Manager Services Technical Writing

Intuitive•Sunnyvale, CA

8h•Onsite

About The Position

Primary Function of Position Services Technical Publications provides the foundation for every procedure performed on Intuitive’s advanced medical devices by the global Field Service team. As part of the Services leadership group, the Manager of Services Technical Publications is responsible for the timely development, delivery, and maintenance of high-quality Field Service documentation. This leader manages and develops a team of technical writers to produce accurate, well structured, and compliant content that meets project timelines without requiring daily oversight. The role also serves as a subject matter expert, driving both content and process improvements from design through implementation and iteration. As a player-coach, the manager will guide the transformation of the technical writing function into a streamlined, scalable operation that effectively blends manual processes with advanced system capabilities to improve quality and throughput while limiting resource growth. This is an on-campus position with both office and laboratory work environments.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in engineering sciences, professional writing or equivalent preferred.
8+ years of technical writing experience, with 3+ years in a management role in a hardware, software, or engineering environment, including generating and managing the delivery of documentation for various technical audiences .
Strong writing and grammar skills in areas of content development by using minimalist, topic-based writing style.
Analytical ability to swiftly grasp and effectively communicate complex scientific and engineering concepts for intended audiences.
Strong organizational and project-management skills with ability to manage deliverables for multiple projects under tight deadlines, set priorities, and manage time effectively.
Demonstrated experience with establishing content governance and strategy
Strong coaching and leadership skills with an innate desire to solve hard problems and drive continuous improvement (personally, for the team, and for processes and tools) .
Strong understanding of mechanical concepts and complex mechanical devices.
Ability to quickly grasp new concepts, learn new products, and adapt to/lead through change .
Experience with current versions of standard authoring tools, including Adobe Acrobat and InDesign; and Microsoft Excel and Word.
Experience with DITA XML authoring tools.
IXIA experience highly desired.
Experience with component content management systems (CCMSs) required.
Professional references and writing examples expected.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience with medical devices and a regulated environment preferred.
Experience with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, or equivalent desirable.

Responsibilities

Lead and mentor technical writers by providing coaching, feedback, and guidance on best practices to drive improved performance and professional growth.
Establish and maintain accurate resource and demand planning to build aggressive but realistic delivery targets that support Intuitive’s innovation and continuous improvement goals.
Establish and manage dashboards, workflows, and platforms (e.g. IXIA CCMS, Confluence, Jira, Smartsheet, Tableau, etc.), partnering with shared services as needed, to monitor and report progress against clearly articulated goals, maintaining high visibility with project teams.
Proactively identify potential risks to goal attainment, develop and deploy effective mitigation plans to avoid downstream disruption to project plans
Enhances design and structure of stylesheets, re-use strategy, and process for authoring and updating service procedures.
Works cross-functionally, both upstream and downstream, to identify and help drive process improvement for adjacent dependencies in the end-to-end process. Key partners include Product Support Engineering, Software Development, Software Testing, Product Management, and Product Management.
Build and maintain proficiency in industry best practices to ensure the technical writers are fully leveraging advanced application or AI-based tooling capabilities for authoring, reviewing, and releasing content.
Work directly with architects and consultants to ensure document structure is optimized for service users and automation processes.
Guide technical writer definition and structure for new content for Field Service documentation (service procedures and technical bulletins).
To maintain technical and process relevance, and augment resource plans as needed, regularly contribute directly to content creation by planning, writing, editing, and maintaining service procedures and illustrations for medical device systems.
Conduct validation and verification of technical documentation.
Complete documentation control steps to release final documentation. This includes Change Orders in the documentation control system.
Train and adhere to policies, procedures, and quality documents.
Use skills as an experienced technical communication professional with understanding of industry best practices and company objectives to resolve complex issues in creative and effective ways.