People Strategy, Equity, and Culture

Technical Writer

  • Title: Technical Writer
  • Category: Classified
  • FLSA: Non-Exempt
  • Grade: 23

Job Summary

Under the direction of management, the Technical Writer develops, prepares and maintains documentation for systems, procedures, policies, reporting, and other items for the District’s information technology department. Develops content and writes narrative introductions to technical topics, reports, and presentations. The Technical Writer conducts analyses of knowledge, skills, competencies, and tasks with technical subject matter experts and transforms resulting information into written documentation. Prepares and edits narratives and statistical reports, schedules, and planning materials.

Typical Duties and Responsibilities

  1. Writes online training modules, videos, tutorials, and other training content.
  2. Interviews and consults with IT staff and external vendors, reads material, conducts research, and/or uses other methods to become familiar with subject matter to be documented and proactively seeks clarification as necessary.
  3. Translates technical information into clear, readable documents to be used by technical and non-technical staff.
  4. Gathers and analyzes technical information associated with the District’s IT systems to develop technical documentation, publications, user manuals, and other materials.
  5. Serves on IT project teams to provide communication and documentation support.
  6. Recommends and assists in the design and standardization of training materials, programming documentation, procedures, methods, manuals, reference, and other materials.
  7. Reviews documents authored by others for currency, technical accuracy, and grammar. Edits, standardizes, and/or makes changes to material prepared by others. Ensures documentation is written in a uniform voice and is of professional quality.
  8. Maintains and organizes documentation repository; maintains records and files of revisions as appropriate; manages updates and revisions.
  9. Develops and documents standards, templates, and style guides. Trains IT staff and acts as a resource in common documentation approach.
  10. Authors, edits, and maintains IT knowledge base and service catalog.
  11. In collaboration with management, develops and writes IT policies and procedures.
  12. Selects or develops photographs, drawings, sketches, diagrams, and/or charts to illustrate material as needed.
  13. Provides research assistance on special projects.
  14. Performs other related duties as assigned.

Work Environment and Physical Characteristics

Work environment is in an office or computer lab setting and includes typical computer-related noise levels and paper or equipment generated dust. Learned physical skill is required to perform keyboarding and use peripheral equipment.

Minimum Qualifications

Associate’s degree in computer information systems, management information systems, business administration, communication studies, or related field. Three years of technical writing experience which includes document review, and creating document templates and style guides. Experience may substitute for the degree requirement on a year for year basis.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Knowledge of:
  • Principles and procedures of technical program documentation;
  • Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and core Google apps.
  • Capabilities of information technology systems including but not limited to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems such as SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, etc.
  • Operation and application of a wide variety of desktop publishing and multimedia software and development tools such as Microsoft Office Suite, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Dreamweaver, Power Point, HTML, RwD Infopak, Visio, etc.
  • Business procedures and methods;
  • Business process mapping and flow charting;
  • Report, user manual, and technical documentation formats;
  • English usage, grammar, spelling, and punctuation;
  • Principles of organization and management of records.
Skills in:
  • Expressing difficult and complex technical concepts clearly and concisely both orally and in writing;
  • Utilizing computer technology for communication, data gathering, and documentation;
  • Analyzing, interpreting, and simplifying technical information.
Ability to:
  • Create written materials that are free of grammar and formatting errors;
  • Meet specified deadlines;
  • Proofread own copy;
  • Review the work of others;
  • Learn and apply college and district policies and procedures;
  • Work collaboratively with diverse academic, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds of community college students and staff;
  • Work independently and as part of a team;
  • Learn the characteristics of new systems and update skills to adapt to changing technology.

Reviewed: 12/18

  • New: 10/2018