Alisa Atkinson
TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LEADERSHIP · INCIDENT MANAGEMENT · SRE
Harmony, FL 34773·
(321) 313-2593·
technicalwriter@alisaatkinson.com·
linkedin.com/in/alisa-atkinson-658848b3·
alisaatkinson.com
Professional Summary
Operations leader with a 10+ year career spanning technical writing, SRE, and operational leadership across SaaS and enterprise environments. Owns end-to-end operational strategy for 28 SaaS products and leads a 17-person distributed team spanning SRE, Live Operations, and Technical Writing, with a 24/6 Live Operations function and defined SLAs. Proven track record reducing MTTR, scaling teams, automating workflows, and maintaining compliance across SOC 2, ISO 27001, and CFPB frameworks. Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. New Relic Verified Foundation certified. Bilingual (English/French). Active Secret Clearance eligible.
Core Competencies
- Operations Strategy & Execution
- Incident Management & MTTR Reduction
- Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
- Change Management & CAB Governance
- Live Operations & SLA Management
- Vendor & SaaS Management
- Process Improvement & Automation
- Performance Monitoring & Capacity Planning
- Security & Compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001, CFPB)
- Team Leadership & Organizational Scaling
- Azure DevOps (ADO) · New Relic
- Agile / Scrum
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt · Bilingual (English / French)
Work Experience
Associate Director, Incident & Technical Writing (Tech Ops)
July 2022 – Present
New American Funding (NAF Tech, formerly Zigzy) · Remote
- Own end-to-end operational strategy across incident management, change management, SRE, and technical documentation for 28 SaaS products, ensuring system reliability, delivery execution, and production stability.
- Lead a 17-person cross-functional organization spanning SRE, Live Operations, and Technical Writing across distributed onshore and offshore teams.
- Built and scaled a 24/6 Live Operations function with defined SLAs and uptime targets, strengthening incident response coverage and production support continuity.
- Resolved 100+ production incidents in 6 months, improving MTTR and outage communication efficiency organization-wide.
- Govern enterprise change management through Change Advisory Board (CAB) participation, identifying and mitigating production risk and preventing business-continuity-impacting deployments.
- Design and implement operational workflows supporting development, QA, deployment, and support functions in alignment with business needs and regulatory requirements.
- Provide operational oversight of day-to-day technology operations including deployment processes, incident response, and vendor system performance.
- Monitor system performance metrics, uptime, service levels, and capacity planning using New Relic and internal monitoring tooling.
- Manage vendor relationships for critical systems and services, including SLAs, integrations, and security compliance across the technology stack.
- Support IT security protocols and compliance initiatives including SOC 2, ISO 27001, and CFPB guidelines by managing access controls, data handling processes, and internal audits.
- Partner with Product, Security, and Compliance teams to align infrastructure and operational priorities with the broader technology roadmap.
- Designed and implemented SRE operating frameworks including incident response processes, runbooks, and alerting strategies, improving system reliability and response effectiveness.
- Established bi-weekly operational reviews with product teams, driving corrective actions and reducing recurring production issues.
- Implemented Azure DevOps (ADO) Scrum and tracking systems, increasing team accountability, visibility, and productivity across SRE and documentation functions.
- Automated cross-team workflows including email-to-PagerDuty alert routing, automated Microsoft Teams meeting creation, and audit process automation, reducing manual overhead and improving operational consistency.
- Built the Technical Writing organization from the ground up with offshore integration, establishing global documentation coverage and consistent standards company-wide.
- Reduced documentation turnaround time by 35% through AI-assisted content workflows using GitHub Copilot and Writer.com.
Technical Writer III
December 2021 – July 2022
Phoenix Defense (DoD Contractor) · Orlando, FL
- Delivered audit-ready DoD CDRL technical manuals on schedule, ensuring full regulatory compliance across all handoffs.
- Implemented a company-wide style guide standardizing non-military-standard content across teams.
- Established JIRA Scrum boards for the technical writing team, improving workflow visibility and sprint efficiency.
- Upskilled junior technical writers in XML coding practices and DTD interpretation.
Technical Writer
April 2020 – December 2021
JHT Incorporated (DoD Contractor) · Orlando, FL
- Completed a tactical radio verification and validation (V&V) event in 1.5 weeks versus the expected 2+ weeks.
- Reduced revision cycles by 20% through peer mentoring and early quality review processes.
Senior Technical Writer
September 2019 – November 2019
The DiSTI Corporation (DoD Contractor) · Orlando, FL
- Contributed to a contract generating over $1 million in revenue through compliant, on-schedule documentation delivery.
- Produced bilingual (English/French) marketing materials supporting multiple product launches.
Technical Writer
February 2018 – August 2019
Walt Disney World Worldwide Safety (Contract) · Lake Buena Vista, FL
- Authored 15+ maintenance and show control manuals within 18 months, nearly 3x the standard output.
- Delivered all documentation ahead of schedule despite significant resource constraints.
- Reduced onboarding time and maintenance errors for field technicians through accurate, actionable procedures.
Technical Writer
July 2017 – January 2018
Kitchen Craft Cookware (Contract) · Mount Dora, FL
- Completed a comprehensive company-wide operations manual covering all departments and two subsidiaries ahead of a 6-week deadline.
- Retained post-engagement to produce marketing deliverables, reflecting strong client confidence in quality and delivery.
Owner and Lead Content Strategist
2013 – Present
Alisa Atkinson Writing Company · Remote, Multiple Clients
- Delivered technical and marketing content for 10+ clients across tech, defense, and lifestyle sectors.
- Produced bilingual (English/French) content for product launches and corporate communications.
- Built lasting client relationships through strategic messaging and reliable delivery across 10+ years of independent consulting.
Earlier Roles — Intermediate Technical Writer, Content Writer, Usability Analyst, Social Media Specialist
2013 – 2016
Various Clients · Remote & Ottawa, ON
- Delivered a complete bilingual departmental onboarding guide within 6 weeks at Environment and Climate Change Canada, improving clarity and efficiency for new staff (Gatineau, QC).
- Delivered SEO content, usability analysis, and brand marketing across music media, social networking, and self-storage sectors.
Certifications & Professional Development
- ITIL 4 Foundation – PeopleCert – In Progress
- New Relic Verified Foundation (NVF) – New Relic | Expires: May 2028
- Lean Six Sigma Black Belt – AIGPE™ – In Progress
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt – AIGPE™
- Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt – AIGPE™
- Lean Six Sigma White Belt – AIGPE™
- Lean Specialist Certification – AIGPE™
- Certified Pareto Analysis Specialist – AIGPE™
- Process Mapping Specialist – AIGPE™
- 7 Basic Tools of Quality Expert – AIGPE™
Education
Post-Graduate Certificate, Technical Writing — Algonquin College, Ottawa, Canada
Bachelor of Arts, General Arts (Minor in English) — University of Ottawa, Canada
Alisa Atkinson
TECHNICAL WRITING & DOCUMENTATION STRATEGY LEADERSHIP · ONSHORE & OFFSHORE TEAM LEADERSHIP · INCIDENT MANAGEMENT
Harmony, FL 34773·
(321) 313-2593·
technicalwriter@alisaatkinson.com·
linkedin.com/in/alisa-atkinson-658848b3·
alisaatkinson.com
Professional Summary
Documentation and operations leader with a 10+ year career spanning technical writing, content strategy, and cross-functional team leadership across SaaS and enterprise environments. Built and lead a Technical Writing organization from the ground up, including onshore and offshore Technical Writing Leads, establishing global documentation coverage, consistent style and content standards, and AI-assisted authoring workflows. Partners closely with Engineering, Change Management, and Operations to align documentation strategy with operational readiness. Experienced with Azure DevOps repositories, Git version control, and CI/CD-adjacent documentation workflows, plus AI tooling (GitHub Copilot, Writer.com) that cut documentation turnaround time by 35%. Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. Bilingual (English/French). Active Secret Clearance eligible.
Core Competencies
- Technical Documentation Strategy & Lifecycle Management
- Style Guide & Standards Development
- Onshore & Offshore Team Leadership
- Content Management & Version Control (Git, Azure DevOps)
- Runbooks, Playbooks & Deployment Guides
- AI-Assisted Documentation Workflows (Copilot, Writer.com)
- Cross-Functional & Stakeholder Collaboration
- Change Management & CAB Governance
- Compliance Documentation (SOC 2, ISO 27001, CFPB)
- Process Improvement & Workflow Automation
- Vendor & Platform Administration
- Team Mentorship & Performance Development
Lean Six Sigma Green Belt · Bilingual (English / French)
Work Experience
Associate Director, Incident & Technical Writing (Tech Ops)
July 2022 – Present
New American Funding (NAF Tech, formerly Zigzy) · Remote
- Built the Technical Writing organization from the ground up with offshore integration, establishing global documentation coverage and consistent standards company-wide.
- Directly lead and mentor onshore and offshore Technical Writing Leads as part of a 17-person cross-functional organization spanning SRE, Live Operations, and Technical Writing.
- Define and enforce documentation standards and style consistency across technical and operational content, including runbooks, playbooks, and deployment guides supporting 28 SaaS products.
- Reduced documentation turnaround time by 35% through AI-assisted content workflows using GitHub Copilot and Writer.com.
- Own end-to-end operational strategy across incident management, change management, SRE, and technical documentation, ensuring system reliability, delivery execution, and production stability.
- Oversee documentation and communication plans supporting successful software deployments and system upgrades, ensuring operational readiness across teams.
- Govern enterprise change management through Change Advisory Board (CAB) participation, identifying and mitigating production risk ahead of deployments.
- Implemented Azure DevOps (ADO) Scrum and tracking systems, increasing team accountability, visibility, and productivity across SRE and documentation functions.
- Support IT security protocols and compliance initiatives including SOC 2, ISO 27001, and CFPB guidelines by managing access controls, data handling processes, and internal audits.
- Manage vendor relationships and platform administration for critical documentation and engineering tools, including SLAs and security compliance across the technology stack.
- Automated cross-team workflows including email-to-PagerDuty alert routing and audit process automation, reducing manual overhead and improving operational consistency.
- Established bi-weekly operational reviews with product teams, driving corrective actions and reducing recurring production issues.
Technical Writer III
December 2021 – July 2022
Phoenix Defense (DoD Contractor) · Orlando, FL
- Implemented a company-wide style guide standardizing non-military-standard content across teams.
- Delivered audit-ready DoD CDRL technical manuals on schedule, ensuring full regulatory compliance across all handoffs.
- Established JIRA Scrum boards for the technical writing team, improving workflow visibility and sprint efficiency.
- Upskilled junior technical writers in XML coding practices and DTD interpretation.
Technical Writer
April 2020 – December 2021
JHT Incorporated (DoD Contractor) · Orlando, FL
- Completed a tactical radio verification and validation (V&V) event in 1.5 weeks versus the expected 2+ weeks.
- Reduced revision cycles by 20% through peer mentoring and early quality review processes.
Senior Technical Writer
September 2019 – November 2019
The DiSTI Corporation (DoD Contractor) · Orlando, FL
- Contributed to a contract generating over $1 million in revenue through compliant, on-schedule documentation delivery.
- Produced bilingual (English/French) marketing materials supporting multiple product launches.
Technical Writer
February 2018 – August 2019
Walt Disney World Worldwide Safety (Contract) · Lake Buena Vista, FL
- Authored 15+ maintenance and show control manuals within 18 months, nearly 3x the standard output.
- Delivered all documentation ahead of schedule despite significant resource constraints.
- Reduced onboarding time and maintenance errors for field technicians through accurate, actionable procedures.
Technical Writer
July 2017 – January 2018
Kitchen Craft Cookware (Contract) · Mount Dora, FL
- Completed a comprehensive company-wide operations manual covering all departments and two subsidiaries ahead of a 6-week deadline.
- Retained post-engagement to produce marketing deliverables, reflecting strong client confidence in quality and delivery.
Owner and Lead Content Strategist
2013 – Present
Alisa Atkinson Writing Company · Remote, Multiple Clients
- Delivered technical and marketing content for 10+ clients across tech, defense, and lifestyle sectors.
- Produced bilingual (English/French) content for product launches and corporate communications.
- Built lasting client relationships through strategic messaging and reliable delivery across 10+ years of independent consulting.
Earlier Roles — Intermediate Technical Writer, Content Writer, Usability Analyst, Social Media Specialist
2013 – 2016
Various Clients · Remote & Ottawa, ON
- Delivered a complete bilingual departmental onboarding guide within 6 weeks at Environment and Climate Change Canada, improving clarity and efficiency for new staff (Gatineau, QC).
- Delivered SEO content, usability analysis, and brand marketing across music media, social networking, and self-storage sectors.
Certifications & Professional Development
- ITIL 4 Foundation – PeopleCert – In Progress
- New Relic Verified Foundation (NVF) – New Relic | Expires: May 2028
- Lean Six Sigma Black Belt – AIGPE™ – In Progress
- Lean Six Sigma Green Belt – AIGPE™
- Lean Six Sigma Yellow Belt – AIGPE™
- Lean Six Sigma White Belt – AIGPE™
- Lean Specialist Certification – AIGPE™
- Certified Pareto Analysis Specialist – AIGPE™
- Process Mapping Specialist – AIGPE™
- 7 Basic Tools of Quality Expert – AIGPE™
Education
Post-Graduate Certificate, Technical Writing — Algonquin College, Ottawa, Canada
Bachelor of Arts, General Arts (Minor in English) — University of Ottawa, Canada