David Young
Technical writer and information architect
I write and organize documentation for internal teams, product users, and developers.
My work includes onboarding and product guides, release notes, API documentation, tutorials, knowledge bases, and tools that help people find information. This portfolio includes work from my contract and staff roles, as well as documentation for Earmark and Planet Search.
Who I write for
The users I write for most often
Each audience needs different documentation. Here's what I've written for each, and where to see it.
Internal teams
Knowledge bases, runbooks, and internal release notes
Reference and training material for data stewards, governance teams, and the people who build and support a product.
End users
Self-service guides and onboarding
Task guides, product documentation, and onboarding paths for people learning a product on their own.
Developers
Getting started guides, developer guides, and API references
Setup guides, developer resources, quickstarts, and reference documentation that matches the running product.
Selected work · newest first
Contract and staff work
Each page covers the project, the users, what I did, and what I delivered, with a public sample where one exists.
Technical WriterSep 2025 to Nov 2026
Stride
Data mapping between PowerSchool, Salesforce, SailPoint, and other systems; React tools that let data modelers search and trace the mappings; and a knowledge base for data stewards and Atlan users.
See the work →Technical Writer, contractJan to Oct 2024
Prevail
Release notes, product documentation, and developer guides for customers, developers, and the internal team, plus the review workflow and site structure, published with Jekyll from Git.
See the work →Technical Writer, contractJun to Dec 2023
Linux Foundation
DPDK's separate Linux, FreeBSD, and Windows getting started guides, consolidated into one Sphinx resource for developers and contributors.
See the work →Technical Writer, contractJun 2021 to Feb 2022
Yawave
Self-service documentation and onboarding guides in Document360, shaped with the CTO and product stakeholders for a global audience.
See the work →API documentation
Complete documentation suites
Each includes a quickstart, task guides, a full API reference, and notes on the decisions behind the docs.
Product documentation · October 2026
Planet Search
A complete documentation suite for an exoplanet API covering 6,445 confirmed planets from the NASA Exoplanet Archive. I wrote 33 pages for developers and teachers, documented a habitable-zone rating with its limits stated, and built interactive pages that call the API.
See the project →
Product documentation · November 2026
Earmark
The complete documentation for a tagging API for cloud resources: 20 endpoints, nine task guides, tag policies with suggested fixes, a live console, and a narrated video tutorial.
See the project →What the API documentation shows
The table below pairs the skills hiring teams usually ask about with the place in each one where you can check my work.
| Skill | Planet Search | Earmark |
|---|---|---|
| API reference | 10 endpoints, 5 object pages, an OpenAPI 3.1 file | 20 endpoints, 8 object pages, an OpenAPI 3.1 file |
| Getting started | A quickstart from API key to a filtered request in about five minutes | A quickstart that finds and fixes one noncompliant database |
| Task guides | 4 guides, including planet cards for a classroom | 9 guides, including bulk tagging and tagging in CI |
| Explaining a method | The habitable-zone model, with equations, limits, and caveats | Tag policies, enforcement modes, and compliance |
| Docs as code | Every example response captured from the running API | Captured examples, plus tests that check every example and id the docs cite |
Skills and tools
What I work with
Grouped by kind of work, with the projects that show each group.
Writing
Shown in Yawave, Prevail, Linux Foundation, Stride, Planet Search, Earmark
Information architecture
Shown in Prevail, Linux Foundation, Stride, Planet Search, Earmark
Documentation platforms
Shown in Linux Foundation, Prevail, Yawave, Planet Search, Earmark
Building and publishing
Shown in Stride, Prevail, Planet Search, Earmark
Data and governance
Shown in Stride