and communication tools (Jira, Confluence, Slack)
  • Experience creating technical diagrams (workflow, integration, entity) using industry-standard diagramming tools
  • Familiarity with AI tools and AI-assisted documentation workflows

Soft Skills
  • Self-starter with great attention to detail, strong time management, and sound decision-making
  • Ability to manage multiple projects and handle frequent context-switching
  • Comfortable working in ambiguity and advocating for content strategy decisions with cross-functional stakeholders

Education
  • Degree in English, Technical Writing, Computer Science, Linguistics, or equivalent experience

Highly Desired
  • Experience in digital advertising technology and programmatic advertising concepts
  • Familiarity with OpenAPI Specification and API testing tools (such as Postman)
  • Experience with developer portal platforms, docs-as-code pipelines, or content platform architecture
  • Familiarity with content-as-infrastructure thinking: content layering, workflow-oriented documentation, guided user journeys
  • Experience designing or auditing documentation for i18n readiness; familiarity with localization workflows or frameworks
  • Experience working with autogenerated API reference alongside authored narrative content


In accordance with various US state laws, the range provided is the Trade Desk's reasonable estimate of the base compensation for this role. The actual amount may differ based on non-discriminatory factors such as experience, knowledge, skills, and location. All employees may be eligible to become The Trade Desk shareholders through eligibility for stock-based compensation grants, which are awarded to employees based on company and individual performance. The Trade Desk also offers other compensation depending on the role such as variable compensation-based incentives and commissions. Plus, expected benefits for this role include comprehensive healthcare (medical, dental, and vision) with premiums paid in full for employees and dependents, retirement benefits such as a 401k plan and company match, short and long-term disability coverage, basic life insurance, well-being benefits, reimbursement for certain tuition expenses, parental leave, sick time of 1 hour per 30 hours worked, vacation time for full-time employees up to 120 hours thru the first year and 160 hours thereafter, and around 13 paid holidays per year. Employees can also purchase The Trade Desk stock at a discount through The Trade Desk's Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

The Trade Desk also offers a competitive benefits package. Click here to learn more.

Note: Interns are not eligible for variable incentive awards such as stock-based compensation, retirement plan, vacation, tuition reimbursement or parental leave

At the Trade Desk, Base Salary is one part of our competitive total compensation and benefits package and is determined using a salary range. The base salary range for this role is

$151,600-$189,200 USD

About The Trade Desk

The Trade Desk is a global advertising technology company that provides a self-service platform for buyers of digital advertising. The company was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Ventura, California. The Trade Desk's mission is to empower buyers of advertising with the tools they need to reach their target audiences in a more efficient and effective way. The company's platform allows buyers to manage their advertising campaigns across multiple channels, including display, video, mobile, and social. The Trade Desk's technology uses advanced algorithms and machine learning to optimize ad campaigns in real-time, ensuring that buyers get the best possible return on their investment.
Learn more about The Trade Desk
Size
1,967 employees
Market Cap
$21.4 billion
Industry
Net Income
$242.3 million
Founded
2009
5 Year Trend
+42.6%
Revenue
$836 million
NASDAQ

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