Typical comp shape
Technical writers usually earn rsu (smaller grants). Common employers include Stripe, GitHub, Atlassian. Grant sizes run 40-50% below engineering at the same level, so ESPP participation often becomes the largest equity lever.
What Tennessee changes
Tennessee has no wage income tax, which is structurally favorable for technical writers with meaningful RSU comp. The savings vs a CA-resident colleague can be $30-60k per year at senior IC levels. That math is why Austin and Seattle are the two top relocation destinations for Bay Area tech workers.
Planning cadence
For a technical writer in Tennessee, the three planning windows are: after each RSU vest (withholding check and sell-vs-hold), before any ISO exercise (AMT model at federal only), and in Q4 (estimated tax top-up to clear the safe harbor). A move-out question — if you're considering leaving Tennessee for a high-tax state, time it around vesting.