Technical Writer

Applied Research Associates, Inc. (ARA) is a progressive research and development company with a 30+ year legacy of providing innovative products and services to the government and private sectors. The Algorithms, Modeling, and Assessments (AMA) Division in Raleigh, NC has a unique opportunity for a Technical Writer to play a vital role in preparing our teams’ documentation products and professional communications. You will help our engineers and developers create compelling and compliant project documents in response to our contract requirements.

This role will be embedded in the Nuclear Environments and Systems Assessments (NESA) directorate of Applied Research Associates (ARA). The project you will be working on documentation for is a long-running software effort to deliver nuclear weapon effects calculations from advanced physics-based computational models deployed through standalone applications, web services, and Docker containers

As a Technical Writer, you will lead the assembly of work products such as monthly reports, yearly validation reports, and reviewing technical documents produced by the staff. The teams you support will look to you as a documentation expert. You will work with them to collaboratively write and edit documents, and keep existing content up to date. You will ensure your team’s work products clearly articulate technical attributes (e.g., development approach, requirements, design, testing), program management activities, risks, schedule, etc. You will be responsible for document formats by enforcing a consistent look and feel among documents, appropriate language use, classification (including CUI or higher) compliance, and adherence to Microsoft style sheets.

To be successful, you must engage daily with technical staff, project management, and subject matter experts, capture key concepts and ideas, and write in the clear, concise, and persuasive language. You must translate technical concepts into easily understandable text and graphics.

Because we continuously seek to improve our processes, you must be able to identify opportunities for improvement and advocate for process changes when appropriate.

Our technical writers are expert users of a variety of software, including Microsoft SharePoint and Office Suite, Atlassian Confluence, Jira, Adobe Acrobat, and RoboHelp. Advanced knowledge of Excel is especially helpful for project management support.

This position can be mainly performed remotely (~90%), but you do need to be in the Raleigh, NC area to support classified work and meetings. Expected travel is anticipated to be less than 1 week a year.

• Due to the nature of this work, you’ll perform and interactions with the intelligence community and DoD programs you must be a US citizen and will need to be eligible to apply for and hold a US Top Secret security clearance (selected applicants will undergo a security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements at the time of employment).

• Bachelor’s Degree with 2-4 years experience writing technical and management documentation

• Expert ability to communicate technical information in consistent, understandable language

• Experience developing graphics like charts and graphs that convey status

• Ability to work independently and interface frequently with teammates

• Ability to work effectively under frequent deadlines

• Strong attention to detail

• Expert level Microsoft Word and PowerPoint skills, including style sheets, templates, and formatting

• Adept at managing work in Jira

• Skilled in creating well-organized and visually appealing content in Confluence

Applied Research Associates, Inc. (aka ARA) is an employee-owned international research and engineering company known for providing technically superior solutions to complex and challenging problems in the physical sciences. We were founded in Albuquerque, NM in 1979 as the disco era was, thankfully, closing out and the personal computer era was beginning. We employ over 1,500 professionals and continue to grow. ARA offices throughout the U.S. and Canada provide a broad range of technical expertise in defense, civil, and health technologies, computer software, and simulation, systems analysis, environmental technologies, and testing and measurement.

ARA also prides ourselves on having a challenging culture where innovation & experimentation are the norm. At ARA, employees are our greatest assets, so we give our employees the tools, training, and opportunities to take active roles as owners. The motto, “Engineering and Science for Fun and Profit” sums up the ARA experience. The company realizes employee ownership spawns greater creativity and initiative along with higher performance and customer satisfaction levels. We are also very proud of our Women’s Initiative Network (WIN) whose purpose is to motivate, support, and encourage professional career development for women to maximize career and professional accomplishments.

To find out more about Algorithms, Modeling & Assessments Division visit our website at: https://www.ara.com

• 2 - 4 years: Relevant Work Experience

• Bachelors or better

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)