Technical Writer / Editor

Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) is an employee-owned, progressive research and development company with a 45+ year legacy of providing innovative products and services to the government and private sectors. The Integrated Mission Systems Sector in Raleigh, NC has a unique opportunity for a Technical Writer/Editor to play a vital role in presenting compelling and compliant documents in response to customer requirements. In this role you will produce winning proposals and prepare project documentation and professional communications. This position allows for remote work with travel as needed to support customer and business meetings.

Technical Writer/Editor Responsibilities:

As a Technical Writer/Editor, you will support a mix of proposal- and project-based documentation that fluctuates based on company needs. When assigned to projects, you will work collaboratively with technical and management subject matter experts to write documents and edit content across the entire project lifecycle, from monthly reports to end user documentation. You will ensure your teams’ work products clearly articulate technical attributes (e.g., development approach, requirements, design, testing), program management activities, risks, and schedule.

To be successful, you must engage and collaborate daily with your assigned team to create content for various technologies by writing and editing reports, end user documentation, and whitepapers. Because we continuously seek to improve our processes, you must be able to identify opportunities for improvement and advocate for process changes when appropriate.

When assigned to proposals, you will assist the assigned project or proposal manager to locate, write, track, and integrate content into proposal volumes and marketing material. You will ensure that proposal documents clearly articulate the team’s overall solution and approach, processes, program management activities, risks/mitigations, and accomplishments.

For both project and proposal-based work, you will translate technical concepts into easily understandable text and graphics. You will create consistent document formats and styles by adhering to ARA style sheets and customer specifications. The assigned project or proposal manager will rely on you to maintain consistent use of terminology, voice, style, and grammar. You will help them train the applicable project and proposal documentation processes and enforce a consistent look and feel across document sets.

Because we continuously seek to improve the quality of our documentation, you will assist project teams to review and revise deliverable documents, managing the editing process to complete all work on time. Other tasks include creating and formatting simple charts and diagrams using PowerPoint’s drawing tools and assisting with Corporate and other project needs during slow times.

Our project teams develop hardware and software following Agile development processes. Project deliverables, schedules, and document specifications are specified in the contracts. Experience developing documents to contractual requirements for DoD research and development projects is preferred. Experience should include interpreting Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) documents, ensuring compliance, and quality assurance for final delivery.

Our proposal teams follow a modified Shipley proposal process. Experience developing DoD proposals within a standardized proposal process is preferred. This experience should include interpreting RFPs requirements, preparing documents for proposal reviews, ensuring RFP compliance, and quality assurance for final delivery.

Our teams use a variety of software, including Microsoft SharePoint, Atlassian Confluence and Jira, and Adobe Acrobat DC. The successful candidate will possess advanced Microsoft Word and PowerPoint knowledge, including ability to use and modify Word style sheets. In this role, the successful candidate will teach technical and management team members appropriate tips and tricks to assist in document development and, when necessary, will solve problems in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint files. The successful candidate must also be familiar with Microsoft Excel.

Required Technical Writer/Editor Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree or Better
• 2-4 years’ experience writing technical and management documentation
• Applicants selected will be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information requirements include being a U.S. citizen
• Strong organizational, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills
• Expert level Microsoft Word and PowerPoint skills
• Experience developing and/or working with a graphic artist to create visuals (e.g., graphics, charts)
• Ex