RickĀ Kirkham
Principal Technical Writer at Microsoft
Bellevue, Washington, United States
Summary
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Top SchoolRick Kirkham is a Principal Technical Writer based in Bellevue with 11 years of focused experience documenting developer-facing APIs and frameworks at Microsoft, following a long career in technical communication across healthcare and manufacturing domains. He has risen through roles from technical writer to principal level, shaping clear, developer-centric documentation for complex platforms and contributing practical clarifications to high-profile open-source projects like DefinitelyTyped (notably improving office-js type definitions). With a Ph.D. in Philosophy, Rick blends rigorous analytical thinking and attention to conceptual precision with an ability to translate intricate technical behavior into usable guidance. He is skilled at tightening API descriptions, correcting parameter semantics, and surfacing edge-case workarounds that reduce developer friction. Colleagues rely on him for empirically grounded editorial judgment that improves product usability and developer experience.
11 years of coding experience
17 years of employment as a software developer
BA, Politics and Philosophy, BA, Politics and Philosophy at Cornell CollegeDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Philosophy, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Philosophy at University of Notre Dame
Github Skills (7)
type-system10
typescript10
typesc10
typescript-definitions10
typescripts10
typescript-types10
documentation10
Programming languages (14)
Github contributions (5)
DefinitelyTyped/DefinitelyTyped
Jun 2016 - Jan 2023
The repository for high quality TypeScript type definitions.
Role in this project:
Front-end Developer
Front-end DeveloperContributions:359 reviews, 81 commits, 138 PRs in 6 years 8 months
Contributions summary:Rick primarily contributed to the documentation of the `office-js` type definitions within the `definitelytyped` repository. Their commits focused on correcting descriptions and parameters, particularly related to the `getAccessTokenAsync` method and the `messageParent` parameter. The user also made updates in relation to clarifying the documentation of `AsyncContext` options and corrected descriptions for the `calculated columns` workaround.
typescriptdefinitiondtstypingstypescript-definitions
OfficeDev/SharePoint-Add-in-REST-OData-BasicDataOperations
Aug 2015 - May 2018
Contributions:9 commits, 3 pushes, 7 comments in 2 years 9 months
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