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IDX produces software for the Health Care Provider community of hospitals,
clinics, physician group practices, management service organizations and
combined providers called Integrated Health Care Delivery Networks. We
seek a Manager of Technical Writing for our Seattle, WA facility. We are
looking for full-time talent. Salary is experience dependent. Contact
information is provided below.
The Manager Technical Writing will provide planning and direction for
business unit documentation efforts with the goals of increased customer
satisfaction, better informed support staff, reduced support costs and
enhanced product marketability. Responsible for coordinating the activities
of a department of technical writers who produce and maintain the materials
that support a group of IDX products and the activities of IDX personnel.
These materials include reference manuals, installation manuals (published
on- line as Acrobat .pdf files) and on- line user documentation (Windows
help).
Will establish long and short term goals for writers (some are direct
reports; others report to development team leaders), which support overall
business unit goals.
Will help to ensure that the documentation sets are integrated with the
training materials and activities, are modular in design and easy to
maintain, fulfill the needs which have been identified for each product,
and are produced in a timely fashion. Each IDX software product must be
fully documented, and each of the resulting sets of materials must be
improved and updated according to a planned schedule.
Will maintain close ties with product development team leaders and
activities for all new and existing products under his or her control, and
ensure that writers formally plan schedules and coordinate resources to
develop appropriate documentation.
The Manager will maintain close ties with product development managers and
activities for all new and development managers and activities for all new
and existing products under his or her control, and ensure that writers
formally plan schedules and coordinate resources to develop appropriate
documentation.
The Manager will work to ensure that technical writers, and the materials
they produce, are included in the planning, development, testing and
release of products. The Manager will communicate and interpret product
development standards to the group.
Will act as a conduit between his or her department and the clients,
Product Development, Training and Customer Support, collecting and passing
along information about the needs that exist or develop for support
materials.
The Manager will encourage the establishment of more open channels of
communication between all parties who have a stake in the production and
maintenance of accurate, effective support materials.
The Manager will represent the interests of the department under his or her
control in issues that may impact the group's ability to best support their
audiences.
Essential Duties
- The Manager will develop and maintain a stable, productive, efficient
group of technical writers. This includes participating in hiring writers
for product development teams.
- Will monitor work schedules defined for documentation projects, and will
review materials and work in progress as appropriate.
- The Manager, along with the product development team leaders, will
ensure that documentation produced by his or her department and by the
writers on the product development teams correlates with standards of
quality and control, and will participate in developing and maintaining
standards of quality and control for all documentation.
- The Manager will monitor the release process and also maintain an
accurate listing of all documents under his or her control.
- The Manager delegates or oversees all personnel related responsibilities
for the staff of the department under his or her control. (Product
development team leaders direct the day- to- day of the writers on their
teams.)
- When necessary, the Manager will hire and direct the activities of
Documentation, for the department under his or her control and will also
monitor budget expenditures.
- The Manager will keep abreast of the latest developments in the field of
technical communication, to ensure that IDX efforts in these directions
will be efficient and effective.
- Will participate in the integration and coordination of documentation
efforts across all divisions of the company.
Job Qualifications
- At least 5 years experience writing and editing end- user oriented
software documentation and/or training materials.
- Proven writing, editing and project planning skills.
- A Bachelor's degree in Journalism, English, Communications, or Technical
Writing is desirable.
- Experience with the graphic arts and publishing technologies.
- Experience with documentation cost estimating and project planning.
- Proven managerial skills.
- Some travel required.
