Technical Writer II

Technical Writer

When you’re part of the team at Thermo Fisher Scientific, you’ll do important work that supports a powerful mission. With revenues of $25 billion and a track record of stability and consistent growth, we’re uniquely able to give our people the resources and opportunities to make significant contributions to the world.

The Emerging Technology team is tasked with applying industry best practices to the design, development, and deployment world-class software products. We are looking to hire individuals with experience with software development and test engineering in clinical and research settings, and who can help us solve the next wave of technical challenges using the latest cloud-based, big-data, and rich analytics tool sets.

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s mission is to help make the world a healthier, cleaner and safer place. This position offers a unique opportunity at Thermo Fisher Scientific to help our mission by producing next generation technical content using cutting-edge technologies.

We are looking for an ambitious, talented, and self-motivated individual, who will serve as a technical writer and help us create top-quality technical information for users of our software and cloud products. In this role, you will be responsible for creating effective information that is not only limited to written words, but also meaningful graphics, screen captures, and even creating animations. You will use sophisticated content management system and authoring tools and methodologies to support the organization strategy towards the future of our technical content delivery.

This role requires collaborating across technology, product management, support, and training organizations to ensure alignment towards business goals. In this role, you will build strong relationships with cross-functional teams and business stakeholders.

Reporting to the Technical Publications manager, the technical writer produces customer documentation, such as manuals, quick references, and Help; and process documentation, such as doc plans and user stories. All deliverables must comply with department standards and be completed on time for release with products.

For the highly motivated and talented individual, this position offers a unique opportunity to grow.

Major Responsibilities

• Produce and adhere to documentation plans and schedules, adjusting as needed for projects.
• Follow department procedures to research, develop, write, and revise software documentation; and generate the documentation in various formats, according to defined standards.
• Collaborate, as a member of project and product development teams, with subject-matter experts, product managers, testers, Product Support, and Technical Publications staff to produce manuals, Help, and animations that are accurate and on time.
• Work with the Technical Publications team to define publications processes and guidelines.
• Whenever possible, install and use the product being documented.
• Show proficiency in using the required Technical Publications and project software applications.
• Review and make recommendations to the project teams about error messages, Tool Tips, pop-up dialogs, and usability.
• Report and verify software defects and enhancements.
• Ensure that all deliverables and the processes that produce them can pass appropriate audits.
• Other functional duties as assigned.

Minimum Requirements or Qualifications

• Bachelor’s / Master’s degree in any field.
  Nice to have education or professional experience in physical science, not a must.
• At least 4 years of experience in companies producing software documentation
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Proficiency in using the primary publications, editing tools, and style guides.
  • Ability to work on projects both independently and collaboratively in a team environment
  • Ability to work effectively under pressure to meet tight deadlines
  • Ability to balance competing tasks in a rapidly changing environment
• Skills required
  • FrameMaker, RoboHelp, MS Office
  • Adobe Acrobat
  • Graphic tools such as SnagIT and Captivate is highly desired
  • Basic knowledge of versioning applications like Tortoise SVN
  • JIRA or Azure or similar PLM tools
  • Knowledge of CMS and DITA are good to have (not a must)