Technical Writer

Stanfordlivetickets; Menlo Park (CA); On-site; USD 55,000 - 83,000; Part time

Job summary

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory seeks a part-time on-call Policy and Technical Writer/Editor to develop and maintain laboratory-level policies, forms, and related content, collaborating with policy owners and subject matter experts to ensure clarity, accuracy, and compliance.

The role emphasizes plain-language writing, templates, and governance, with responsibilities to coordinate reviews, manage publication schedules, and ensure a consistent institutional voice across documents.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Minimum five years of experience in policy writing, technical writing, editing, or related discipline.
• Ability to translate complex requirements into clear, concise content for diverse audiences.
• Strong technical editing, plain-language editing, and content organization skills.
• Experience creating forms, templates, style guides, and reusable content structures.
• Experience coordinating with policy owners, SMEs, and management.

Responsibilities

• Draft, edit, and maintain policies, procedures, guidance documents, forms, templates, standards, and related content.
• Coordinate development, review, approval, revision, and publication with stakeholders across the laboratory.
• Create and maintain templates, forms, style guidance, editorial standards, and supporting tools.
• Apply plain-language principles and content organization to improve readability and usability.
• Develop a consistent institutional voice, structure, and user experience across documents.
• Review content for accuracy, compliance, terminology, formatting, and alignment with standards.
• Analyze processes to identify documentation needs and improvements to governance practices.
• Support continuous improvement of policy processes, content standards, and publishing workflows.
• Communicate value of standards and governance to stakeholders.
• Manage multiple writing projects, contributors, deadlines, and publication schedules.

Skills

Excellent communication

Project coordination

Analytical thinking

Collaboration/customer service

Microsoft Office/tools

Education

Bachelor's degree in English/Communications/Technical Writing/Public Administration/Business Administration or related field

Tools

SharePoint

Content management systems

Adobe Acrobat

Microsoft Office

Job description

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory seeks a Policy and Technical Writer/Editor to support the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of laboratory-level policies, procedures, forms, templates, guidance documents, and related technical content. Working closely with policy owners, subject matter experts, operational teams, and management across the laboratory, this position will help create clear, accurate, accessible, and user-centered documentation that supports compliance, consistency, and effective operations.

Reporting to the designated manager and collaborating with stakeholders throughout SLAC, the part-time, on-call Policy and Technical Writer/Editor will draft, edit, organize, and coordinate the development of policies and related documentation while helping establish consistent standards and practices for institutional content. Work will be performed on an on-call basis as assigned.

Note: This is a non-benefits eligible casual nonexempt position (work less than 50% full-time equivalent), not to exceed 980 hours in a calendar year.

SLAC is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) laboratory operated by Stanford University and based in Menlo Park.

Your specific responsibilities include:

• Draft, edit, and maintain laboratory-level policies, procedures, guidance documents, forms, templates, standards, and related technical content.
• Partner with policy owners, subject matter experts, requirements experts, and management to develop clear, accurate, and actionable documentation.
• Coordinate document development, review, approval, revision, and publication of activities with stakeholders across the laboratory.
• Create and maintain templates, forms, style guidance, editorial standards, and supporting tools that promote consistency, clarity, accessibility, and ease of use.
• Apply plain-language principles, technical editing expertise, and content organization with best practices to improve the readability, usability, and effectiveness of policy and technical documentation.
• Develop and maintain a consistent institutional voice, structure, and user experience across policies, procedures, forms, templates, and related documentation.
• Review content for consistency, accuracy, compliance, terminology, formatting, and alignment with established documentation standards.
• Analyze business and operational processes to understand requirements, identify documentation needs, and recommend improvements to documentation, workflows, and content governance practices.
• Support continuous improvement of SLAC's policy processes, content standards, document governance practices, and publishing workflows.
• Communicate and reinforce the value of standards, templates, editorial practices, and consistent policy-development processes to stakeholders across the organization.
• Manage multiple writing, editing, and policy-development projects simultaneously, coordinating contributors, reviews, approvals, and publication schedules.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure documentation is accurate, useful, accessible, and appropriate for intended audiences.
• Coordinate document submission, publication, maintenance, version control, and archival activities consistent with documentation and records-management standards.
• Keep controlled documents up to date as requirements, processes, regulations, and organizational needs evolve.

To be successful in this position you will bring:

• Bachelor's degree in English, Communications, Technical Writing, Public Administration, Business Administration, or a related field, or a combination of education and experience performing responsibilities similar to those listed above.
• Minimum five years of experience in policy writing, technical writing, technical editing, communications, process documentation, or related discipline.
• Demonstrated ability to write, edit, and organize policies, procedures, standards, guidance documents, forms, templates, and technical documentation.
• Ability to translate complex requirements, processes, technical information, and operational decisions into clear, concise, and actionable content for diverse audiences.
• Strong technical editing skills, including plain-language editing, content organization, terminology consistency, formatting consistency, proofreading, and quality review.
• Ability to create and improve forms, templates, style guidance, and reusable content structures that support consistent policy development.
• Ability to review and understand end-to-end work processes and recommend improvements to documentation, workflows, and content governance.
• Strong collaboration and customer service skills, including the ability to work effectively with policy owners, subject matter experts, requirements experts, management, and stakeholders across technical, operational, and administrative functions.
• Ability to communicate the purpose and value of standards, templates, consistent documentation practices, and policy processes to stakeholders across the organization.
• Strong project coordination skills, including the ability to manage multiple assignments, contributors, deadlines, review cycles, approvals, and document updates simultaneously.
• Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, including the ability to identify interdependencies across organizational functions, processes, and documentation sets.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in both in-person and remote environments.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications and document development tools.

In addition, preferred requirements include:

• Experience writing and editing institutional policies, procedures, standards, guidance, compliance-related documents, or technical documentation.
• Experience developing forms, templates, style guides, editorial standards, and reusable documentation frameworks.
• Experience applying plain-language principles and user-centered content practices to make policy and technical information easier to find, understand, and use.
• Experience with SharePoint, content management systems, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office, or similar tools used to develop, publish, and maintain documentation.
• Experience supporting policy process improvement, publishing workflows, documentation governance, or organizational content standards.
• Experience coordinating document review, approval, publication, revision, and maintenance processes.
• Experience working in research, higher education, government, scientific, technical, operational, or highly regulated environments.
• Experience producing documentation that supports quality, compliance, accessibility, consistency, and employee usability.

Physical requirements and working conditions:

• Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodation to any employee with a disability who requires accommodation to perform the essential functions of the job.

Work Standards:

• Interpersonal Skills: Demonstrates the ability to work well with Stanford colleagues and clients and with external organizations.
• Promote Culture of Safety: Demonstrates commitment to personal responsibility and value for environment, safety and security; communicates related concerns; uses and promotes safe behaviors based on training and lessons learned. Meets the applicable roles and responsibilities as described in the ESH Manual, Chapter 1, General Policy and Responsibilities.
• Subject to and expected to comply with all applicable University policies and procedures, including but not limited to the personnel policies and other policies found in Stanford University's Administrative Guide.