Sam Browning
Technical Writer III at GitHub
Greensboro--Winston-Salem--High Point Area United States
Summary
🤩
Rockstar🎓
Top SchoolSam Browning is a technical writer with four years of experience turning complex developer products into clear, job-focused documentation. At GitHub they helped shape docs for high-profile offerings like Copilot and CodeQL, contributing both content and code-level changes to the open-source docs and search tooling. Sam blends user research, metrics-driven decisions, and cross-team coordination—running workshops, mapping user journeys, and mentoring new writers—to ensure documentation drives engagement and adoption. They have hands-on experience editing JavaScript and GraphQL files in the github/docs repo, giving them rare fluency between writing and backend documentation work. Based in the Greensboro–Winston-Salem area, Sam pairs an English BA from Davidson College with a developer-centric mindset to make technical content accessible to global audiences. Their background in teaching and campus tech support explains a pragmatic, user-first approach to documentation and onboarding.
3 years of coding experience
Bachelor of Arts - BA English Language and Literature General, Bachelor of Arts - BA English Language and Literature General at Davidson CollegeHigh School Diploma, High School Diploma at University School of Milwaukee
Github Skills (15)
rs10
restructuredtext10
codeql10
documentation10
amazon-elasticsearch9
elasticsearch-api9
aws-elasticsearch9
elasticsearchquery9
javascript9
elasticsearch9
github-advanced-security9
graphql8
visual-studio-code8
wpgraphql8
wordpress-graphql8
Programming languages (4)
Github contributions (5)
github/docs
Sep 2022 - Jan 2023
The open-source repo for docs.github.com
Role in this project:
Back-end Developer
Back-end DeveloperContributions:94 reviews, 69 commits, 39 PRs in 4 months
Contributions summary:Sam contributed to the `github/docs` repository by merging and modifying code related to the `/lib/liquid-tags/octicon.js` file, which is a javascript file. Additional contributions involved the modification of the `/middleware/api/index.js`, `/middleware/api/search.js`, `/script/enterprise-server-releases/create-graphql-files.js`, `/middleware/api/es-search.js`, `/pages/search.tsx`, `/data/graphql/ghec/schema.docs.graphql` and `/data/graphql/schema.docs.graphql` files. These changes focused on search functionality, GraphQL schema updates, and general documentation improvements.
works-with-codespaces
github/codeql
Oct 2022 - Oct 2022
CodeQL: the libraries and queries that power security researchers around the world, as well as code scanning in GitHub Advanced Security
Role in this project:Technical Writer
Technical WriterContributions:39 reviews, 3 commits, 2 PRs in 1 day
Contributions summary:Sam primarily contributed to the documentation of the `github/codeql` repository. The commits focused on clarifying installation procedures for the CodeQL extension in Visual Studio Code, updating query help articles, and refining the documentation's structure and style. They also made minor adjustments to the documentation, ensuring consistency and improving the overall readability of the project's documentation.
github-advanced-securitysecurity-toolsgithub-security-labsecurity-researcherssecurity
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