Technical Author

Technical Author

Business, Location: Engineering Division, UK Site

Role: Technical Author

Reports to: Technical Publications Manager

Key Relationships: Technical Publications Manager, Engineering, Service, Software, Product Management, Quality, Project Managers, Technical Authorities, SMEs, and approved external suppliers.

Key Responsibilities

• Research, author, revise, and maintain manuals, guides, procedures, and related controlled publications for complex products and projects.
• Author in MadCap Flare using approved templates, reusable content, variables, condition tags, and controlled source files.
• Gather and verify technical information from engineers, service teams, drawings, specifications, photographs, test data, and existing source material.
• Produce and maintain technical illustrations, screenshots, mark-ups, diagrams, and visual content, or work with specialist illustrators where required.
• Apply document control, revision control, and configuration management requirements throughout drafting, review, approval, release, and obsolescence.
• Run quality checks for structure, clarity, terminology, safety content, cross-references, branding, and output accuracy before formal review.
• Coordinate review and comment resolution with subject matter experts and support final approval and controlled publication release in PDF and HTML outputs.
• Plan and manage assigned work to agreed priorities, communicate status and risks clearly, and support continuous improvement of authoring standards and workflows.
• Carry out any other tasks reasonably required by the Company.
• Take personal responsibility for health and safety and comply with company health, safety and environmental requirements.

Indicative Performance Measures

• Assigned publications delivered to agreed dates and priorities.
• Low level of post-release correction and rework.
• Strong first-pass quality in review and approval cycles.
• Compliance with templates, standards, document control, and version control requirements.
• Effective use of authoring tools, reusable content, and approved workflows.
• Positive stakeholder feedback on clarity, accuracy, and usability of published content.

Person Specification

Education / Qualifications

• Degree, HNC/HND, or equivalent experience in engineering, science, technical communication, or a related discipline.
• Proven technical authoring or technical writing experience in manufacturing, scientific equipment, engineering, aerospace, or another controlled technical environment.
• Professional membership or accredited technical communication qualification desirable but not essential.

Professional Skills / Abilities

• Strong MadCap Flare experience, including structured authoring, content reuse, output generation, and review workflow discipline.
• Strong technical writing and editing skills with the ability to turn complex engineering information into clear user-facing content.
• Ability to interpret engineering drawings, specifications, photographs and source data accurately.
• Experience with document control, revision control, review cycles, and formal release processes.
• Technical illustration experience desirable.

Personal Qualities

• Accurate, methodical, and detail-focused.
• Confident working with engineers, project teams, and reviewers.
• Organised, accountable, and able to manage multiple priorities.
• Committed to continuous improvement, professional standards, and clear communication.

Blue Arrow is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and is committed to helping find great work opportunities for great people