Technical Writing Team Lead

The Technical Writing Team Lead manages a team of technical writers working in a particular product area for the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) solution. While providing line management to other writers in the stream, they’ll also be responsible for the content supporting the product area, ensuring it is delivered on time and meets the needs of both the business and the audience.

In their capacity as a line manager, the Technical Writer Team Lead is responsible for recruiting new team members, overseeing their onboarding, and mentoring writers where necessary. They’ll also form part of the management team for the wider technical communication function within Ocado Technology, representing their product area.

They’re also responsible for ensuring content meets the agreed standards, reviewing other writers’ work, taking a wider editorial responsibility for the content delivered within the product area, and understanding the information needs of both our audiences and our own business.

Key Customers/Stakeholders

• Technical Communications Practice Lead
• Product Managers
• Engineering Team Leads/Managers
• UX Designers
• Technical Architect
• Training Managers

We’re looking to hire a Technical Writing Team Lead to manage a team of technical writers which is developing content for the Logistics and Delivery product area within Ocado Smart Platform (OSP). The team forms part of a wider technical communications function with the collective goal of providing best-in-class, documentation for the platform.

OSP is a large-scale, end-to-end e-commerce and fulfilment platform, which is powering leading grocery retailers around the world. As such we’re providing a wealth of content to help our retail partners adopt our platform, to help users use our software, to help developers integrate with it, and to provide supporting content for training and onboarding. Our content includes user guides, feature guides, configuration guides, and operating guides, as well as technical documentation, such as API or data feed references, and more.

As Technical Writer Team Lead you’ll be a senior writer and will become a subject matter expert for your area. You’ll work with writers to determine the content that’s required to support new features, and help ensure content is created and published on time. You’ll ensure all work meets the agreed standards and guidelines, and you’ll contribute to developing and enhancing those when needed. You’ll act as a reviewer, editor, and coach/mentor for the writers in your stream, and you’ll also keep one eye on improving the content we provide through feedback and analysis. You’ll also lead the team in working on content solutions to support new product development.

A key aspect of the role is to be involved in planning and coordinating writers’ work, using Jira, and working with other stakeholders to ensure content needs are captured, and the results are delivered on time.

This is an exciting role that requires someone who has a high level of relevant experience, but who has a demonstrable understanding of modern approaches to documentation.

Detailed responsibilities are outlined below.

Product alignment and contribution

• Work closely with Product, UX and Engineering teams to ensure deliverables meet the objectives set by the business stream and the wider technical communications strategy.
• Develop an in-depth view of the products developed by the business stream, and how they relate to other platform solutions.
• Play a key role in developing a platform language for our solution, so that features are named in accordance with the product and communications strategy.

Team leadership and influence

• Line manage and grow a high-performing team of writers, supporting individuals to thrive and succeed, by coaching, mentoring, inspiring, and providing feedback.
• Lead the team in solving new content challenges as the product develops.
• Recruit and onboard new writers when required - providing any content and structure needed to support that task.
• Help create a strong sense of purpose and mission for the technical writers, and take ownership of their outcomes.
• Be an example of our behaviours and values, inspiring others to do the same.
• Ensure writers have actionable, measurable goals, aligned with product strategy and vision.
• Drive adoption of and adherence to the agreed standards and working practices of the wider technical communications function.
• Work with the team and stakeholders to ensure all required work for product updates is identified and tracked in JIRA.
• Represent the technical communications function at business stream planning meetings and help coordinate writers in the delivery of content in the development cycle.
• Ensure the team is delivery-focussed and effort is balanced against product deadlines.

Content management

• Ensure writers’ work is reviewed and provide editorial oversight of the wider content produced.
• Ensure the team works collaboratively with stakeholders to understand the audiences and business needs for supporting content.
• Track and monitor the effectiveness of the total content provided by writers in the business stream to ensure it works together to form coherent narratives, and to seek improvements where necessary.
• Lead writers in identifying gaps in content, or opportunities where content can help our audiences.
• Make recommendations to improve the overall content strategy for technical communications supporting our platform development.

You may be asked to perform tasks as required by management deemed as a reasonable request. This job description is a summary of the typical functions of the role, not an exhaustive or comprehensive list of possible role responsibilities, tasks and duties and is subject to review. The responsibilities, tasks and duties of the job holder might differ from those outlined in the job description and other duties, as assigned, might form part of the job.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Experience in managing and leading technical writers.
• Experience in writing documentation for software, such as help instructions, user guides, release notes, and tutorials, according to accepted modern industry standards
• Experience in writing API documentation and references.
• Experience in writing for translation.
• Outstanding attention to detail.
• Experience in working in an agile and continuous integration development environment, following a ‘docs as code’ approach.
• Experience in defining or contributing to technical writing processes and style guides.
• Experience in content structure and strategy.
• Experience in SME and stakeholder management.
• Experience in managing tasks in JIRA.
• Excellent communication skills, to people of all levels.
• Good organisation and prioritisation skills.
• Language: English (C1), Polish (B2).
• Using static site generators such as Jekyll, and writing in Markdown.
• Using Git, or other version control systems.
• Working with distributed teams across multiple locations.
• Permanent Contract
• Multi-Sport Card
• Medical Insurance
• Life assurance
• Training and Development opportunities

Ocado is an equal opportunities employer and as such makes every effort to ensure that all potential employees are treated fairly and equally, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, marital status, race, color, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion, age, disability or union membership status.

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When our journey started, we were all about changing the way people shop for groceries. 20 years later, we’re developing our own ground breaking technology, opening multiple sites at an accelerating rate and engaging in exciting new business partnerships around the world

Transforming an industry also means transforming the way we do business. As we continually develop new technologies and customer propositions, we’re looking for the Everyday Pioneers to lead us into the next stage of our evolution: enhancing our capabilities, inspiring our teams and developing new ways of working.

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