Technical Writer

by mparroco on January 9, 2005 · No Comments

Technical Writer

Reports To:

Senior Manager, User Experience

Job Description:

The mission for IronPort Technical Publications is to deliver the best written technical documentation to IronPort customers in the industry. The role of the technical writer is to create highly technical, detail-oriented documents, information components, or presentations that effectively explain complex product features, applications, and instructions to appropriate audiences (internal and external) and that maximize customer satisfaction with IronPort products and services.Primary Responsibilities:

Write new material and help maintain existing material for all end-user technical documentation information products for IronPort Systems, Inc, including: User Guides, Administrator Guides, Quick Reference Guides, Release Notes, and Online Help. Authoring requirements may extend to include marketing requirements documents.

Synthesize input from engineering, quality assurance, product management, customer support, systems engineers, and customers. Coordinate technical and editorial reviews of all published material.

Help define, plan, and execute the overall documentation strategy to support multiple product sets. May develop project schedules in negotiation with engineering and program management. Integrate market and customer requirements for documentation. Assimilate undocumented company publication and production standards; define new standards when necessary.

Evaluate and implement a toolset for the next generation of online help for IronPort products in conjunction with IronPort’s operational and business needs.

Become an expert user of all IronPort products and a champion for end-user requirements.

Manage all aspects of the technical documentation lifecycle (planning, writing, editing, illustration, print and online production) for this start-up. Interface with internal and external contract resources when necessary.

Minimum Experience Requirements:

2+ years in a senior technical writing position, preferably in creating end-user documentation for hardware and software products.

Proven track record developing and delivering high-quality technical documentation.

Exceptional writing and communication skills.

FrameMaker expert. (You must be able to develop and troubleshoot your own FrameMaker templates. Knowledge of book building, conditional text, and generated files is required.)

Knowledge of the following tools is highly desirable: Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and RoboHelp X5, Quadralay WebWorks Publisher Professional, Adobe Illustrator, RoboHelp.

Knowledge of Internet and email standards and UNIX system administration is a plus.

Experience in the enterprise networking market is a plus.

Personal Characteristics:

Understanding of differences in online and printed technical documentation and the ability to tailor material for each medium.

Business awareness: The successful candidate will be able to discern larger issues in the technical documentation set from smaller ones in the context of IronPort’s overall business objectives and will concentrate resources accordingly to maximize efficiency.

Excellent oral communication: The successful candidate will be equally comfortable engaging senior engineers in technical discussion, reiterating features to a group of power-user system engineers, summarizing a bug description or resolution with QA staff, refining a new feature with product management, and presenting documentation strategy to senior directors.

For Consideration:
Forward your resume to gburkhardt@ironport.com with “Technical Writer” in the subject line or fax to (650) 249-0490. We prefer attached PDFs or simple text files.

Resumes received by IronPort Systems, Inc. from search firms are considered unsolicited and will be kept as IronPort’s intellectual property, or deleted as appropriate unless a contractual obligation exists between IronPort and a search firm.

mparrocoJanuary 9, 2005