Technical Writer - Ordnance Survey : Job Details

Our OS Commercial business unit is looking for someone to help inspire the organisation and our customers, to go 'somewhere new', by building a portfolio of next generation data, services and platforms.

Join us as we transform OS, deliver commercial growth and empower our customers to meet their goals. Most of all, you will play a critical role in helping OS to realise its vision: to be recognised as a world leader in geospatial services; creating location insight for positive impact.

We have a Technical Writer vacancy to support our OS Commercial and National Mapping Services business units, providing customers and OS Partners with relevant, world-class services, products, data and experiences. As part of our Licensed Data Products team, you'll be at the heart of our business, helping us realise our ambition and purpose as a world-leading geospatial data organisation.

You will take a user-centred approach to taking technical concepts and making them understandable and useable to an audience that includes geospatial specialists, developers and data scientists, as well as non-technical users. You will collaborate with subject matter experts across the organisation to provide users with an excellent support experience across our products.

You need to be a self-starter who can take ownership of a plan and drive delivery of this through a virtual team. You will be working on both delivering the immediate documentation needs of the business but also championing the evolution of the way in which our legacy product technical documentation transitions from static PDFs to dynamic online content.

The technical writers are responsible for defining and producing the technical documentation and materials to support new and existing products. You will ensure that relevant artefacts, such as product guides/overviews, getting started guides and product technical specifications, are discoverable, accessible and usable across multiple audiences. The role drives consistency in format, style, tone and language when describing technical concepts, products and services across web and other forms. The role will involve stakeholder management to allow for prioritisation and focus which are aligned to the strategic objectives of the business.

The technical writers are also responsible for proof-reading and formatting reports sent to government.

You will need to demonstrate an understanding of technical geospatial terminology and have the capability to understand the product portfolio, although you do not necessarily need to have a high level of technical competency in using databases, GIS or geospatial technologies.

This is an exciting challenge for an individual who is passionate about technical writing, understands users' needs at a technical level, and is a keen supporter of great user experiences of data and digital services.

You will likely be a self-starting professional with an interest in technology and data, with experience in technical writing for products for business and government. You may have a background in technical writing, whether for start-ups, large businesses or within the public sector, and are looking to take on a new challenge.

Essential

To be the successful candidate, you must demonstrate your track record against the following criteria in your application:

• Demonstrable experience as a Technical Writer, writing for technical audiences (for example, software developers) - if possible provide examples of or links to examples of your technical writing

• Strong working knowledge and experience of documenting data products and services

• Ideally, experience of B2B or B2G data products

• Strong interpersonal skills and stakeholder management at all levels

• Self-starter with good organisation skills

• Proven proficiency in written English and a high level of proof-reading and copy editing skills

• The ability to design content to meet user needs and make complex language and technical processes easy to understand

• Understand and implement house style and standards, and be capable of publishing content for a variety of media

• Experience with Gitbook or other Markdown based technical writing platforms

• Experience using technical writing and authoring software

Desirable but not essential

• Be a proficient user of GitBook and GitHub, plus project tracking tools, such as Azure DevOps

The rewards

We want you to love what you do. That's why our benefits package rewards a job well done. We'll give you:

• Salary: Up to £31,442 - £36,990 (depending on experience)

• Performance-related bonus

• A competitive pension scheme

• We embrace flexible working and can consider different working hours dependent on the role and your circumstances

• 25 days annual leave - (rising by 1 day each year to a maximum of 30) bank holidays and an extra 3 over Christmas

• Plus, a suite of excellent additional benefits

Location

We embrace a hybrid working model at OS and understand there is no one size fits all in relation to how we work. We have a fantastic HQ in Southampton, Hampshire where you will be required to spend some time with the remaining time being a personal choice as to whether you work from home, one of our regional offices or spend more time at OSHQ.

Security

OS conducts DBS background checks for all joiners and some of our roles require additional security clearance, including to SC or DV level in some cases. We will tell candidates at the appropriate time during the recruitment process if additional clearance will be required for this role.

Closing date - Sunday 14th April 2024

We believe diversity and inclusion is about working together - in an encouraging and respectful environment to reach our full potential. We believe combining different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives will help us reach our vision and be trusted and admired across the globe for setting the standards and leading the way.

We are looking for passionate and experienced individuals from a range of backgrounds and welcome applications from any race, age, gender, background or religion.

We're individually dedicated and collectively powerful and we give you the space to take your career in whichever direction you want.

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