Technical Writer and Editor Job Description Template

We’re looking for a Technical Writer and Editor to produce, proofread, edit, and quality check our technical documentation.

Your primary responsibility will be to deliver error-free and easy-to-understand technical documents. We expect you to conduct thorough research on the product/process you’re writing about and be familiar with scientific and technical style manuals. You will be expected to search for and maintain contact with scientists and engineers to consult them about any topic-related issues or discrepancies you encounter while writing.

A bachelor’s degree in English, Communication, or any related field is a must while writing experience in STEM fields is considered a plus.

Responsibilities

As a Technical Writer and Editor, you will:

• Create technical documents as needed
• Study our writing guidelines and implement them in your work
• Research the target audience
• Research technical and scientific topics you will be writing about
• Create templates for different content series you will be working on to streamline your writing and editing process
• Write, proofread, and quality check the technical documentation you will be working on, such as technical and operational manuals as well as maintenance instructions
• Participate in company meetings
• Communicate with the scientific and technical department to fact-check, ensure data accuracy, and keep up with new products, policies, strategies, and processes in the company
• Create copy for newsletters, flyers, brochures, and other deliverables as needed

Requirements

You should apply for the Technical Writer and Editor position if you:

• Have a bachelor’s degree in English, Media, Marketing, Communications, or any related field
• Have at least 2 years of writing and editing experience
• Know your way with Microsoft Office
• Have previous experience with technical or scientific writing
• Are familiar with style manuals such as Chicago, AP, AMA, and CSE
• Are passionate about STEM fields

Salary Ranges for Technical Writers and Editors

A Technical Writer/Editor’s salary can depend on their type of employment, content output, work hours, expertise, location, responsibilities, and many other factors. 

According to Glassdoor, a Technical Writer/Editor’s annual salary ranges anywhere between the following amounts:

You Need To Adapt Your Job Ad To Hire the Best Technical Writer and Editor—Here’s Why

Technical writing is a broad term that includes the creation of scientific-technical documentation, manuals, and publications for mass consumption. Your company’s work is unlikely to be related to multiple fields. Even if it were, one person would be insufficient to produce such large quantities of content without compromising the quality.

That’s why the key to hiring the best Technical Writer and Editors lies in hiring several candidates (if your work volume requires you to) and writing detailed job descriptions for each area of expertise.

For example, some companies divide their technical writing team into the following roles:

• Medical Writer—Creates various Medicine and Healthcare-related content for the general public and medical professionals. Requires a medical degree and proficiency with the AMA style
• Quality Assurance Technical Writer—Writes supporting documentation and manuals for departmental quality-checking procedures
• Research Writer—Conducts in-depth research to collect existing statistical data and presents it in an easy to understand way using graphic elements (such as tables, graphs, pie charts) and lay language

You also shouldn’t take your company’s representation lightly. You’re one step closer to finding your ideal candidate when you list core values and the benefits of working in your company in all of your future job ads.

Similar Roles to Technical Writer and Editor

If you feel like your team needs some other role, rather than a Technical Writer and Editor, and you want to explore other options, check out our job description templates! The table below contains roles that are similar to a Technical Writer and Editor role:

• Technical Writer in Healthcare
• Technical Editor
• Senior Technical Writer
• Technical Writer III
• Junior Technical Writer
• Associate Medical Writer
• Science Writer
• Technical Writer II
• Technical Writer Intern
• Technical Writer for Cybersecurity
• Medical Editor
• Business Analyst/Technical Writer

Get More Technical Writer and Editor Job Descriptions Inspiration

Are you unsure about how to approach tweaking our job description templates? Fortunately, many companies have found ways to attract qualified candidates, and we can help you do that, too! Check out some of the best job description examples we found on:

1. Glassdoor
2. Indeed
3. LinkedIn
4. Monster

Why You Should Test Technical Content Professionals Before Hiring Them

Hiring skilled members for your content team has never been an easy task, but the challenge is even bigger if you’re looking for an experienced technical writer or editor. It’s easy for candidates to amp up their resumes and portfolios with niche-specific samples that have been heavily edited by third-party collaborators, and you’ll be none the wiser about the quality of their work until you hire them. The only way to gauge their actual skills is to add pre-employment assessments to your hiring process.

Testing candidates is impossible without skill assessment software to keep everything organized and under control. Without it, you’ll have to communicate with candidates, send tests, collect and grade them, and keep track of what stage of the hiring process each candidate is in.

Workello is high-volume recruiting software that takes care of the entire process for you. After you sign up for free, you’ll find the perfect candidate by taking the following steps:

1. Launch your pre-configured hiring funnel in under 3 minutes
2. Add a Workello link to your job postings on all job boards you use
3. Wait for applications to come your way
4. Send tests to applicants to test their technical writing skills
5. Reject, interview, and hire candidates from your single-page dashboard

Test Candidates for Technical Roles Effortlessly With Workello

You can use Workello to test technical writers in any industry. The platform is not for technical writing only—you can use it to test content writers and SEO writers as well. With Workello, you can manage candidates through the entire selection process without ever leaving your dashboard. Use Workello’s free trial to sign up and see for yourself how fast you will identify the top 1% of technical writer candidates.