KBR Wyle, LLC

Role	Senior Technical Writer
Type	Full-time
Period	Jan 2024 – Aug 2025

Background

This was the first role where the subject matter came with a security classification and the documentation had consequences measured in something heavier than support tickets.

KBR Wyle is a defense contractor. My work supported multiple concurrent U.S. Air Force (USAF) contracts spanning avionics software, cybersecurity, and cyber warfare systems. The documentation wasn't theoretical: it described systems that active military personnel would rely on, and it had to meet government contracting standards that left zero room for ambiguity.

On a given day I might review five technical reports (anywhere from 10 to 100 pages each), interview a software engineer about avionics system behavior, coordinate revision cycles with program management, and ensure that every deliverable aligned with government formatting templates I didn't get to choose. Multiple rounds of revisions on everything. The standards existed for a reason, and that reason was usually "because someone's safety depends on this being correct."

The cybersecurity and cyber warfare contracts were the most interesting work I've done. Not "interesting" in the polite resume sense. Interesting in the "I'm documenting how systems detect and counter hostile activity for the United States Air Force" sense. The documentation I produced fed directly into implementation workflows for active defense programs. Password policy documentation this was not.

Stakeholder management here looked nothing like previous roles. Civilian personnel, armed forces staff, software engineers, aeronautical specialists, program managers, QA. All in the same meetings. Weekly ones, monthly ones, quarterly ones. I coordinated priorities, managed revision cycles, and spent a lot of time translating between people who used the same words to mean very different things. (That last part is most technical writing jobs. The stakes here just felt higher.)

Then there was the content architecture problem.

Each contract came with its own taxonomy of document types, its own metadata requirements, and compliance rules that didn't overlap with the contract next to it. I maintained the governance frameworks that kept all of this from collapsing: editorial workflows for multi-round review cycles, document lifecycle rules that tracked deliverables from draft through approval, and quality standards that didn't bend even when deadlines wanted them to. Content governance in defense isn't optional. It's auditable.

Document control lived in SharePoint. Version management across concurrent engagements was exactly as tedious as it sounds, and exactly as important. I maintained structured content repositories, managed deliverable traceability, and ran regular content audits--the kind where you're catching inconsistent tagging, metadata gaps, and formatting drift before they compound into the sort of problem that shows up in a compliance review. Taxonomy discipline, it turns out, is the difference between a functional system and a mess that only looks organized.

The mentoring piece surprised me. I'd been a sole writer for so long that peer reviewing and working advising other writers and engineers on documentation standards felt like a role shift. But building content operations that outlast any individual contributor turned out to be the part of this job I valued most.

Coming from Climate Vault and Dremio, where I'd been the only writer on technically demanding products, the defense environment added something new: documentation governed by regulation, reviewed by government stakeholders, and used in contexts where "close enough" doesn't exist as a concept.

What I Did

• Provided content architecture support for multiple concurrent USAF contracts spanning avionics software, cybersecurity, and cyber warfare systems, designing document taxonomies, metadata structures, and governance frameworks for client-facing deliverables across distinct stakeholder groups.
• Reviewed, edited, and produced revisions and new procedures to scientific and technical information (STI) deliverables such as Technical Orders (TO), Technical Manuals (TM), Illustrated Parts Breakdowns (IPB), Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimates, In-Depth Analyses (IDA), software user guides, and trip reports for government stakeholders using Microsoft Word (templates, macros, formatting, tracked changes, and style enforcement).
• Defined and maintained content governance frameworks including editorial workflows, document lifecycle rules, multi-round review processes, and quality standards to ensure compliance and consistency across all contract deliverables.
• Conducted content audits across concurrent engagements to diagnose and remediate content quality issues including inconsistent tagging, taxonomy violations, metadata gaps, and formatting drift.
• Participated in weekly, monthly, and quarterly customer meetings, interfacing with civilian and armed forces personnel to coordinate priorities, align scope, and manage revision cycles.
• Translated complex software specifications and system architectures into structured, accessible, modular documentation for both technical and non-technical government audiences.
• Reviewed and edited 3–5 technical reports daily (10–100 pages each), conducting multiple rounds of revisions aligned with SDLC milestones to ensure accuracy, content quality, and compliance with government documentation standards. Tracked document auditing and deliverable status using Microsoft Excel.
• Collaborated directly with cross-functional teams of software engineers, aeronautical specialists, and delivery leads across engineering, program management, and quality assurance, interviewing SMEs to gather requirements, validate documentation accuracy, and ensure timely delivery of contract milestones.
• Managed document control practices, structured content repositories, and version management using SharePoint for knowledge management and centralized storage systems, ensuring deliverable traceability across concurrent engagements.
• Handled documentation containing Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI), adhering to federal marking, handling, and dissemination requirements to maintain information security across all contract deliverables.
• Created process documentation and procedural guides that tied together multiple system components into cohesive operational workflows for government stakeholders. Generated and manipulated PDF deliverables using Adobe Acrobat Pro.
• Peer reviewed and mentored engineers and other writers on technical documentation for accuracy, consistency in style and tone, and compliance with government formatting standards.
• Documented CAD models and model-based systems engineering (MBSE) outputs, translating SolidWorks-generated designs and simulation data into structured technical documentation for government review and implementation.
• Created and maintained documentation for model-based simulation environments, capturing design parameters, test configurations, and validation results to support avionics system development and certification workflows.

Key Skills

Content Architecture · Content Governance · Taxonomy · Metadata · Editorial Workflows · Content Operations · Content Audits · Content Quality · Technical Writing · Cybersecurity · Cyber Warfare · Avionics · Defense & Cybersecurity Documentation · Defense Contracting · Government Documentation · Security Documentation · Engineering Documentation · Documentation · SDLC · Document Control · SharePoint · Compliance · MBSE · Model-Based Systems Engineering · CAD Documentation · SolidWorks · Style Guides · Editing · Copyediting · Proofreading · Peer Review · SME Interview · Process Improvement · Workflow Processes · Managing Deadlines · Task Management · Collaboration · Research · Topic-Based Writing · Structured Content · User Guides · Reference Guides · Cross-Functional Collaboration · Sprint Planning · Sprint Retrospective · Daily Stand-up · SCRUM · Agile · Windows · Microsoft Office · Microsoft Word · Content Management · Deliverables · Enterprise Applications · Document Templates · Software Development