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Cole Isaac, MSCS Download

A clear communicator with a passion for organization and analysis, culminating in documentation that is accurate, accessible, and effective. Employs a docs-as-code philosophy to author and maintain content for modern documentation platforms.

Education

Master of Science in Computer Science

Khoury College of Computer Sciences
Northeastern University • Boston, MA

Bachelor of Arts in History

State University of New York at New Paltz • New Paltz, NY

Certificates

Information Privacy Management Professional
International Association of Privacy Professionals

Certificate in Writing
University of California, Los Angeles

Graduate Certificate in Biology
North Carolina State University

Technical Knowledge

Language Proficiencies

  • Markdown/MDX
  • HTML
  • CSS
  • YAML
  • JSON
  • Javascript
  • Node
  • React
  • Golang
  • Java
  • C/C++
  • Python

Skills, Systems & Tools

  • Git
  • Jira/Issue Tracking
  • Github Actions
  • DevOps Workflows
  • CI/CD Pipelines
  • Postman
  • Swagger/OpenAPI
  • Cloud Infrastructures
  • Docusaurus
  • Mkdocs
  • Hugo
  • Jekyll
  • Vercel
  • Heroku
  • Netlify
  • Github Pages
  • Kubernetes/Helm
  • Docker
  • AWS
  • Docs-as-Code/DocOps
  • Diataxis
  • API References
  • Collaboration and Design
  • Agile Methodologies

Recent Work Experience

Camunda

Technical Writer, Self-Managed (May 2024 - Present)

Served as the primary technical writer for all Self-Managed product documentation, working in an embedded capacity across multiple engineering teams to streamline content updates and improve information accuracy, accessibility, and organization

Designed an updated information architecture for the Camunda Self-Managed documentation pillar, better reflecting the product experience, expected user journey, and existing onboarding flow

Determined documentation requirements for an internal architecture redesign, implementing a phased plan to perform updates alongside incremental feature delivery and across separate team workflows

Collaborated with SMEs and project stakeholders to document new features and functionality for multiple Camunda releases and products

Refreshed existing content according to a Diataxis framework, refactoring and updating guides and project information architecture for modern audiences and multiple personas, reducing the technical knowledge required for product deployment and management

Acted as the documentation manager for both minor and patch product releases, coordinating release notes, change announcements, and time-sensitive production deployments

Implemented weekly team meetings for capacity planning, issue triage, and standards discussion, including backlog review and skill sharing, creating additional workload visibility and educational opportunities while reducing triage and implementation time

Peer-reviewed and managed change requests for team, internal, and external contributors according to internal style guidelines, providing both constructive feedback and direct edits to achieve a unified voice across products

BeyondTrust

Technical Writer (Jan. 2023 - Mar. 2024)

Modernized content delivery and deployment methods, introducing additional branch-based automations, linting, and link testing to existing DevOps pipelines in Github and Buddy, reducing publishing time and deployment complexity

Created new agile development processes and project tracking initiatives, evaluating gaps in team knowledge to design internal training opportunities and reduce skill and knowledge siloing

Designed a cross-functional education plan to promote team enablement and development, training multiple teammates on content delivery pipelines, Git methodologies, and CLI tools

Led research into AI and automation implementations to improve content development times and reduce manual editorial processes

Coordinated documentation and annotation efforts to drive Gartner Magic Quadrant reporting, with BeyondTrust named a 2023 Leader in Privileged Access Management

Ethyca

Technical Writer (Jan. 2022 - Jan. 2023)

Led an update of product documentation and deployment methods, including the migration of content between existing Mkdocs and Vercel pipelines, Nextra markdown development, and a refactored information architecture

Authored feature documentation for both open-source software and paid product offerings, reducing the barrier of entry for new users and increasing customer retention

Produced key training manuals for high-profile client acquisition and marquee brands, including usage instructions for proof-of-concept tools and novel application architectures

Created an internal policies and procedures manual to align documentation updates with marketing strategies and engineering releases, allowing for the coordination of cross-division feature launches

Ensured SOC 2 audit compliance with regular, comprehensive product updates, working with security teams to deliver up-to-date release reports and communicate on vulnerabilities

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance

Software Engineer (May 2019 - Jan. 2022)

Designed and developed the API for a Golang RDS microservice used to store and access subscription renewal records, including the successful migration of key legacy data

Led implementation on existing product enhancements, allowing product owners to customize desired features per product version through site-embedded dashboards

Developed a Golang event-listener Lambda to integrate third-party email automations with current and future microservices, reducing reliance on deprecated legacy software

Independently researched and implemented an AWS-backed streaming pipeline for storing event records published by internal microservices, assisting in audit compliance, error logging, and incident triage

Coordinated a campaign to raise company-wide awareness of personal pronouns and gender identity, creating a cross-departmental resource hub and associated presentation