The Trade Desk

Senior Technical Content Designer (API)

The Trade Desk • $151K — $189K *
San Jose, CA 95123In-Person
Technical Services
5 - 7 years of experience
Today
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Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 7+ years of technical writing or content design experience
  • Proven experience with SDKs, RESTful APIs, and GraphQL APIs
  • Familiarity with Git, GitHub, GitLab, or similar tools
  • Ability to write in Markdown, HTML, XML, CSS, or YAML
  • Understanding of structured authoring principles and content modeling
  • Exceptional writing, editing, and critical thinking skills
  • Degree in English, Technical Writing, Computer Science, or equivalent experience

Responsibilities

  • Create clear and organized developer documentation in Markdown and HTML
  • Design content architecture for different user types for easy navigation
  • Ensure documentation serves both users and AI workflows with structured content
  • Implement conditional content and tagging strategies based on user personas
  • Update documentation in GitLab using Git for version control
  • Contribute to content governance frameworks as the platform scales
  • Evaluate UX of documentation and suggest improvements based on feedback

Benefits

  • Work in a high-performing technical writing team
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams including product managers and engineers
  • Opportunity to influence content governance frameworks
  • Engage with cutting-edge technology and tools for technical content creation
  • Focus on creating accessible and high-quality documentation experiences
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

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
Media
Net Income
$242.3 million
Founded
2009
5 Year Trend
+42.6%
Revenue
$836 million
NASDAQ
TTD
* Ladders Estimates

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