Top 12 Senior Technical Writer Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today’s crowded hiring arena, a Senior Technical Writer rises above the noise by pairing sharp prose with sturdy technical judgment. Put your strongest tools where they’ll be seen, and make each skill earn its space. Clear, credible, current.

Senior Technical Writer Skills

1. Markdown
2. DITA
3. XML
4. API Documentation
5. Git
6. Jira
7. Confluence
8. MadCap Flare
9. Adobe FrameMaker
10. Snagit
11. RoboHelp
12. Visio

1. Markdown

Markdown is a lightweight markup syntax for formatting plain text that converts cleanly to HTML and other outputs. Simple, readable, portable.

Why It's Important

It speeds content creation, keeps source human-friendly, and fits into modern doc pipelines and static site generators without fuss.

How to Improve Markdown Skills

1. Know the flavors: CommonMark, GitHub Flavored Markdown, and platform extensions differ. Learn what your stack supports.

2. Master links, images, and code: Inline links use [text](URL "optional title"). Favor fenced code blocks and syntax hints for snippets.

3. Structure with intent: Use headings, lists, and tables sparingly but precisely. One H1 per page, logical hierarchy after that.

4. Lint and preview: Use a linter (markdownlint) and a live preview in your editor to catch formatting drift early.

5. Blend HTML only when needed: Drop to HTML for edge cases, but keep the source tidy and consistent.

6. Set a style guide: Decide on conventions (heading case, link text, code formatting) and stick to them.

7. Automate: Wire Markdown builds into CI for broken-link checks, spellcheck, and style validation.

Good Markdown reads like it was meant to be read as-is. Let the format disappear and the content shine.

How to Display Markdown Skills on Your Resume

2. DITA

DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) is an XML-based standard for topic-based authoring, content reuse, and multi-channel publishing.

Why It's Important

It brings order to complex documentation sets—single sourcing, profiling, and modularity that scale across products and audiences.

How to Improve DITA Skills

1. Specialize thoughtfully: Extend base types only when necessary, with governance to prevent sprawl.

2. Reuse with intent: Apply conref, keyref, and maps to eliminate duplication and centralize truth.

3. Profile content: Use conditional attributes to target platforms, roles, or versions from one source.

4. Design smart maps: Structure maps and submaps for assembly and maintenance, not just output.

5. Standardize metadata: Enforce consistent metadata for findability and downstream automation.

6. DITA-OT proficiency: Build, customize, and parameterize outputs efficiently; version your pipelines.

7. Team discipline: Define naming, foldering, review flows, and validation rules; measure and refine.

DITA pays dividends when rules are clear, reuse is deliberate, and builds are predictable.

How to Display DITA Skills on Your Resume

3. XML

XML (eXtensible Markup Language) structures data with tags and attributes so humans and machines can exchange it reliably.

Why It's Important

It offers schema-backed structure, interoperability, and validation—handy for large doc systems, APIs, and imports/exports.

How to Improve XML Skills

1. Schema first: Define XSDs that reflect reality, then validate continuously.

2. Namespaces: Use them to avoid collisions and keep vocabularies tidy.

3. Readable tagging: Choose clear, consistent element and attribute names; document them.

4. Formatting discipline: Indent, order attributes consistently, and keep comments purposeful.

5. XPath/XSLT fluency: Query and transform confidently for reporting and output customization.

6. Performance awareness: Favor simple, predictable structures for faster parsing and smaller payloads.

7. Versioning: Embed version metadata; manage changes so producers and consumers stay in sync.

Clean XML removes surprises. Messy XML multiplies them.

How to Display XML Skills on Your Resume

4. API Documentation

API documentation explains endpoints, parameters, models, auth, errors, and workflows so developers can integrate without guesswork.

Why It's Important

Strong docs cut support load, shorten integration time, and raise adoption. Bad docs do the opposite, loudly.

How to Improve API Documentation Skills

1. Start with a map: Clear overview, common concepts, and a quickstart that succeeds in minutes.

2. Specify precisely: Use OpenAPI for schemas; keep requests, responses, and examples aligned with reality.

3. Show real use: Provide runnable samples, Postman collections, and language variants where it counts.

4. Explain auth: Document OAuth, API keys, scopes, and token lifecycles with stepwise instructions.

5. Make it navigable: Consistent endpoint pages, robust search, and scannable tables of contents.

6. Interactive where possible: Offer try-it consoles or sandboxes with safe defaults.

7. Version and deprecate: Changelogs, migration guides, and firm timelines to avoid breaking users.

8. Measure and iterate: Track top searches, friction points, and support trends; fix the hotspots first.

If developers can’t ship with your docs, they’ll ship around them—or not at all.

How to Display API Documentation Skills on Your Resume

5. Git

Git is a distributed version control system that tracks changes, enables branching and merging, and preserves history across teams.

Why It's Important

Docs deserve the same rigor as code. Git brings traceability, review, and safe experimentation to documentation.

How to Improve Git Skills

1. Commit with intent: Small, descriptive commits; conventional messages; meaningful branches.

2. Rebase and cherry-pick: Keep history clean and move fixes precisely without chaos.

3. Rescue skills: Learn reflog, bisect, and stash to recover fast when things go sideways.

4. Hooks and CI: Lint, test links, and build docs automatically before merges land.

5. Resolve conflicts well: Practice merge strategies and tools; prefer text-friendly formats for content.

6. Use visual tools when helpful: GUIs like Sourcetree or GitKraken can clarify complex histories.

7. Workflow agreements: Define review rules, protection on main branches, and release tagging.

Fluent Git makes collaboration calm. Inexpert Git makes a mess.

How to Display Git Skills on Your Resume

6. Jira

Jira is a work management and issue tracking platform used to plan, track, and report across agile and non‑agile projects.

Why It's Important

It anchors documentation tasks to product work, clarifies priorities, and exposes progress to stakeholders without hallway chasing.

How to Improve Jira Skills

1. Tailor workflows: Reflect draft, review, approve, and publish states; add transitions that mirror reality.

2. Template issues: Standardize fields, definitions of done, and checklists for repeatable doc requests.

3. JQL mastery: Build saved filters for triage, dependencies, and release tracking.

4. Automate routine: Auto-assign, set due dates, and post reminders based on labels or components.

5. Dashboards that matter: Surface SLAs, blockers, and upcoming releases in one glance.

6. Connect the ecosystem: Link issues to Confluence pages and code repos so context is one click away.

7. Permissions and roles: Keep access tight, comments constructive, and notifications meaningful.

When Jira mirrors your process, work flows. When it doesn’t, people bypass it.

How to Display Jira Skills on Your Resume

7. Confluence

Confluence is a collaborative workspace for creating, organizing, and sharing documentation and knowledge.

Why It's Important

It centralizes truths, accelerates reviews, and makes institutional memory searchable instead of tribal.

How to Improve Confluence Skills

1. Space hygiene: Clear hierarchies, sensible page names, and labels that actually mean something.

2. Templates and blueprints: Prebuild structures for release notes, RFCs, and runbooks.

3. Findability first: Write scannable titles, summaries, and headings; link related pages.

4. Review rituals: Use comments, @mentions, and tasks; close the loop with page status and owners.

5. Media that helps: Diagrams, short clips, and screenshots when words alone get muddy.

6. Lifecycle management: Sunset stale content on a schedule; archive or delete decisively.

7. Measure use: Track views and search terms to spot gaps; fix the most-read pages first.

A tidy Confluence space is a gift to everyone who lands there at 4:59 p.m. looking for an answer.

How to Display Confluence Skills on Your Resume

8. MadCap Flare

MadCap Flare is a help authoring tool for creating, managing, and publishing multi-channel documentation with strong single-sourcing.

Why It's Important

It handles complex doc sets, multiple outputs, and conditional content without duplicating effort.

How to Improve MadCap Flare Skills

1. Single-source like a pro: Snippets, variables, and conditions as your default—not your afterthought.

2. Design with CSS: Own your stylesheets and skins; keep themes consistent across outputs.

3. Project structure: Organize topics, media, and TOCs for reuse and clarity; name with intent.

4. Templates and master pages: Enforce layout standards and reduce formatting churn.

5. Automate builds: Use targets, build events, and external scripts to generate predictable outputs.

6. Version control: Integrate Git or SVN and branch for releases; review with diffs, not inboxes.

7. Search and analytics: Tune search synonyms, metadata, and gather usage insights from deployed docs.

Flare rewards planning. A little architecture up front saves hours later.

How to Display MadCap Flare Skills on Your Resume

9. Adobe FrameMaker

Adobe FrameMaker is a robust authoring and publishing tool for large, complex documents—structured (DITA/XML) and unstructured alike.

Why It's Important

It brings industrial-strength control to long content: templates, advanced pagination, and precise output.

How to Improve Adobe FrameMaker Skills

1. Exploit structure: Use EDDs, DITA/XML, and templates to eliminate manual fiddling.

2. Conditional content: Variables, conditional text, and cross-references to manage variants cleanly.

3. Automate: Script repetitive steps with ExtendScript; record processes and make them push-button.

4. Master formatting: Paragraph/character catalogs, tables, and reference pages—consistency over heroics.

5. Book management: Control numbering, TOCs, and indices across sprawling books without breaking links.

6. Publish smart: Tune PDF/HTML outputs with presets; proof with preflight checks.

7. Stay current: Keep up with releases and plugin ecosystems that boost workflow speed.

FrameMaker shines when you push work from ad hoc to systematized.

How to Display Adobe FrameMaker Skills on Your Resume

10. Snagit

Snagit captures screens and short videos, then lets you annotate, highlight, and package visuals for documentation.

Why It's Important

Clear visuals cut through dense instructions and reduce “what am I looking at?” moments.

How to Improve Snagit Skills

1. Presets and profiles: Create capture presets for common tasks (region + cursor off, timed delay, fixed size).

2. Brand and theme: Build quick styles for arrows, callouts, and step numbers; keep a consistent look.

3. Templates for guides: Use step-by-step and comparison templates to assemble tidy visuals fast.

4. Batch efficiency: Batch resize, rename, and export; keep libraries tagged and searchable.

5. Precision edits: Leverage Simplify, blur, and magnify to focus attention and protect sensitive data.

6. Hotkeys and destinations: Memorize shortcuts; wire exports to your doc repo, wiki, or ticket system.

7. Video microdemos: Record short loops with captions for tricky flows that screenshots can’t capture.

Great screenshots aren’t taken; they’re produced.

How to Display Snagit Skills on Your Resume

11. RoboHelp

RoboHelp is Adobe’s tool for building help systems, policies and procedures, and knowledge bases with responsive HTML outputs.

Why It's Important

It lets you craft modern, searchable help with content reuse and polished themes—without reinventing infrastructure.

How to Improve RoboHelp Skills

1. Design for reuse: Snippets, variables, and conditions first; duplication never.

2. Audience targeting: Dynamic content filters and responsive layouts to tailor by role, platform, or device.

3. Navigation that works: TOCs, indices, and glossaries tuned to how users actually search.

4. Search tuning: Synonyms, stop words, and metadata for better findability.

5. Media wisely: Embed short video, GIFs, and annotated images to demystify complex steps.

6. Release discipline: Version your projects, automate builds, and keep a steady changelog.

7. Feedback loop: Add ratings or feedback channels and use the data to iterate.

The best help feels invisible—users just get what they came for and move on.

How to Display RoboHelp Skills on Your Resume

12. Visio

Microsoft Visio is a diagramming tool for flowcharts, architecture diagrams, org charts, network maps, and more.

Why It's Important

Diagrams tame sprawling systems and processes into something people can actually follow.

How to Improve Visio Skills

1. Custom stencils and templates: Build reusable shapes and page setups that match your domain.

2. Data‑linked visuals: Bind shapes to data sources so diagrams reflect live information.

3. Layer the complexity: Use layers to reveal just the right level of detail for each audience.

4. Standards and styles: Enforce line types, colors, and text rules for instant legibility.

5. Speed tools: Learn connectors, alignment, grouping, and keyboard shortcuts to move fast without slop.

Good diagrams explain. Great ones persuade.

How to Display Visio Skills on Your Resume