Senior Technical Writer, Optics

TE Connectivity Ltd.; City of Rochester (NY); Hybrid; USD 75,000 - 113,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

401(k)

Disability Insurance

Life Insurance

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Paid Time Off

Voluntary Benefits

Job summary

TE Connectivity is seeking a Senior Technical Writer in the Rochester, NY area to build and maintain a robust technical documentation framework for a fast-growing engineering and manufacturing organization. You will collaborate with engineers, manufacturing teams, Program Management, Quality, and technical leaders to translate complex knowledge into clear, usable documentation.

The role requires deep technical aptitude, structured thinking, and the ability to manage multiple documentation

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or another technical discipline, or equivalent technical experience.
• 10+ years of technical documentation experience in engineering, manufacturing, hardware, semiconductor, industrial, or similarly complex technical environments.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain engineering and manufacturing documentation, including specifications, design documents, process specifications, work instructions, SOPs, test and validation procedures, troubleshooting guides, technical reports, and engineering standards.
• Work directly with subject matter experts to capture technical knowledge from discussions, drawings, test data, working notes, and practical experience.
• Lead structured interviews and working sessions to clarify requirements, assumptions, dependencies, interfaces, acceptance criteria, and decision rationale.
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear, concise documentation appropriate for the intended audience.
• Identify gaps, inconsistencies, and undocumented practices and work with technical owners to resolve them.
• Convert tribal knowledge into structured, reusable organizational knowledge.
• Ensure documentation is aligned with engineering change, configuration-management, quality, and product-release processes.
• Manage multiple documentation projects and priorities while coordinating inputs and approvals from cross-functional stakeholders.

Skills

Technical writing

Structured thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Facilitation

Project management

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or technical discipline

Tools

PLM systems

Document-management systems

Knowledge-management platforms

Revision control

Quality-management systems

Job description

At TE, you will unleash your potential working with people from diverse backgrounds and industries to create a safer, sustainable and more connected world.

Job Overview

Position Summary

The Senior Technical Writer is responsible for building and maintaining the technical documentation framework for a fast-growing engineering and manufacturing organization. This role works directly with engineers, manufacturing teams, Program Management, Quality, and technical leaders to capture complex technical knowledge and translate it into clear, accurate, controlled, and usable documentation. The successful candidate will combine strong technical aptitude, structured thinking, curiosity, communication skills, and the ability to work effectively with experienced technical teams.

Location

This is an onsite/hybrid role based in the Rochester, NY area, with an expectation of spending at least three days per week onsite working closely with engineering and manufacturing teams.

Job Requirements

Key Responsibilities

Technical Documentation & Knowledge Capture

• Develop and maintain engineering and manufacturing documentation, including specifications, design documents, process specifications, work instructions, SOPs, test and validation procedures, troubleshooting guides, technical reports, and engineering standards.
• Work directly with subject matter experts to capture technical knowledge from discussions, drawings, test data, working notes, and practical experience.
• Lead structured interviews and working sessions to clarify requirements, assumptions, dependencies, interfaces, acceptance criteria, and decision rationale.
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear, concise documentation appropriate for the intended audience.
• Identify gaps, inconsistencies, and undocumented practices and work with technical owners to resolve them.
• Convert tribal knowledge into structured, reusable organizational knowledge.
• Ensure documentation is aligned with engineering change, configuration-management, quality, and product-release processes.
• Manage multiple documentation projects and priorities while coordinating inputs and approvals from cross-functional stakeholders.
• Develop a prioritized documentation roadmap based on engineering, manufacturing, quality, and business needs.

Process & Document Management

• Document end-to-end engineering and manufacturing workflows, including process steps, ownership, inputs, outputs, controls, decision points, and acceptance criteria.
• Establish scalable document structures, naming conventions, metadata, ownership, revision control, and lifecycle practices.
• Define authoritative sources of technical information and improve traceability across requirements, designs, processes, test results, and released documentation.
• Ensure documentation aligns with engineering change, configuration-management, quality, and product-release processes.
• Develop practical templates and documentation standards and reduce duplicate, outdated, or conflicting information.

Documentation Systems & Execution

• Manage documentation priorities and projects from discovery through review, approval, publication, maintenance, and retirement.
• Develop a prioritized documentation roadmap aligned with engineering, manufacturing, quality, and business needs.
• Partner with Engineering, Quality, Program Management, Operations, and IT to improve documentation workflows, repositories, and collaboration tools.
• Support PLM, document-management, and knowledge-management systems.
• Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate documentation processes.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Build trusted relationships with engineers and technical leaders across multiple disciplines.
• Facilitate documentation working sessions and independently convert technical discussions into structured outputs.
• Communicate effectively across different technical functions and levels of seniority.
• Drive adoption of documentation standards without direct authority.
• Balance documentation rigor and control with usability, speed, and the needs of a fast-moving organization.

What Your Background Should Look Like

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering or another technical discipline, or equivalent technical experience.
• 10+ years of technical documentation experience in engineering, manufacturing, hardware, semiconductor, industrial, or similarly complex technical environments.
• Demonstrated ability to understand complex technical systems and communicate them clearly.
• Experience working directly with engineers and technical subject matter experts.
• Experience developing specifications, engineering procedures, process documentation, work instructions, or similar technical content.
• Familiarity with configuration management, revision control, requirements management, document control, and quality-management systems.
• Experience with PLM, document-management, knowledge-management, or engineering collaboration platforms.
• Experience working within a quality management system or controlled document environment.
• Experience creating process maps, technical diagrams, system architecture diagrams, workflows, photographs, and annotated images.
• Strong analytical, structured-thinking, written, verbal, and facilitation skills.
• Ability to independently manage documentation from discovery through publication and lifecycle maintenance.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to build credibility with experienced technical professionals.
• Ability to provide technical writing samples or a portfolio, subject to confidentiality restrictions.
• Experience managing documentation projects from initial discovery through review, approval, publication, maintenance, and retirement.
• Ability to influence stakeholders and drive adoption of documentation standards without direct authority.

Highly Preferred

• Experience in optics, electronics, semiconductors, automation, precision equipment, manufacturing, or complex hardware development.
• Experience documenting both products and manufacturing equipment.
• Experience helping a rapidly scaling organization establish disciplined engineering documentation and knowledge-management practices.

#TEOpticsJobs #USOpticsJobs

Competencies

Values: Integrity, Accountability, Inclusion, Innovation, Teamwork

About Te Connectivity

TE Connectivity plc (NYSE: TEL) is a global industrial technology leader creating a safer, sustainable, productive, and connected future. As a trusted innovation partner, our broad range of connectivity and sensor solutions enable the distribution of power, signal and data to advance next-generation transportation, energy networks, automated factories, data centers enabling artificial intelligence, and more.

Compensation

• Competitive base salary commensurate with experience: $75,400 – $113,000 (subject to change dependent on physical location)
• Posted salary ranges are made in good faith. TE Connectivity reserves the right to adjust ranges depending on the experience/qualification of the selected candidate as well as internal and external equity.
• Total Compensation = Base Salary + Incentive(s) + Benefits

Benefits

• A comprehensive benefits package including health insurance, 401(k), disability, life insurance, employee stock purchase plan, paid time off and voluntary benefits.

EOE, Including Disability/Vets

IMPORTANT NOTICE REGARDING RECRUITMENT FRAUD

TE Connectivity has become aware of fraudulent recruitment activities being conducted by individuals or organizations falsely claiming to represent TE Connectivity. Please be advised that TE Connectivity never requests payment or fees from job applicants at any stage of the recruitment process. All legitimate job openings are posted exclusively on our official careers website at te.com/careers, and all email communications from our recruitment team will come only from actual email addresses ending in @te.com. If you receive any suspicious communications, we strongly advise you not to engage or provide any personal information, and to report the incident to your local authorities.