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Technical Author

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experience Technical Author to join a leading defence engineering client based in Belfast.

PURPOSE OF THE JOB

To assist in the planning and preparation of in-house and sub-contracted technical documentation for Thales projects and assist as the technical documentation focus for the publication series.

JOB FACTS AND FIGURES

• The jobholder assists in the production and update of Army Equipment

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Research and cost the range of documentation required for the life of a project.
• Work closely with design departments to gain a full understanding of the technical operating and maintenance characteristics of the equipment.
• Liaise with the customer (internal) to ensure that the technical content of the equipment support documentation is validated and acceptable to the appropriate publications authority.
• Identify possible health and safety hazards associated with equipments and their usage and ensure hazard notices are incorporated in the relevant parts of the Publications.
• Work in conjunction with TADL Engineering to identify the changes that are necessary to documentation following modification to in-service
• Participate in the development of documentation standards and the selection of suitable tools, processes and methodologies, in conjunction with other departments.
• Review work schedules and plan to meet periodic targets to ensure release in accordance with customer support requirements.
• Compile and update status reports for configuration and control meetings and provide data input to project progress meetings.

JOB CONTEXT AND CONTENT

• The documentation required to support the equipment in service for the whole of its life must be identified, planned, created, and maintained in accordance with in-service support contracts.
• Planning requires careful attention to scheduling to ensure documents are available when needed for training, and operation and maintenance tasks.
• Documentation is created in accordance with strict customer publication standards and procedures.
• Documentation includes detailed technical system descriptions/illustrations, system operating instructions, system maintenance task descriptions, repair instructions, modification leaflets and summarised operator and maintainer instructions.
• The Jobholder must meet the customer at planned and ad-hoc meetings in order to resolve queries and obtain customer acceptance on work completed.

Major problems faced are:-

• Maintaining knowledge of continuously changing customer requirements.
• Progressing several projects simultaneously and monitoring timeframes.
• As the main provider of general illustrating services to the whole of TADL, and with defined priorities, find the most efficient and effective utilisation of time to satisfy demands.
• Achieving a consistently high standard of presentation on all documents.

DIRECTION RECEIVED

• The Jobholder will report to the Technical Publications manager who will give direction on job priorities.
• The majority of the work will be generated via the MoD/PDS loop and sections of the Programme and Engineering groups. The jobholder will accept tasks from these areas and progress them.
• The Jobholder will plan the most cost effective use of this time within overall priorities in conjunction with the Technical Publications manager.
• Any priority conflicts will be addressed by the Technical Publications manager, if required.
• The Jobholder has the freedom to work on projects with only minimal supervision.

WORKING CONTACTS

• Within the Technical Publications team, the jobholder will have regular contact with PDS, Engineering, Project Management departments and external agencies.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

• The jobholder will normally be expected to be qualified to degree level in an appropriate discipline or a Lower qualifications will be acceptable if accompanied with suitable experience.
• A developed working knowledge of the Technical Publications systems and procedures is a benefit.
• The jobholder should have a high degree of competency in the use of technical publications software packages.
• A good working knowledge of customer documentation standards and procedures is necessary.
• The jobholder should have an artistic or engineering background with at least 2 years experience in a technical authoring or graphics environment.

If this position is of interest please apply or contact Matthew Crook on