The Trade Desk is a global technology company and the world’s leading independent platform for digital advertising, with nearly 4,000 employees across more than 30 offices. Our technology helps advertisers reach the right audiences across the open internet — from streaming TV and podcasts to mobile apps, news, and more.
Advertising powers the content people love. By making it more transparent, effective, and responsible, we help support trusted journalism, quality entertainment, and creators worldwide. The world’s brands and agencies rely on us to reach their customers and grow their businesses responsibly.
The scale of our platform brings unique technical challenges — from processing massive datasets in real time to building systems that operate reliably on a global scale. When you work here, your impact is worldwide. We welcome diverse perspectives, encourage curiosity, and build teams that learn from one another. If you’re driven to solve meaningful challenges, we’d love to meet you.
As one of the leaders and change drivers in programmatic advertising, The Trade Desk is transforming the way we monetize and consume content. Our industry is complicated, but we don’t believe our platform should be. The UX team at The Trade Desk is re-imagining the information experience for our partners and developers—not just writing docs, but building the content layer that enables AI agents, integration wizards, and a growing global developer ecosystem.
As a Senior Technical Content Designer, you’ll architect and write technical content that partners and developers rely on to integrate successfully with our platform. You think in content layers (orientation, decision, implementation) and you understand that a well-structured doc isn’t just readable; it’s retrievable by an AI agent and actionable in a self-serve workflow. Your questions don’t just produce useful pages, they surface gaps in the product experience itself.
We’re looking for a great communicator with strong technical aptitude, an information architecture mindset, and genuine intellectual curiosity. You ask hard questions, dig deep with subject matter experts, and know that the best documentation starts long before you open a text editor. You’re as comfortable shaping a content strategy or governance framework as you are writing a step-by-step integration guide.
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
The Trade Desk does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firm recruiters. Fees will not be paid in the event a candidate submitted by a recruiter without an agreement in place is hired; such resumes will be deemed the sole property of The Trade Desk. The Trade Desk is an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law.
[LA JOBS ONLY] The Trade Desk will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories for employment in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, Ordinance No. 184652.
[SF JOBS ONLY] Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
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
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, The Trade Desk is committed to creating an inclusive hiring experience where everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Please reach out to us at accommodations@thetradedesk.com to request an accommodation or discuss any accessibility needs you may require to access our Company Website or navigate any part of the hiring process.
When you contact us, please include your preferred contact details and specify the nature of your accommodation request or questions. Any information you share will be handled confidentially and will not impact our hiring decisions.
Skills Required
- 7+ years of technical writing or technical content design experience
- Proven experience documenting SDKs, RESTful APIs, and GraphQL APIs, including code samples and integration guides
- Experience working in a docs-as-code environment using Git, GitHub, GitLab, or similar tools
- Ability to write and edit using Markdown, HTML, XML, CSS, or YAML
- Familiarity with structured authoring principles: single sourcing, conditional content, content modeling, and writing for reuse
- Ability to design content architecture across orientation, decision, and implementation layers
- Experience evaluating documentation UX (heuristic evaluation, user journey analysis) and translating findings into improvements
- Exceptional writing, editing, and critical thinking skills and familiarity with technical writing style guides
- Ability to collaborate cross-functionally with product managers, engineers, product marketing, and account managers
- 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
- Degree in English, Technical Writing, Computer Science, Linguistics, or equivalent experience
- 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
- Experience designing or auditing documentation for i18n readiness and localization workflows
- Experience working with autogenerated API reference alongside authored narrative content
The Trade Desk Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about The Trade Desk and has not been reviewed or approved by The Trade Desk.
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Affordable Benefits — Healthcare premiums are often paid in full for employees and dependents, reducing out-of-pocket costs. Coverage includes medical, dental, and vision alongside mental health and wellness support.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Packages commonly include new-hire stock grants, a generous Employee Stock Purchase Plan, and equity refreshers tied to performance. Feedback suggests equity meaningfully boosts total compensation alongside base pay and bonuses.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Generous PTO, paid holidays, paid sick time, and sabbaticals are available. Paid parental leave and extensive family-planning support broaden time-off and caregiving coverage.
The Trade Desk Insights
What We Do
The Trade Desk is changing the way global brands and their agencies advertise to audiences around the world. Our mission is to transform media for the benefit of humankind. Our media-buying platform helps brands deliver a more insightful and relevant ad experience for consumers — and sets a new standard for reach, accuracy, and transparency.
Why Work With Us
With up to 11 million queries per second and SLAs in the milliseconds, we’re tackling data and software challenges at massive scale. While we’re growing fast, investing in our value based company culture remains one of our top priorities. If you’re talented, driven, and hungry to bring something entirely new and wildly ambitious, let's talk.
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