PMO Technical Writer Lead

Description

Job Summary: The PMO Technical Writer Lead is responsible for leading the development, quality, and delivery of technical documentation related to Geographic Solutions’ software products and project implementations. This position ensures that documentation meets applicable standards, supports organizational and customer needs, and is appropriate for its intended audience.

The PMO Technical Writer Lead works closely with Geographic Solutions technical writers, project managers, software developers, business analysts, quality assurance personnel, trainers, and other subject matter experts to create and maintain end-user, system administrator, implementation, and technical reference documentation. The position also oversees contributions to release notes, business proposals, project deliverables, and other collateral documents.

In addition to performing advanced technical writing duties, the PMO Technical Writer Lead provides day-to-day leadership to the technical writing team. This includes assigning and prioritizing work, monitoring deadlines, conducting quality reviews, mentoring team members, supporting resource planning, and promoting consistent documentation standards, tools, and processes across the Project Management Office.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Writing and Documentation

• Create and maintain high-quality end-user guides, system administrator guides, technical reference materials, document deliverables, plans, implementation documents, and other required project documentation.
• Ensure documentation adheres to established style, formatting, branding, accessibility, and quality guidelines.
• Capture, create, and maintain screenshots, flowcharts, diagrams, graphics, tables, and other visual materials used in documentation.
• Edit and proofread documents to ensure accuracy, clarity, consistency, grammar, punctuation, spelling, terminology, and page layout.
• Test end-user and system documentation against the software to verify accuracy, completeness, and usability.
• Analyze existing technical documents, business requirements, functional specifications, and other source materials to determine the application’s operational intent.
• Translate complex technical and functional information into clear, concise, and audience-appropriate content.
• Create and maintain documentation templates, boilerplate content, standard language, and reusable content.
• Contribute to release notes, business proposals, statements of work, project deliverables, and other collateral documents.
• Maintain current knowledge of Geographic Solutions’ software products and update documentation and proposal content as functionality changes.
• Maintain organized files, version histories, approvals, and documentation records in accordance with established procedures.

Team Leadership and Work Management

• Provide day-to-day leadership, direction, and support to technical writers and other assigned documentation resources.
• Assign and prioritize documentation work based on project schedules, business needs, team capacity, and organizational priorities.
• Monitor team workloads, milestones, dependencies, risks, and deadlines to ensure documentation is delivered on time.
• Coordinate documentation activities across multiple projects, product releases, and competing priorities.
• Establish clear expectations for assignments, quality standards, review cycles, and completion criteria.
• Conduct regular work reviews and provide timely, actionable, and constructive feedback.
• Mentor and coach team members to strengthen writing, editing, software knowledge, project coordination, and stakeholder communication skills.
• Support the onboarding and training of new technical writers and documentation contributors.
• Promote accountability, collaboration, knowledge sharing, and continuous improvement within the team.
• Identify resource constraints or delivery risks and escalate them to PMO leadership with recommended solutions.
• Assist management with resource planning, performance feedback, professional development recommendations, and documentation staffing needs

Quality Assurance and Standards

• Serve as the primary quality lead for PMO documentation and ensure deliverables meet established standards before release.
• Conduct peer reviews and final quality reviews of documentation produced by team members.
• Develop, maintain, and enforce documentation standards, style guides, templates, checklists, workflows, and naming conventions.
• Ensure consistent terminology, structure, formatting, tone, and presentation across documentation sets.
• Establish and monitor review and approval processes involving project managers, business analysts, developers, quality assurance personnel, and other subject matter experts.
• Identify recurring documentation issues and implement corrective actions, training, or process improvements.
• Define and monitor documentation quality measures, delivery metrics, and status reporting, as appropriate.
• Evaluate and recommend documentation tools, technologies, and practices that improve quality, consistency, collaboration, and efficiency

Project and Stakeholder Coordination

• Partner with project managers to develop documentation plans, estimates, schedules, milestones, and deliverable requirements.
• Participate in project planning meetings, status meetings, release planning, demonstrations, and requirements discussions.
• Communicate documentation status, risks, dependencies, and resource needs to PMO leadership and project stakeholders.
• Coordinate with business analysts, software developers, quality assurance personnel, trainers, support teams, and other subject matter experts to clarify software functionality and documentation requirements.
• Facilitate document reviews and obtain required feedback and approvals within established timelines.
• Ensure documentation activities are aligned with project plans, contractual commitments, release schedules, and customer expectations.
• Build productive working relationships with diverse levels of personnel and promote effective collaboration between technical writers and project teams.
• Represent the technical writing function in PMO planning, process improvement, and cross-functional initiatives

Software and Process Improvement

• Report software anomalies encountered during documentation and testing activities.
• Recommend software changes when documentation efforts identify usability, navigation, consistency, or user-experience improvements.
• Identify gaps between documented requirements, system behavior, and intended functionality, and communicate findings to the appropriate stakeholders.
• Lead or contribute to improvements in documentation standards, tools, templates, workflows, and review processes.
• Encourage the use of repeatable, scalable, and efficient content-development practices.
• Evaluate lessons learned from completed projects and implement improvements for future documentation efforts.
• Support the development and maintenance of a centralized documentation knowledge base and reusable content library

Leadership Expectations

• Demonstrate sound judgment, professionalism, accountability, and attention to detail.
• Lead by example and consistently model high standards for quality, communication, collaboration, and customer service.
• Provide clear direction while encouraging team members to take ownership of their work.
• Address performance, quality, or workflow concerns promptly and professionally.
• Make informed decisions regarding priorities, assignments, and documentation approaches.
• Resolve routine team and documentation issues independently and escalate significant concerns appropriately.
• Foster a respectful, inclusive, and collaborative work environment.
• Adapt leadership and communication approaches based on individual, team, project, and stakeholder needs.
• Support organizational change and help the team understand and implement new processes, tools, and priorities.
• Maintain confidentiality and exercise appropriate discretion when handling sensitive company, employee, customer, or project information

Requirements

Work Experience / Knowledge:

• Advanced technical writing, editing, proofreading, and document-design skills.
• Ability to interpret complex technical, functional, and business information and communicate it clearly and concisely.
• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, coordinate, or review the work of others.
• Strong organizational, planning, prioritization, and time-management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple projects, deadlines, and competing priorities with minimal supervision.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including the ability to work effectively with technical and nontechnical personnel.
• Ability to provide and receive constructive feedback and take positive action based on that feedback.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to identify quality issues, process gaps, project risks, and opportunities for improvement.
• Ability to facilitate meetings, document reviews, and discussions with subject matter experts.
• Ability to establish documentation estimates, schedules, and work plans.
• Knowledge of documentation development lifecycles, version control practices, and review and approval processes.
• Proficiency with standard word-processing, presentation, diagramming, screen-capture, collaboration, and document-management tools.
• Ability to learn complex software applications and maintain current product knowledge.
• Ability to work independently while providing effective leadership and support to a team.
• Commitment to accuracy, consistency, usability, and continuous improvement

Qualifications / Certifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Technical Communication, English, Communications, Information Technology, Business, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
• Five or more years of professional technical writing, software documentation, or related experience.
• Prior experience leading, mentoring, coordinating, or supervising technical writers.
• Experience working within a Project Management Office or supporting multiple software implementation projects.
• Experience producing documentation for enterprise software, web-based applications, or government workforce systems.
• Experience with content-management systems, document repositories, version-control tools, or structured authoring environments.
• Familiarity with software development lifecycles, project management methodologies, quality assurance practices, and release processes.
• Experience contributing to proposals, statements of work, contractual deliverables, or customer-facing project documentation

Essential Job Functions:

• Organize and prioritize work to meet established objectives and deadlines.
• Review detailed technical information for extended periods while maintaining accuracy and focus.
• Communicate effectively through written, verbal, and electronic methods.
• Collaborate with employees and stakeholders across departments and levels of the organization.
• Exercise independent judgment when resolving documentation, quality, scheduling, and team workflow issues.
• Adapt to changing project requirements, priorities, software functionality, and organizational needs

Special Requirements:

• This role may require occasional evening and weekend hours to meet critical deadlines