Technical writer

Find out what a technical writer in government does and the skills you need to do the role at each level.

Last updated 30 August 2022 — See all updates

Contents

— What a technical writer does
— Technical writer role levels

— 1. Technical writer
— 2. Lead technical writer

— Roles that share technical writer skills

What a technical writer does

A technical writer takes a user-centred approach to making complicated technical concepts easier to understand for a specialist audience. In this role, you will focus on specialist content and software documentation, and write for technologists such as developers, technical architects, and technology leaders.

Technical writer role levels

There are 2 technical writer role levels, from technical writer to lead technical writer.

The typical responsibilities and skills for each role level are described in the sections below. You can use this to identify the skills you need to progress in your career, or simply to learn more about each role in the Government Digital and Data profession.

1. Technical writer

A technical writer is an expert practitioner with a deep understanding of technology and the needs of technologists.

At this role level, you will:

take a user-centred approach to explaining how to use government products and services to a technical audience, focusing on specialist content and software documentation
write blog posts for or on behalf of the technical community
engage with and contribute to the cross-government technical writing and content design communities

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

SEO (Senior Executive Officer)
G7 (Grade 7)

Skill	Description
Agile working Level: practitioner Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes help the team to decide the best approach help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and adhere to agreed minimum viable product (MVP), priorities and scope
Prototyping Level: working Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: understand when to use a specific prototyping technique or method show the value of prototyping to your team
Stakeholder relationship management Level: practitioner Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: influence stakeholders and manage relationships effectively build long-term strategic relationships and communicate clearly and regularly with stakeholders
Strategic thinking Level: expert Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met
Technical understanding (user-centred design) Level: practitioner Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: demonstrate knowledge of the technologies used to build and operate digital services collaborate closely with colleagues in different digital disciplines
User focus Level: expert Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: give direction on which tools or methods to use demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they're met by the business apply strategic thinking to provide the best service for the end user
User-centred content design Level: practitioner Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: show a deep understanding of end-to-end journeys and how content is affected within these journeys identify where journey fixes or content improvements need to be made take responsibility for assuring the quality of content from more junior colleagues, and coaching and guiding them to improve ensure that content is regularly reviewed and evaluated, contributing to continuous improvements and iteration encourage a continuous improvement mindset in teams and more junior content colleagues deliver through others, and direct and critique their work

You can:

identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes
help the team to decide the best approach
help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and adhere to agreed minimum viable product (MVP), priorities and scope

You can:

understand when to use a specific prototyping technique or method
show the value of prototyping to your team

You can:

influence stakeholders and manage relationships effectively
build long-term strategic relationships and communicate clearly and regularly with stakeholders

You can:

lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met

You can:

demonstrate knowledge of the technologies used to build and operate digital services
collaborate closely with colleagues in different digital disciplines

You can:

give direction on which tools or methods to use
demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels
bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they're met by the business
apply strategic thinking to provide the best service for the end user

You can:

show a deep understanding of end-to-end journeys and how content is affected within these journeys
identify where journey fixes or content improvements need to be made
take responsibility for assuring the quality of content from more junior colleagues, and coaching and guiding them to improve
ensure that content is regularly reviewed and evaluated, contributing to continuous improvements and iteration
encourage a continuous improvement mindset in teams and more junior content colleagues
deliver through others, and direct and critique their work

2. Lead technical writer

A lead technical writer is an expert practitioner who directs a team of technical writers, and assures the quality of technical writing across teams and the alignment to strategy.

At this role level, you will:

standardise tools and ways of communicating, along with processes
work closely with service managers, technology leaders and senior stakeholders to resource teams and resolve problems
promote the discipline of technical writing
engage with the cross-government community
keep up to date with industry changes

This role level is often performed at the Civil Service job grade of:

G7 (Grade 7)
G6 (Grade 6)

Skill	Description
Agile working Level: practitioner Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes help the team to decide the best approach help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and adhere to agreed minimum viable product (MVP), priorities and scope
Prototyping Level: working Working is the second of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: understand when to use a specific prototyping technique or method show the value of prototyping to your team
Stakeholder relationship management Level: expert Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: direct the strategy towards stakeholder relationships set stakeholder objectives and recommend that they’re met influence important senior stakeholders and provide mediation
Strategic thinking Level: expert Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met
Technical understanding (user-centred design) Level: practitioner Practitioner is the third of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: demonstrate knowledge of the technologies used to build and operate digital services collaborate closely with colleagues in different digital disciplines
User focus Level: expert Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: give direction on which tools or methods to use demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they're met by the business apply strategic thinking to provide the best service for the end user
User-centred content design Level: expert Expert is the fourth of 4 ascending skill levels	You can: direct the approach to content life cycle management to ensure content is regularly reviewed and evaluated by teams oversee teams’ work to ensure the right content is being produced to meet the needs of users demonstrate extensive experience in creating, iterating, managing and overseeing content across multiple channels encourage teams to review and evaluate the effectiveness of processes and systems, and support them to iterate for improvements be accountable for the production of high quality, user-focused content identify gaps in content design skills and capability, and can help teams to grow and develop

You can:

identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes
help the team to decide the best approach
help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and adhere to agreed minimum viable product (MVP), priorities and scope

You can:

understand when to use a specific prototyping technique or method
show the value of prototyping to your team

You can:

direct the strategy towards stakeholder relationships
set stakeholder objectives and recommend that they’re met
influence important senior stakeholders and provide mediation

You can:

lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met

You can:

demonstrate knowledge of the technologies used to build and operate digital services
collaborate closely with colleagues in different digital disciplines

You can:

give direction on which tools or methods to use
demonstrate experience in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels
bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they're met by the business
apply strategic thinking to provide the best service for the end user

You can:

direct the approach to content life cycle management to ensure content is regularly reviewed and evaluated by teams
oversee teams’ work to ensure the right content is being produced to meet the needs of users
demonstrate extensive experience in creating, iterating, managing and overseeing content across multiple channels
encourage teams to review and evaluate the effectiveness of processes and systems, and support them to iterate for improvements
be accountable for the production of high quality, user-focused content
identify gaps in content design skills and capability, and can help teams to grow and develop

Role	Shared skills
Content strategist	Agile working Prototyping Stakeholder relationship management Strategic thinking User focus User-centred content design
Graphic designer	Agile working Prototyping Strategic thinking User focus
Interaction designer	Agile working Prototyping Strategic thinking User focus
Service designer	Agile working Prototyping Strategic thinking User focus
Digital portfolio manager	Agile working Stakeholder relationship management Strategic thinking

Updates

Published 7 January 2020

Last updated 30 August 2022

30 August 2022

The 'user-centred content design' skill descriptions have been updated to ensure consistency across the DDaT Profession Capability Framework.

7 January 2020

First published.

Technical writer

What a technical writer does

Technical writer role levels

1. Technical writer

2. Lead technical writer

Updates

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Technical writer

What a technical writer does

Technical writer role levels

1. Technical writer

2. Lead technical writer

Roles that share technical writer skills

Updates

Is this page useful?

Thank you for your feedback