Senior Technical Editor/Writer

Aaron Cardinale

303-***-**** ● *****.*********@*******.*** ● Erie, Colorado

Accomplished Technical Editor/Writer, Corporate Trainer, and Support Specialist who successfully transitioned from a highly technical test and support background, to presently using a passion for powerful composition to create brilliant technical documentation as well as creative and engaging brand strategy, thus ensuring complete customer knowledge, understanding, and loyalty.

Professional experience

Invidi Technologies – Senior Technical Editor May 2009 – January 2015

As Senior Technical Editor for Invidi, coordinated a team of writers producing Invidi's technical documentation, including product manuals, functional specifications, release notes/bug reports, and product bulletins. Also responsible for coordinating all writing projects and planning future content.

As Editor, ensured all technical documentation conformed to The IBM Style Guide while retaining the Invidi branding. Created an internal style guide that collected all the Cable/Telecommunication industry jargon which was used companywide for all external customer communications and helped shorten the new hire learning curve by effectively defining our company's voice.

Helped transition the Technical Communications department from traditional technical document creation using Microsoft Word and Adobe FrameMaker, to a full DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) authoring/publishing process. This enabled us to streamline our content creation by building our products around XML topics that could be reused across multiple publications, making content revision faster and more efficient.

As Technical Writer for Invidi, planned, authored, and coded XML and HTML based technical documentation for delivery to the customer through an online portal, which was then used to complete a major revamp of Invidi's entire technical documentation and to migrate all legacy content into XML-based topics using the Oxygen XML editor. Responsible for maintaining all content in our DocZone content management environment.

Involved in a pilot project to transition Invidi to a product development and release cycle that follows the Agile software development method, became well versed in all facets of the Agile development methodology including the Kanban system and SCRUM management.

Comcast Spotlight – Senior Test Engineer April 2007 – May 2009

Digital Ad Insertion: Tested and monitored SeaChange and C-Cor/Arris Digital Ad Insertion systems. Upgraded and integrated new software/hardware into existing insertion system. Encoded new MPEG video content to test various functions of the insertion system.

Video Splicing: Performed video splicing and multiplexing on both Bigband Networks’ BMR and Motorola’s Cherrypicker platforms and configured tests on these systems in correlation with ad insertion products or for standalone multiplexing and aggregation use.

Advanced Testing: Created and tested ETV enabled ads on SeaChange and C-Cor insertion systems. Tested and qualified Set-top box control and response, including Motorola, General Instruments, Pace, and Scientific Atlanta.

Spectralink – Wireless Programmer April 2006 – April 2007

Programmed Spectralink Voice over IP (VoIP) wireless phones and servers as well as remote troubleshooting and upgrading of Spectralink software and code.

Certified compatibility of Spectralink Telephony Gateways with customers existing PBX system. Submitted status and bug reports based on testing of Spectralink hardware to engineering.

Redbox Automated Retail LLC / McDonald’s Corporation Nov 2004 – April 2006

Diagnosed and repaired the Redbox Automated DVD Rental Kiosk. Including the internal PC, customer input system, cooling unit, DVD carousel, and DVD distribution mechanism

Loaded the weekly DVD titles into machine and placed new artwork into the lightbox and cleaned the machine to ensure its presentation is consistent with Redbox/McDonald’s standards.

IBM Global Services - Hardware Support Specialist June 2003 - Nov 2004

Performed top-tier support to diagnose customer problems related to IBM controlled bank and financial equipment. Maintained call history using the Remedy Action Request System to track and monitor all hardware related issues.

Facilitated the delivery of replacement equipment and coordinated and dispatched IBM Technicians. Remotely assist onsite Technician in Problem Determination and Resolution.

Arris / nCUBE / Skyconnect, Inc. Oct 1998 - June 2003

Technical Support: Performed troubleshooting on nCUBE’s Digital Ad Insertion and Video on Demand (VOD) systems to remotely troubleshoot and remedy software and network related problems.

Field Installation: Installed and configured UNIX based Digital Ad Insertion gear and Cable Headend equipment including Alpha servers, satellite receivers, modulators, video switches, and Wegner cards. Tested Cable equipment using multi-meters, waveform monitors and spectrum analyzers.

Customer/Employee Training: Trained customers on the use of the nCUBE Digital Ad Insertion system. Refined nCUBE’s internal training strategy into a more structured system resulting in more effective and efficient new-hire training.

Technical Writing: Authored and updated operation manual dealing with the Vela MPEG-2 video encoding software.

Project Manager: Technical Account Manager for nCUBE’s largest Ad Insertion customer, Charter Communications. Tracked and delegated all issues originating at Charter and developed techniques to proactively monitor nCUBE’s Insertion equipment.

Video Encoding: Mastered various MPEG editing/encoding systems to become the point-man on all MPEG related customer issues and provided in-house training to other nCUBE employees.

Technical knowledge

Operating Systems: Microsoft Windows, UNIX, Red Hat Linux, Ubuntu, and Sun Solaris.

Knowledge of XML, HTML, Java, Microsoft SQL Server, and VMWare.

Technical communication applications: Microsoft Office and Visio, Adobe (FrameMaker, PhotoShop, RoboHelp, Captivate, Presenter, Acrobat), Oxygen XML editor, Atlassian software suite (Jira, Confluence, Fisheye), Subversion file repository, and various other office and email apps.

Cable Digital Ad Insertion Proprietary Software: included asset management, content distribution, real-time video monitoring, Unix-based system configuration, and MPEG Encoding software.

Education

University of Phoenix (online) - currently seeking degree.

Front Range Community College of Westminster - 1996-1998, core class content.

Erie High School - Diploma received May 1995.

Professional references and salary requirements available upon request

Contact this candidate