Technical Communications Program Manager

Job Description

When you’re part of the team at Thermo Fisher Scientific, you’ll do meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Join 100,000 colleagues who bring our Mission to life every day to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.

The opportunity

When Thermo Fisher Scientific product teams need user guides or instructional content for the reagents, software, and instruments we sell, they contact the Technical Communications group. We gather and analyze technical and product information from various sources, then work with each team to quickly deliver high-quality instructions to our customers. In short, we write the content that makes our technology easier to use for the people that want and need to use it!

On the Technical Communications team, we strive to efficiently deliver the highest quality user manuals to Thermo Fisher Scientific customers. We are looking for a collaborative content professional with sound knowledge of techniques for planning, monitoring, and controlling projects and programs for Thermo Fisher Scientific product portfolios. As the Technical Communications Program Manager, you’ll manage a team of writers developing user instructional content. In this role you’ll also support project owners and other functional areas by prioritizing projects across the team and monitoring the team’s operational efficiency to ensure deadlines are met.

What will you do?

• Supervise a team of technical writers—oversee production of technical content and ensure best practices are followed for consistent, effective deliverables.

• Direct the activities of team members—manage multiple projects and navigate shifting priorities within a fast-paced environment.

• Review and edit user document content to ensure that writers synthesize and organize information in a logical and concise way that meets the needs of our target audience; develop content as needed.

• Identify and communicate risks to project deadlines and adapt to changes in project priorities.

• Apply a data-driven approach to improve team operational efficiency; track operational metrics and report analytics to understand needs and trends.

• Foster an atmosphere of continuous process improvement.

• Be a strong voice for the clarity and consistency of our technical content in program team meetings with scientists, product managers, marketing managers, software engineers, quality and regulatory analysts, and other business team members.

• Work collaboratively with other writers using the department’s XML-based authoring tool and content management system.

• Proactively stay knowledgeable of trends in technical communications and recommend improvements to content organization, structure, display, and delivery.

How you’ll get here

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in a scientific field. Advanced degree preferred.

Experience

• At least 4 years of technical writing experience; will consider candidates with proven writing, editing, and leadership skills in lieu of experience.

• Experience in the life sciences industry; bench experience a plus.

• Experience in program management in high-tech companies.

• Experience leading multiple projects or work streams and setting schedules and priorities.

• Ability to work on projects both independently and collaboratively.

• Ability to work effectively under pressure to meet tight deadlines.

• Ability to balance competing tasks in a dynamic environment.

• Ability to listen and to get along well with cross-functional teams across multiple sites.

• Experience with topic-based authoring using DITA preferred.

• Experience with XML authoring tools preferred.

• Expertise in InDesign or Word is desirable.

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

• Excellent writer, someone who can organize information logically and write clearly, concisely, accurately, and quickly.

• Thorough understanding of technical/scientific content and can effectively adapt structure, tone, and style to meet business needs.

• Strong interpersonal, project management, and critical thinking skills are essential.

• Keen attention to detail and high regard for quality.

• Adept at learning new processes and software tools.

• Knowledge of relevant style guides.

• Expertise in Component Content Management Systems and XML or HTML is desirable.

At Thermo Fisher Scientific, each one of our 100,000 extraordinary minds has a unique story to tell. Join us and contribute to our mission!