Technical Author

Company: Blue Arrow
Apply for the Technical Author
Location: Oxford
Job Description:

Technical Author

Business, Location: Engineering Division, UK Site

Role: Technical Author

Reports to: Technical Publications Manager

Key Relationships: Technical Publications Manager, Engineering, Service, Software, Product Management, Quality, Project Managers, Technical Authorities, SMEs, and approved external suppliers.

Key Responsibilities

  • Research, author, revise, and maintain manuals, guides, procedures, and related controlled publications for complex products and projects.
  • Author in MadCap Flare using approved templates, reusable content, variables, condition tags, and controlled source files.
  • Gather and verify technical information from engineers, service teams, drawings, specifications, photographs, test data, and existing source material.
  • Produce and maintain technical illustrations, screenshots, mark-ups, diagrams, and visual content, or work with specialist illustrators where required.
  • Apply document control, revision control, and configuration management requirements throughout drafting, review, approval, release, and obsolescence.
  • Run quality checks for structure, clarity, terminology, safety content, cross-references, branding, and output accuracy before formal review.
  • Coordinate review and comment resolution with subject matter experts and support final approval and controlled publication release in PDF and HTML outputs.
  • Plan and manage assigned work to agreed priorities, communicate status and risks clearly, and support continuous improvement of authoring standards and workflows.
  • Carry out any other tasks reasonably required by the Company.
  • Take personal responsibility for health and safety and comply with company health, safety and environmental requirements.

Indicative Performance Measures

  • Assigned publications delivered to agreed dates and priorities.
  • Low level of post-release correction and rework.
  • Strong first-pass quality in review and approval cycles.
  • Compliance with templates, standards, document control, and version control requirements.
  • Effective use of authoring tools, reusable content, and approved workflows.
  • Positive stakeholder feedback on clarity, accuracy, and usability of published content.

Person Specification

Education / Qualifications

  • Degree, HNC/HND, or equivalent experience in engineering, science, technical communication, or a related discipline.
  • Proven technical authoring or technical writing experience in manufacturing, scientific equipment, engineering, aerospace, or another controlled technical environment.
  • Professional membership or accredited technical communication qualification desirable but not essential.

Professional Skills / Abilities

  • Strong MadCap Flare experience, including structured authoring, content reuse, output generation, and review workflow discipline.
  • Strong technical writing and editing skills with the ability to turn complex engineering information into clear user-facing content.
  • Ability to interpret engineering drawings, specifications, photographs and source data accurately.
  • Experience with document control, revision control, review cycles, and formal release processes.
  • Technical illustration experience desirable.

Personal Qualities

  • Accurate, methodical, and detail-focused.
  • Confident working with engineers, project teams, and reviewers.
  • Organised, accountable, and able to manage multiple priorities.
  • Committed to continuous improvement, professional standards, and clear communication.

Blue Arrow is proud to be a Disability Confident Employer and is committed to helping find great work opportunities for great people

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Posted: September 21st, 2026