Senior Technical Writer

Senior Technical Writer

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Job Description

BACKGROUND: Created in November 2018 from the former National Protection and Programs Directorate, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is the Nation’s risk advisor, working with partners to defend against today’s threats and collaborating to build more secure and resilient infrastructure for the future. The threats our Nation faces—digital and physical, manmade, technological, and natural—are more complex, and the threat actors more diverse, than at any point in our history. CISA is at the heart of mobilizing a collective defense as it leads the effort to understand and manage risk to critical infrastructure. CISA’s partners in this mission span the public, private, and non-governmental sectors. The cybersecurity, infrastructure security, and emergency communications capabilities and services CISA provides are driven by a comprehensive understanding of the risk environment and the corresponding needs identified by its stakeholders. CISA seeks to help its customers better manage risk and increase resilience using all available resources, whether inherent to their organizations, provided by the federal government, or licensed by commercial vendors.

Within CISA, the Integrated Operations Division (IOD) was created to ensure Agency-wide operational activities are coordinated, collaborative, and transparent to provide stakeholders with an integrated, “whole of CISA” response to their most critical needs. IOD’s Operational Planning, Readiness, and Continuity (OPRC) sub-division play an integral role in this process by developing, maintaining, training, and exercising the operational planning products used to guide CISA operations during Steady State, in support of special events, and in response to all-hazards threats and incidents. OPRC coordinates across the Agency to foster a culture of preparedness that reflects CISA strategy and leadership priorities and incorporates the unique capabilities, roles, and responsibilities of each division and line of business. Red Gate will provide OPRC with expertise in operational planning, training, and exercises; technical writing; and graphic design. The Senior Technical Writer will review and recommend revisions to all products submitted for technical edit (including operations plans, standard operating procedures, and other operational planning products; training and exercise documentation; briefings, memoranda, and other business documents; and project management documents). The Senior Technical Writer will coordinate across OPRC to understand the target audience and objectives of products submitted for review and work collaboratively to prepare products for clearance/approval by key internal stakeholders and senior leadership. The Senior Technical Writer will also work closely with the client and federal technical writers to reach a consensus on style issues and team preferences not addressed in CISA style guidelines and to disseminate additional style guidance to the team (as necessary).

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Advises client and onsite planning team on use of standard editorial practices, United States Government Publishing Office Style Manual, Federal Plain Language Guidelines, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Brand and Identity Program, and CISA style guidelines
• Reviews and edits documents to ensure proper grammar and formatting; clarity, flow, and consistency; and compliance with client style guidelines and document templates
• Applies Federal Plain Language Guidelines to ensure planning documents and other communication products are written at an appropriate level for the intended audience
• Structures products to highlight important information, ensuring ease of navigation and adding the appropriate visual content to support or expand on the text of the document
• Reviews content, style, design, and layout of tables, graphics, and other visual elements in documents to ensure they support and enhance the rest of the material under review
• Verifies references, footnotes, acronyms, and other supporting elements of documents under review
• Conducts research and collaborates with document authors to revise and rewrite deficient manuscripts in order to achieve document objectives
• Prepares documents developed by others for final approval, printing, and distribution to ensure deliverables convey what they are intended to say, are arranged logically, present facts to support conclusions, and are in accordance with CISA strategy and policy
• Develops various communication products (including memoranda and other correspondence, briefing slides, talking points, and fact sheets) to advance client projects and initiatives
• Researches and acquires knowledge of client’s core mission areas to aid in the selection and presentation of the appropriate information in assigned products
• Creates document templates for use internally and across client organization
• Assists federal technical writers in developing supplementary editorial standards and processes, as necessary

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree (emphasis in English, Communication, or Journalism preferred)
• At least 5 years of experience writing, editing, or reviewing government strategy, policy, or planning documents
• Demonstrated expertise in technical writing and editing
• Proven ability to apply rules in commonly used style guides/manuals (United States Government Publishing Office Style Manual or Modern Language Association Style Manual preferred) to review written products
• Meticulous attention to detail
• Comfortable working independently or as part of a small team
• Ability to multi-task effectively and manage and/or support multiple projects concurrently
• Familiarity with Federal Plain Language Guidelines, desktop publishing software, basic principles of graphic design, and SharePoint (or similar online collaboration tools) preferred
• Excellent verbal and interpersonal communication skills
• Advanced proficiency with Microsoft Office software package
• Experience supporting federal government clients (DHS experience preferred)

Additional Information

The Red Gate Group, Ltd. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. The Red Gate Group, Ltd. considers applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, disability, genetic information, citizenship status, or membership in any other group protected by federal, state, or local law.

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