Resume - Chris Gardiner-Bill

Senior technical writer specialising in docs as code

Profile Link to heading

A senior technical writer and trainer with an exceptional blend of documentation and technical abilities. Significant experience producing high-quality documentation and training material for technical, business and generalist audiences across APAC and the EU.

Broad industry participation including manufacturing, banking and financial services, engineering services, software development, sports tech, analytics and publishing sectors. A specialist in docs as code using Git, Markdown, AsciiDoc, static site generators, and CI/CD to automate and rapidly publish docs to market at scale, while minimising the costs of production and improving quality.

Key skills Link to heading

Technical Documentation · Technical Writing · Editing · Docs as Code · Training · Instructional Design · Proposal Writing · Collaboration Tools (JIRA, Confluence, Slack) · Problem Solving · Automation · API Testing · Project Management · Agile · Scrum · CI/CD

Professional Experience Link to heading

Technical Writer, Specialized Bicycle Components, 2020-2023 Link to heading

Documented and published an extensive suite of API documentation using Markdown and MkDocs.

Worked with, and provided technical support to customers, customer support personnel, subject matter experts, and developers
Provided operational, testing, debugging, and documentation support to DevOps and engineering teams across Specialized teams across the globe.

Achievements: Link to heading

Greenfield position - created an extensive documentation suite for 6 API services including Zone 5 Cloud/Today’s Plan, Bike Registration and Turbo Settings Services, Events Service, Point of Sale Service (Oracle bridge) and Identity Service (for Chinese deployment rollout)
Developed an automated technical publishing system, optimised for Specialized’s AngularJS-based portal, built to host current and future API documentation suites.
Developed Python utility to convert OpenAPI (Swagger) files to MkDocs compatible Markdown, significantly reducing time to market.
Developed bespoke API integration solutions for elite coaching businesses including Purple Patch Fitness, Dylan Johnson Training, Brownlee Brothers, Guided Heroes, and the German National Cycling Team (Bora Hansgrohe).
Developed Postman test collections containing over a 1000 endpoints, which the DevOps team adopted for API deployment testing.

Skills demonstrated in this role Link to heading

AWS · WordPress · Technical Writing · API Documentation · Editing · Content Management · Testing · Web Development · Proofreading · Technical Documentation · Web Applications · Copy Editing · HTML · CSS · JavaScript · PHP · MySQL · Python · Markdown · Git · MkDocs

Technical Writer and Product Trainer, Equifax Australia, 2014-2020 Link to heading

Developed product documentation, release notes and training material for the DecisionPoint 3 credit decisioning platform.

Worked with customers to tailor training material according to business requirements.
Delivered on-site and remote product training to customer technical and subject matter experts.
Worked with product owners, developers, business analysts, and subject matter experts.
Supported Delivery team, client solution consultants, and customer personnel.

Achievements Link to heading

Developed an automated, single-source publishing system using GIT, AsciiDoctor and PrinceXML to produce, update and rebrand technical manuals and training material at scale, rapidly.
Automated JIRA (team’s source of truth) using Python to build and deploy release notes.
Single-handedly managed a suite of 1000s of technical documents from a single Git repository, eliminating the need for a team of writers.
Developed a customer training programme delivered to clients across Australia including ANZ, Ubank, MeBank, Toyota, Nissan, Bank West, and MyState Bank
Rebranded the entire documentation suite (twice) in under an hour using CSS.

Skills demonstrated in this role Link to heading

Technical Writing · Software Documentation · Editing · Content Management · Testing · Web Development · Proofreading · Technical Documentation · Web Applications · Copy Editing · HTML · XML · CSS · JavaScript · Python · Ruby · Product Training · Asciidoctor · Markdown · Git · Linux

Technical Writer, Broadspectrum, 2010-2014 Link to heading

Wrote, edited and produced responses to tender for the Infrastructure ANZ business covering Water and Electrical industries. Worked with subject matter experts, engineers, proposal managers, and graphic designers.

Achievements Link to heading

Lead writer and editor of successful tenders including, SP AusNet Project Alpha, Gippsland Water M&E, and the Northern Victorian Irrigation Project.
Developed automated Word templates (using VBA) to improve efficiency and consistency of tender documents.
Wrote a library of content as part of the Proposals Central initiative, enabling project teams to respond to tenders for smaller projects cost effectively and rapidly.

Skills demonstrated in this role Link to heading

Technical Writing · Project Management · Proposal Writing · Editing · Content Management · Proofreading · Technical Documentation · Marketing Communications · Copy Editing · Visio · Microsoft Word · MS Project · Microsoft Office · VBA

Prior roles Link to heading

Technical Writer, ANZ Banking Group, Australia
Technical Author, NorthgateArinso, United Kingdom
Technical Author, Radiodetection Ltd, United Kingdom
Technical Writer, Rutledge Engineering, Australia
Editorial Assistant, John Wiley and Sons, Australia

Volunteer work Link to heading

Information Technology Officer, Tarralla Kindergarten, 2021-2022

Education Link to heading

Diploma of Project Management, Institute of Management, Australia.
Master of Arts (M.A.), The University of Melbourne, Australia.
Bachelor of Arts (Hons.), The University of Melbourne, Australia

Technical skills Link to heading

Technical documentation, API and software documentation, docs as code
Product training, instructional design, proposal writing
Markdown, MkDocs, Asciidoc, Asciidoctor, YAML
Python, JavaScript, JSON, VueJS, PHP, HTML/CSS, Bash
WordPress, WordPress Plugin development, Ghost, Static Site Generators (Hugo, Gatsby, Pelican, Jekyll)
DevOps, AWS, Git, CI/CD, REST API testing, Postman, Databases (MySQL, MongoDB), Linux
VS Code, Office 365, Google Docs, Adobe Creative Suite, Affinity Suite

Personal projects Link to heading

ChrisRosser.net: Under the nom de plume, Chris Rosser, I write and serialise fantasy stories to an audience of 350 subscribers
Medium: An occasional blog on technical subjects that take my fancy and publish them to Medium.
Rosser’s Reads: Bookshelf app to track and display books I’ve read, want to read and currently reading, created in VueJS V3 and deployed to Netlify. Source code available on GitHub.
Nexus 3: A project to help table-top roleplayers find games. I’m the lead (and only) developer. The backend is written in Python (using FastAPI) and the front-end is an Single-Page Application written in VueJS.