Technical Writer - Environmental Health and Safety - UTK

University of Tennessee•Knoxville, TN

9d•Hybrid

About The Position

The EHS Technical Writer facilitates the development of new program documents and leads the end-to-end overhaul of the Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) program document library (100+ documents). The incumbent will evaluate the current inventory, identify redundancies and gaps, and recommend documents for consolidation or retirement. The incumbent classifies each retained document by type, plan, procedure, or guide, and restructures content to align with standardized formatting, language, and organizational conventions. In partnership with EHS subject matter experts (SMEs) and Instructional Designers, the incumbent translates complex technical content into clear, accurate, and usable documentation that aligns with corresponding training materials with diverse target audiences. The incumbent intentionally crafts tone, language and sentence structure to reinforce a culture of care, wellbeing, collaboration, and partnership across the institution. The incumbent also prepares all content for publishing and public accessibility in compliance with ADA Title II/WCAG 2.1AA requirements.

Requirements

Bachelor's Degree in Technical Communication, English, Professional Writing, Communications, Journalism or related field. An equivalent combination of education, training, and experience may substitute for the degree requirement. Examples include but are not limited to an associate degree and four years of relevant experience, or six years of progressively responsible experience developing, editing, and maintaining technical documentation in a compliance, regulatory, EHS, or related technical environment.
2+ years of relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience as listed above.
Knowledge of technical writing principles, including document structure, style guide development, and plain-language communication standards.
Knowledge of document classification frameworks and the distinctions among policies, plans, procedures, and guides.
Skill in writing and editing complex technical and regulatory content into clear, accurate, and usable documentation for diverse audiences.
Skill in conducting structured interviews to extract, verify, and validate technical information from SMEs with varied communication styles.
Skill in editing and proofreading documents for grammar, consistency, clarity, and conformance to an established style guide.
Skill in using AI tools to support document drafting, editing, formatting, and content development workflows.
Ability to synthesize conflicting, ambiguous, or highly technical information from multiple sources into coherent and accurate documentation.
Ability to build and maintain productive working relationships with SMEs, leadership, and cross-functional stakeholders to drive review and approval workflows.
Ability to work independently with minimal supervision while managing multiple concurrent writing projects with competing deadlines.
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without need now or in the future for sponsorship for employment-based visa status.

Nice To Haves

Master's Degree in Technical Communication, Public Health, Environmental Health & Safety, Instructional Design, or a related field.
Introductory knowledge of federal, state, and local EHS regulatory frameworks, including OSHA, and EPA, IBC/NIH.
Knowledge of WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA Title II accessibility standards as they apply to publicly posted documents.
Knowledge of instructional design concepts sufficient to collaborate on learning objectives, assessments, and training content alignment.
Knowledge of project management principles, including scheduling, risk identification, and stakeholder coordination for document-intensive initiatives.
Skill in applying accessible authoring practices in Microsoft Word and PDF.
Skill in organizing and structuring content for SharePoint libraries and pages, including taxonomy, metadata schemas, and navigation conventions.

Responsibilities

Partner with SMEs and EHS leadership to scope, outline, and draft new EHS program documents from the ground up using approved workflows.
Manage the existing document library; identify redundancies, gaps, and documents eligible for consolidation or retirement.
Edit and proofread all documents for grammar, consistency, clarity, and adherence to the accessibility requirements and technical writing principles.
Collaborate with the Instructional Designer to map program requirements into learning objectives, assessments, and job aids.
Ensure fidelity between program document text and corresponding training content so that employees receive consistent messaging.
Review and contribute written content for training deliverables (e.g., facilitator guides, quick-reference cards, eLearning scripts) as needed.
Prepare documents for publication in conformance with WCAG 2.1 AA and ADA Title II for publicly posted materials.
Develop and maintain an EHS writing style guide and standard operating procedures for the technical writing function.
Track and report document-quality metrics (e.g., revision turnaround time, accessibility pass rate, SME review cycle time) to support continuous improvement.