Technical Writer

Leidos has an exciting opportunity for a Technical Writer to support our customer in communications and writing. The position is with the Communications, Knowledge, and Training Team (CKT) supporting the End-User Centric IT Support (ECIS 2) Contract for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). This is part of the Digital Modernization sector within Leidos. 

Our program focuses on the delivery of end-user centric IT technology solutions through seamless development, implementation, and communications experience. This includes managing communications to support CMS employees with the day-to-day technology they use for the CMS mission including laptops, printers, IT peripherals and many software applications.

NOTE: This position is primarily remote; however, the customer may modify the work arrangement at any time, and up to 10% travel may be required. The ideal candidate should live within commuting distance of the Leidos and/or CMS office to support on-site work as needed.

The hourly rate for this position is $30.41/hr.

In this role, you will:

• Assist, coordinate, and create written technical content. This position involves extensive writing which is the core focus of the role. 

• Be part of program and customer meetings. 

• Work collaboratively as part of the CKT Team and in a matrix environment that includes project managers, IT engineers, and service delivery professionals.

• Report to and provide some support to the Knowledge Coordinator, Team Lead with shared responsibility to the Sr Manager, Communications, Knowledge and Training.

• Collaborate with others in the technical writing team.

• Work within a team in a fast-paced environment.

• Have a positive, customer-centric, “can do” attitude.

This position plays an important role in delivering and growing customers and program initiatives for CMS staff. This entails working with end-user communications needs and working collaboratively with other contracting partners. The Technical Writer helps in the development, coordination, and implementation of various types of written content, including integrated communication and marketing plans, end-user communications, and how-to guides, from pilot to full deployment of IT end user initiatives.

The Technical Writer position is part of a multidisciplinary CKT Team, including technical and content writers, visual and graphic designer, multimedia videographer, knowledge specialists, training specialists, and traffic coordinator. 

Collaboration with others across the program team is critical, including with project managers, IT specialists and engineers, procurement, document and quality control, service delivery, and service desk. This position includes working with the customer, internal program team members, subject matter experts, and other program partners and contractors.

A customer service mindset and approach, attention to detail, proactive approach, and can-do problem-solving attitude are critical. 

Under the direction of the Knowledge Coordinator, Team Lead with shared responsibility to the Sr. Director Communications, Marketing, and Training, your responsibilities will include, but will not be limited to:

• Assist with, write and edit product, project, and technical documents, including procedures, processes, functional descriptions, system specifications, reports, manuals, guidelines, training, briefings and presentations, special reports, and other project deliverables to meet contract requirements.

• Digital, print and physical mediums that this role may be involved with include but are not limited to: signage, posters and banners, email broadcasts and announcements, intranet and web materials, Tier 0 knowledge articles, newsletters, events, video scripts, animations, diagrams and dashboards, instructional documents, FAQs, fact sheets and talking points, executive summaries, one pagers, white papers and reports;

• Grow to effectively communicate during the content creation and editing process and, when necessary, meet with technical staff to obtain additional information required for the documentation.

• Over time successfully learn and apply understanding of technical initiatives and processes into plain language end user communication for a variety of content documents.

• Assist with outlines and drafts for review and approval by technical specialists and management ensuring that final documents meet applicable contract requirements and regulations.

• Consult with relevant information sources, including digital resources, technical documents, and client and project personnel, to obtain background information, and verify pertinent guidelines and regulations governing project deliverables.

• Work successfully within project teams and manage work independently over time through these processes including internal and customer review and approval processes.

• Perform technical edit and support quality reviews; perform document conversion to PDF and test for Section 508 compliancy, where needed.

• Provide input and help guide development of workflow processes, standards, and documentation of such for the program and customer interface as needed.

• Ensure documents meet editorial and government specifications and adhere to standards for quality, graphics, coverage, format, and style.

• Bachelor’s degree in writing, technical writing, journalism, mass communications, marketing, communications, or closely related discipline.

• 1+ years of experience working on technical writing, communications, content creation or related areas.

• Ability to learn and capture technical solutions and designs and translate in technical documentation.

• Strong written and oral communication skills.

• Experience with document structure and logic flow, as well as writing for non-technical audiences.

• Experience in document and repository management practices, developing new and/or refining existing technical writing processes to enhance quality and productivity.

• Strong writing and editing background, is self-organized on daily and longer-term basis.

• Collaboration skills to work in a team across multiple disciplines.

• Ability to research and organize process work steps in a concise and discernible manner.

• Ability to manage multiple assignments while ensuring technical accuracy, adherence to documentation standards, and a timely delivery of all work products.

• Knowledge and experience with various documentation tools including Microsoft Office.

• Must be able to work additional hours on occasion.

• Ability to travel locally is required.

• Ability to obtain and maintain a public trust clearance.

All candidates supporting the CMS programs must have lived in the United States at least three (3) out of the last five (5) years prior in order to be considered.

• Awareness of and ability to learn to work to 508 compliance.

• Awareness of human centered design (HCD) framework.

• Ability to learn Agile project management including in Jira and Confluence environments.

• Experience in a similar working environment helpful but not required as new thinking, experience and ideas from other industries or work environments are considered, a plus.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.