Professional Resume Template for
Freelance Technical Writer
Julian R. Mercer
Seattle, WA
(206) 555-0174
julian.mercer@email.com
linkedin.com/in/julian-mercer | github.com/julianmercer | julianmercer.dev
Professional Summary
Methodical Freelance Technical Writer with 5 years of experience authoring high-impact software documentation, API references, and user guides for technology startups and enterprise clients. Expertise includes markdown-based documentation, single-source publishing, information architecture, and Git-integrated writing workflows. Successfully authored 140+ reference topics and reduced customer support ticket volume by 24% for 6 client organizations. Proficient with MadCap Flare, DITA/XML, Git, Swagger/OpenAPI, and Hugo.
Work Experience
Freelance Technical Writer — Mercer Documentation Services
Seattle, WA | June 2023 – Present
- Designed and structured a developer portal for an API management startup, authoring 80+ REST API reference topics that decreased initial developer integration time by 32%.
- Migrated 400+ legacy HTML documentation pages to a single-source MadCap Flare system, saving $14,000 in yearly licensing costs and reducing translation turnaround times by 45%.
- Standardized documentation style guides and XML schemas for 4 enterprise clients, training 18 staff writers and improving content formatting consistency audits by 98%.
- Authored 12 end-user installation manuals and hardware troubleshooting guides, resulting in a 28% reduction in post-launch customer support tickets over a 9-month period.
Technical Writer — Apex DevTools Solutions
Boston, MA | June 2021 – May 2023
- Collaborated with 8 software engineers to draft inline code documentation and SDK guides, increasing developer portal registrations by 38% over a 12-month period.
- Wrote and published 24 monthly release notes and interactive feature tour scripts using Markdown and Git, boosting feature adoption rates by 15%.
- Implemented automated linting for markdown docs using Vale and Git Actions, reducing documentation grammatical/structural errors by 88% prior to deployment.
- Reorganized the search taxonomy and indexing structure for the customer-facing knowledge base, lifting successful search query resolution from 61% to 84%.
Education
Bachelor of Arts in Technical Communication
Western Washington University · Bellingham, WA · 2021
Skills
API documentation, Markdown, Single-sourcing, Information architecture, Software developer portals, Style guides, Technical illustration, Version control, MadCap Flare, DITA/XML, Swagger, OpenAPI, Git, Hugo, Vale linting, Jira
Projects
API Developer Portal Redesign
Role: Lead Technical Writer
Tools: Swagger, OpenAPI, Git, Jekyll
Designed the taxonomy and authored Swagger specifications for a payment gateway API, reducing vendor onboarding cycles from 14 days to 4 days.
Legacy Docs Migration
Role: Technical Writer & Tools Analyst
Tools: MadCap Flare, Git, HTML5, Python
Created a custom Python parser to clean and migrate 3,500 pages of legacy MS Word manuals to markdown, accelerating publishing speed by 80%.
Certifications
- Certified Professional Technical Communicator (CPTC) - Practitioner (2024)
- Certified Professional Technical Communicator (CPTC) - Foundation (2022)
Additional information
- Languages: English (Native), German (Conversational)
- Volunteer Work: Volunteer editor for open-source documentation projects (2022-present)
- Availability: Immediate for project-based contracts or monthly retainers
Job Market Insights
Market data and opportunities for
Freelance Technical Writer
Job Market Insights
$70,000
-
$120,000
Avg:
$92,000
Growth Outlook:
The demand for technical writers in the United States is projected to experience stable demand, primarily driven by the continuous growth of scientific and technical products. As software systems and API integrations grow in complexity, technical writers are increasingly tasked with creating structured, developer-focused docs. While automation and AI tools automate draft generation, skilled writers remain critical for information design and content accuracy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 1% employment growth for technical writers from 2024 to 2034.
1% growth over 10 years
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