Author

Garmin; Olathe (KS); On-site; USD 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Garmin International seeks a full-time Author at its U.S. headquarters in the Greater Kansas City area. You will plan, develop, and deliver moderately complex customer instructional deliverables within the TechComm team.

You will author content in the CMS, lead projects that reuse existing documentation, collaborate with Information Architects, and mentor other authors while maintaining schedules and ensuring quality across formats including graphics or video content.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Technical Writing, Journalism, English or related and at least 1 year of relevant work experience.
• Equivalent combination of education and experience accepted.
• Proficiency with MS Word, Excel, and Outlook.
• Strong verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Knowledge of Garmin’s organization, customers, and products.

Responsibilities

• Authors new, moderately complex content in the CMS, adhering to content management strategies.
• Leads projects based on existing documentation and assists with new-content-heavy projects.
• Contributes to Documentation and Translation Plans.
• Collaborates with Information Architects to plan CMS publication architecture.
• Demonstrates understanding of authoring, XML tagging, and related tools/standards.
• Mentors other authors and provides feedback on tone, style, and audience.

Skills

Verbal communication

Written communication

Time management

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Technical Writing/Journalism/English

Master’s Degree (desired)

Tools

MS Word

MS Excel

Outlook

CMS

InDesign

DITA XML

Job description

Overview

We are seeking a full-time Author at Garmin's U.S. headquarters in the Greater Kansas City area. In this role, you will be responsible for planning, developing, and delivering moderately complex customer instructional deliverables.

Essential Functions

• Authors new, moderately complex content in the CMS, adhering to established content management strategies, including library strategies, conditions, and topic versioning
• Leads new projects that are based heavily on existing documentation and assists with projects that require a lot of new content
• Contributes to the development of Documentation and Translation Plans
• Works with Information Architects to plan and build architecture for CMS publications
• Demonstrates full understanding of authoring standards, XML tagging standards, and departmental standards, processes, tools, and technologies
• Collaborates with teams outside of TechComm to define, develop, and approve content
• Maintains project calendar and communicates milestones/status to all project stakeholders
• Works creatively with graphics professionals to develop new, graphics-based or video-based content that aids in customer understanding
• Reviews content written by other authors and provides effective feedback for organization, style, voice, audience, and consistency
• Identifies potential TechComm process improvements and works with leadership to define/document processes
• Encourages/supports associate development by assisting in training and mentoring other authors
• Identifies/troubleshoots moderately complex issues, reproduces issues, evaluates technical cause, and implements/tests solution in a complete, accurate, and timely manner
• Actively participates in meetings, trainings, and discussions
• Demonstrates a sense of urgency/commitment on right priorities and assists teammates to do the same as well as ensures time/costs toward tasks/projects are justified
• Appropriately creates, documents, tracks, and evaluates project requirements, scope, schedules, costs, risks, priorities, assumptions, dependencies, ROI, and plans for own tasks/projects as well as assists with tasks/projects owned by others
• Actively seeks to understand internal/external customers and shares/applies information appropriately
• Effectively/proactively provides back-up and assistance for teammates as appropriate/needed for team success
• Challenges self, learns/applies new skills to achieve success, and maintains reliable/predictable attendance
• Identifies opportunities for improved efficiency (time and cost), collaboration, and innovation and helps to plan/implement

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Technical Writing, Journalism, English or related AND a minimum of 1 year relevant work experience OR an equivalent combination of relevant education and experience
• Excellent academics (cumulative GPA greater than or equal to 3.0 as a general rule)
• Proficiency using MS Word, Excel, and Outlook
• Demonstrates proficient application of requirements, standards, processes, procedures, tools, and technologies
• Demonstrates effective verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills
• Demonstrates superior organizational, time-management, and follow-up skills and must be team-oriented, possess a positive attitude, and collaborate effectively with others to achieve goals in a fast-paced, deadline-driven environment
• Proven track record in effectively managing tasks and priorities for overlapping projects and meeting deadlines in a consistent, complete, accurate, and timely manner
• Demonstrates knowledge of Garmin’s organization, customers, market segments, products, operations, and strategies

Desired Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Technical Writing, Journalism, English, or related field
• Hands-on experience with Garmin or GPS products
• Experience using DITA-based XML, structured authoring, and related tools
• Experience using a content management system (CMS)
• Experience with desktop publishing tools, specifically InDesign and other Adobe-based products

Garmin International is an equal opportunity employer. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran’s status, age or disability.

This position is eligible for Garmin's benefit program. Details can be found here: Garmin Benefits