What is the Average Senior Technical Writer Salary?
The work environment and the pay scale are the most significant factors for any job position. However, as documentation, manual guides, and technical writing become an integral part of the sales funnel, senior technical writers gradually dominate the industry. And their senior technical writer salary directly reflects this increase in responsibility.
The job nature is progressive and comes with great incentives. So people, especially software and data engineers or anyone with a technical or teaching background, are getting more inclined to become senior technical writers.
Certain factors, such as experience, location, education, and others, affect senior technical writer salaries. According to Glassdoor, the median annual wage for a senior technical writer is $134,000.
Keep reading for a useful senior technical writer’s salary insight and the factors that affect it.
Factors That Influence the Senior Technical Writer’s Salary
Senior technical writers are responsible for curating articles for inline journals, magazines, and publications, writing and editing manuals, offering development services, creating user-friendly documentation, and other innovative projects. This senior-level designation also implies that they assign, supervise, review and edit the work of junior technical writers for accuracy.
A senior technical writer possesses expertise in various fields, including computer software, hardware, engineering, and other professional or industrial disciplines. To earn more and reach the higher end of the writer’s salary, they must be well-versed in the subject matter and leverage creative technology. Additionally, technical writers must develop fluency and expertise in the terminology and jargon specific to their field.
A senior technical writer can work for software companies, publications, journals, and medical equipment specialists, ranging from startup positions to high-end roles.
Here are the major factors that affect the pay scale of senior technical writer employees.
Senior Technical Writer Salary by Education
The level of education of the candidates affects their average salaries as senior technical writers, as well as the additional cash compensation.
Salary.com reported a yearly salary for a senior technical writer with a bachelor’s degree to be approximately $93,033 to $98,148 per year.
Senior Technical Writer Salary by Experience
The average salary for a senior technical writer increases exponentially with experience. By working for years with multi-national teams in a dynamic and inclusive culture, creating innovative content, leveraging legal technology, and providing easy-to-understand documentation for commercial customers, a talented technical writer create uniquely impactful experiences in the industry.
An experienced senior technical writer who has achieved unicorn status makes a higher average base salary than a recent senior technical writer who just got into the documentation team.
- A senior technical writer for a candidate with 1-3 years of experience with an average total compensation, including the bonus, overtime pay, and tips, is approximately $98,417 annually.
- In their mid-career, a senior technical writer with 3-5 years of experience can make around $100,103 yearly salary.
- With 5-7 years of experience, a senior technical writer earns a yearly salary of $117,162.
Senior Technical Writer Salary by Location in the U.S.
The location of the employees also affects the average salary and compensation for a senior technical writer. If you are a part of the freelance or online community, you would not have to worry about it.
The bigger cities or the leading global provider of the US pay well to their employees, but the high living and transportation costs can be a downside.
You can check the top ten senior technical writer salaries by location in the US. The majority of cities are in California.
Senior Technical Writer Salary by Company Size
The average base salary and compensation for a senior technical writer also depend on the company’s size.
As per many reports, senior technical writers make the most at small-sized companies, typically with 11-50 employees. However, as the company grows and adds more members to various teams, such as the documentation team and marketing team, they tend to decrease the pay scale to compensate for the additional salaries.
To understand the salary by company size, here is a breakdown:
- 1-10 employees: $116,269 annually
- 11-50 employees: $128,000 annually
- 51-200 employees: $94,683 annually
- 201-500 employees: $93,493 annually
- 501- 1,000 employees: $105,917 annually
- Above 1,000 employees: $93,067 annually
Senior Technical Writer Salary by Location, Globally
If you are not in the US, planning to immigrate, or working remotely, it is essential to know the global median salary of a senior technical writer.
- Australia– A$115,000 per year
- United Kingdom– £52,000 per year
- Ireland– €76,000 per year
- Germany – €67,000 per year
- Netherlands – €97,000 per year
- Japan– ¥6,520,000 per year
- France – €64,000 per year
- Brazil – R$120,000 per year
- Poland – zł133,000 per year
Senior Technical Writer Salary by Skills
The expertise of a passionate technical writer influence industry in a positive way. As they continuously learn, they can better enable commercial customers with lucrative outcomes.
Certain mainstream skills affect senior technical writer salaries with a positive impact. The better skills any technical writer has, the more they can earn.
Some skills that you must acquire to land better jobs include:
- Content strategy
- Analytical research
- Editing and proofreading
- Basic prototyping
- Technical writing (for diverse and in-demand niches like molecular science and human health)
- Content marketing
- Agile product development
- SQL- Structure query language
With these skills up their sleeve, the senior technical writer reported earning 13.5% more than other technical writers.
Salaries for Senior Technical Writer Career Path
The senior technical writer’s salaries can move up or down the ladder, depending on the factors discussed. Therefore, it is important to understand the career path to prevent moving down a level.
Here is the senior technical writer career path, alongside their average salaries:
Junior Technical Writer
The junior technical writer has a bachelor’s degree with no experience. Yet, they earn up to $99,000 per year.
Technical Product Documentation Manager
Technical product documentation writer IV with a bachelor’s degree and experience of 7+ years. For this job title, the technical writer’s median salary is $110,000.
Senior Technical Writer Jobs in the US
If you are struggling to find startup jobs, here are some companies that offer jobs online (you can work as an anonymous senior technical writer as well) and on-site.
With over 1,000 employees working remotely, these jobs offer a good average technical writer salary. You can also use the open search join log to hunt for a suitable job in the relevant industry.
Conclusion
It is important to understand the job title and pay scale before joining any industry as a senior technical writer.
To earn a good annual income, save yourself from getting underpaid, build a rewarding career in the industry, learn the total compensation for a Senior Technical Writer, the average base salary, and the other pay elements. Next, understand how your salary is adjusted based on skills and experience. Lastly, acknowledge the salary you must get for a certain job title.
