Experience

Em Heinz

they/them/theirs

Manager • Documentation Engineer • Technical Writer

I pursue quality achieved collaboratively. I strive to empower the people I work with to do their best work, to grow, and to feel satisfied in their work. I am a voracious learner, and a big fan of unconventional approaches to problem solving.

CoreWeave, Inc. – New York (Remote)

Managing Editor

January 2024 - Present

As Managing Editor at CoreWeave, I interface primarily with key stakeholders across Engineering, Product, and Marketing teams to ensure that crucial product documentation is produced on time and achieving our high standards. I strive to ensure my team feels heard and supported so that they may succeed and thrive. I continue to generate and edit product documentation across HPC, ML/AI, and VFX spaces using docs-as-code workflows and implementing the DITA framework Diátaxis.

Senior Technical Writer

June 2022 - January 2024

As the sole technical writer at the time, I took on the task of editing and re-structuring all existing public-facing documentation, simultaneously generating new articles while implementing the first formal lifecycle processes for all product documentation. I wore the hat of project manager, product manager, and technical writer, all rolled into one.

Bolt, Inc. – New York (Remote)

Technical Writer

June 2021 - October 2022

Hired as the second ever technical writing team member, I helped develop the documentation lifecycle processes at a fast-paced fintech company. Using Hugo hosted on Netlify in concert with Swagger CLI, I documented APIs, platform user flows, UX and UI elements, as well as internal documentation on data privacy and general procedure. Additionally, I helped head up the internal queer affiliate group, organizing happy hours focusing on the queer-identifying members of the company, while maintaining an open and accepting atmosphere.

Independent initiatives included developing automated systems for docs-as-code workflows, introducing a systematized pipeline in support of processes that resulted in improved cross-collaboration between Customer Education and all other teams (Engineering, Product, and Marketing).

Fairwinds, Inc. – Boston (Remote)

Site Reliability Engineer

December 2019 - June 2021

As a Site Reliability Engineer and Kubernetes consultant at Fairwinds, I built, managed, and improved upon production Kubernetes clusters for clients around the world. I conferred with clients in order to understand their infrastructure needs, then aided in the design and implementation of the appropriate configurations across EKS, AWS (with kOps), GKE, and AKS providers. I served as Security Officer, researching current security bulletins related to digital infrastructure and Kubernetes in order to develop internal and client-facing communication on vulnerabilities. I contributed code for internally developed Terraform modules and other tooling written in Python and Bash.

Taking on additional responsibilities, I aided in the development of team processes and org structure for developing scalable, repeatable, dependable operations across the engineering department. Additionally, I headed up internal learning and employee development programs, and was asked by leadership to represent my team in several key meetings. I took ownership of the internal knowledgebase and internal technical wiki, and instigated the adoption of an internal RFC process for making department-wide decisions and proposals for advancing our technical standards.

Fractured Atlas – New York (Remote)

DevOps Engineer

2018 - 2019

Acted as primary support for team leadership. Performed research and testing, aided in containerizing applications, and orchestrated containers using Docker Compose and later Kubernetes.

Manually administered Linux infrastructure across CentOS and Ubuntu environments. Researched and implemented solutions for product software. Researched and learned about Solr clusters for search capabilities. Managed operations-critical software, such as LDAP and Windows machines running financial software.Facilitated the onboarding of macOS management Jamf Pro across the organization, acting as a technical connection point between Jamf representatives and internal management.

Personal projects

Stealthcloud

2018

An experimental series of Ansible roles designed to provision a basic Nextcloud instance onto a Tor Hidden Service.

I/O

2017-2020

As an off-shoot of the Tech Learning Collective, I/O was a neighborhood tech co-working space and open hack lab hosted in the beautiful old venue of The Footlight music hall in Ridgewood, Queens. Each week opened our doors for anyone to bring their projects, ideas, give a talk or demo, and so on - all while enjoying the local musical residency in the other part of the space.

Hacker Brunch

2017

Using the unclaimed produce from a local farm CSA, I co-organized a weekly event, where free brunch foods were cooked and served to all participants in attendance. Students used CTF hacking games to learn cybersecurity fundamentals, with instruction from knowledgeable leaders.

Flora Posidonia & The Healer's Flea

2018

I produced my own fully functional Web store for selling products such as teas and tinctures at in-person fleas. I leveraged the same organizing infrastructure to organize a "flea market" full of local creators, crafters,

The Neighborhood Digital Library Project

2017-2020

Inspired by the Equitable Internet Initiative of the Detroit Community Technology Project, I worked with network engineers and other sysadmins in the hopes of leveraging the NYC Mesh project to connect several Raspberry Pis hosted locally in different small businesses throughout the New York neighborhood of Ridgewood, Queens, with the goal of serving free, DRM-free books on a neighborhood-wide intranet. The curiosity was driven by wanting to provide valuable resources by focusing on the intranet inherent in building Internet infrastructure.

Co-Founder & Lead Community Organizer of Tech Learning Collective

2017 - 2021

Co-founded an independent school, providing high-quality technical education with a focus on accessibility for underrepresented identities in tech.

Co-organized the Hackers Next Door conference, a two-day conference featuring speakers from organizations representing digital freedom, such as the Tor Project, Freedom of the Press Foundation, Black Movement-Law Project, the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, Calyx Institute, and many more.

Independently designed and implemented virtual structures in which students and alumni could connect and continue their independent projects.

Education

Parsons the New School for Design, New York — BFA Photography

With an emphasis on the philosophy of art, aesthetics, and moral and ethical philosophy. Graduated with Honors

Languages (human)

English | Native
Norwegian/Norsk | Advanced
Spanish/Español | Conversational
French/Français | Basic
Irish/Gaelige | Beginner

Languages (programming)

Python
Ruby
JavaScript
Golang