Principal Technical Writer I - Core Docs - Documentation

About Elastic

Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale — unleashing the potential of businesses and people. The Elastic Search AI Platform, used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500, brings together the precision of search and the intelligence of AI to enable everyone to accelerate the results that matter.

By taking advantage of all structured and unstructured data — securing and protecting private information more effectively — Elastic’s complete, cloud-based solutions for search, security, and observability help organizations deliver on the promise of AI.

The Role

We are seeking a Principal Technical Writer to join a team dedicated to documenting our most sophisticated platform features. You will act as a lead contributor and collaborator, bridging the gap between core engineering teams and our global community of users and developers building powerful, data‑driven applications. You will help lead the strategic narrative for how the world adopts and implements our technology, and you will actively shape the workflows, patterns, and culture that make the entire team more effective.

We value diverse paths into technical writing. Whether you have come from engineering, customer support, professional services, or the field, what matters most is that you can make complex technology understandable for the people who need to use it. If you have been writing runbooks, knowledge base articles, implementation guides, or onboarding content as part of a support or consulting role, we want to hear from you.

Show us your writing chops and tell us what you can bring to the role. Upload writing samples, or provide links to your portfolio or Git Hub contributions.

What You Will Be Doing

• Lead through influence across the documentation organization. Own content for complex technical areas, but your impact extends beyond your own output. You'll establish content patterns and quality standards that other writers adopt, and guide peers through ambiguous, high‑stakes documentation challenges without requiring formal authority.
• Champion AI‑augmented documentation practices. Model thoughtful AI adoption by establishing and pushing standards for leveraging AI tools, knowing when to use them, and ensuring that outputs meet technical accuracy standards.
• Drive the architecture of complex, multi‑layered technical content. Identify gaps in information architecture before they become user problems, and propose structural solutions that scale.
• Set the quality benchmark for the team. Engage deeply with the product through hands‑on use, and your peer reviews go beyond accuracy; they model how to think about audience, structure, and completeness. Engineers and PMs seek your review because it consistently makes content better.
• Shape multi‑functional alignment. Work closely with Engineering, Product Marketing, and Support. You convene conversations with these teams, surfacing documentation needs early in the product lifecycle, and ensuring the team has a seat at the table when decisions are made.

What You Bring

• 7+ years in a SaaS or developer‑focused environment: In roles such as technical writer, solutions engineer, support engineer, or technical consultant, with demonstrated experience contributing to customer‑facing documentation, knowledge bases, or technical enablement content.
• Practical AI tool fluency: You use AI to accelerate research and writing and apply strong editorial judgement to validate accuracy and maintain quality. You can speak concretely to how AI enhances your workflows.
• Advanced technical acuity: The ability to quickly grasp and document complex topics, such as modern data technologies, search, and AI/ML concepts.
• Technical fluency: Comfortable reading Java, JSON, and similar code, and you use that fluency to drive accuracy at the source, catching issues in specs and prototypes, not just in drafts.
• A Docs‑as‑Code approach: Proficient with Git, Markdown, and modern documentation tooling, and you actively help the team level up how it uses these tools. You improve pipelines, review workflows, and identify where automation can create leverage.
• Str…