Technical Writer

Sécheron Hasler Group continues the Swiss tradition of more than 140 years in the field of railway technology. We are one of the world’s leading suppliers of electrical and electronic safety components and solutions and traction power supply systems for the railway industry, and also offer solutions for renewable energies, DC networks and other industrial systems. The name Sécheron Hasler Group is synonymous worldwide with Swiss quality and represents a leading reference for state-of-the-art products supplied to the market. With more than 1300 employees worldwide, we are where our customers are, supplying approved products in our customers’ countries or markets and providing supply chain and customer services locally.

Our head office is located in Geneva, Switzerland. We currently have a need to expand our technical documentation team in our Electrical Safety Solutions division and are looking to hire a dynamic, passionate and experienced technical writer. In this role, you will be part of the team responsible for producing the technical documentation that supports our range of electrical delivery and safety equipment. You will revise and originate technical manuals that comply with rail and rolling stock standards and our own corporate format for customer-facing documents. Your output will communicate clearly to a wide range of users and facilitate the safe and efficient installation, operation and maintenance of our products. Sécheron’s portfolio of circuit breakers, contactors and earthing and safety systems are best in class and this standard continues into our documentation deliverables.

This role is based on site in Manchester in the UK’s northwest, with the possibility of working from home up to 40% of the time.

Main tasks:

• Researching, writing and illustrating technical product support material including operating instructions, installation, maintenance and repair manuals.
  – Texts written on Madcap Flare and Adobe FrameMaker
  – Illustrations with Adobe Illustrator (or equivalent)
  – Image mainly extracted from 3D softwares: Solidworks Composer (or Solidworks)
  – Photos with the use of Adobe Photoshop (or equivalent).
• Editing these documents in both pdf and HTML5.
• Handling a versioning system (with SmartGit or Flare).
• Gathering information from all persons from different sites involved in the products: development engineers, product managers, maintenance technicians, etc.
• Transcribing technical subject matter and industry jargon into easily understood text. Writing clearly and concisely ensuring consistency in terminology to avoid ambiguity and subsequent confusion for the readers.
• Planning allocated work to ensure that tasks are completed on time in line with departmental objectives.

Requirements

• A native English speaker with an excellent command of the English language: spelling, punctuation, grammar and syntax.
• Relevant educational qualifications (minimum HNC / HND in Mechanical / Electrical Engineering).
• Proficiency in the use of Adobe FrameMaker Creative Suite, HTML editors and CSS, Madcap Flare would be an asset.
• An analytical mind, keen attention to detail and a desire to learn.
• At least four years’ experience in a technical writing role in a multi-disciplined product / project-led technology business.
• The interpersonal skills needed to complement the dynamic of the existing team and to demonstrate expected behaviours and standards.
• The ability to discuss technical issues with hardware engineers and understand and absorb information quickly.
• Experience in interpreting design documentation: schematic diagrams, technical specifications, arrangement drawings etc. in order to extract relevant source information.

Other advantages include:

• Competence in another European language

• Knowledge of the rolling stock industry, railway network operations and associated standards and directives.

• Experience in using the Adobe Creative Suite to generate documents

• Experience and interest in web environment.

• Ability to migrate technical documentation to web-based learning platform

Benefits

We have flat hierarchies and direct communication between departments and management levels is encouraged. This allows us to make decisions quickly.

We give our employees full responsibility for their work tasks. All employees are encouraged to take initiative and contribute to the operational excellence of the company, and have ample opportunities to achieve their personal and professional growth goals.

Have we piqued your interest with this role and person specification? If so, we would be happy to discuss it further with you. Please send us a covering letter with your current CV as soon as possible.