Job Description

The University of Ottawa-A crossroads of cultures and ideas

The University of Ottawa is home to a dynamic community of over 50,000 students, faculty and staff, who live, work and study in both French and English. Our campus is a crossroad of cultures and ideas, where bold minds come together to inspire game-changing ideas. We believe in the power of representation, and that increasing the diversity of our faculty and staff supports this objective. Our goal is to provide students with the best possible learning experience, in an environment that reflects the diversity of its people, their ideas, and their identities.

We are one of Canada\'s top 10 research universities-our professors and researchers explore new approaches to today\'s challenges. One of a handful of Canadian universities ranked among the top 200 in the world, we attract exceptional thinkers and welcome diverse perspectives from across the globe. Our employees come together around the shared purpose of constant improvement, personal development, service excellence, teamwork and a passion for learning with a desire to make uOttawa and the world a better place. Everyone\'s contributions are valued, we all play a part in making uOttawa a world-class institution. Most importantly, we make it possible for you to achieve your full potential. Because at uOttawa, you belong!

About Facilities
Facilities services are characterized by a dynamic and creative growing team where the winds of change are blowing, offering people like you opportunities to use your leadership and innovation skills to contribute to the achievement of their inspiring mission: to deliver best in class research infrastructure, reshape campus life and student experience, and provide a sustainable environment for students, researchers, teachers and community.

Position purpose:
Reporting to the Director, Administration, the Specialist, Technical Writing, is responsible for writing, reviewing, and editing instruction manuals, technical documents, user guides, and other supporting documentation to communicate technical information related to software or other specialized processes to all users. The incumbent will interface with various stakeholders to understand the technical material then accurately and concisely develops, and disseminates subject matter information among clients, technical teams, and Facilities business units to support an efficient, effective, and standard use of tools and processes.

In this role, your responsibilities will include:

• Writing: Develops and maintain user guides for both clients and employees. Ensures documents are written using language and supporting images that are appropriate for each of the targeted audiences. Adheres to department standards, including templates and style guides. Defines and enforces consistent terminology across all products and documentation to ensure effective communication of information to a variety of stakeholders/users. Selects screenshots, or creates drawings and illustrations as needed for documents.
• Technical Research: Researches and assimilates technical concepts related to software, equipment, and products into manuals, user guides, and other technical documentation ensuring usability and concise content. Interviews various subject matter experts (software developers, system administrators, database administrators, Facilities colleagues, and vendors), and conducts independent tests of technical features to learn about the tools, and business processes/requirements.
• Project Management: Manages assigned projects by developing project specifications, identifying project steps and track all relevant progress, and reports on attainment of project milestones to ensure that projects advance in a timely manner and that management can track progress.
• Training: Creates training materials and provides training to various stakeholders based on user requirements to ensure complete understanding of business process and tool functionality.
• Stakeholder Relationship: Establishes and maintains positive and effective working relations with all members of IT and Facilities business units to ensure the efficiency of interactions between the teams.
• Revision and Editing: Verifies the clarity, completeness, accuracy, and quality of technical documents to ensure that materials meet the needs of all stakeholders.

What you will bring:

• Post-secondary degree in English or French or Communications or technical discipline (e.g., Computer science) with a minor in communications or writing or equivalent experience.
• Minimum three-years of experience in technical writing.
• Excellent writing skills: an ability to quickly grasp technical concepts and translate them into clear, easy-to-understand content; proficiency in English and/or French language and technical writing best practices.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Experience using computer systems and software such as Windows, word processing software, spreadsheets, and databases.
• Ability to maintain MS SharePoint intranet for document management.
• Familiarity with Adobe Design Suite.
• Leadership abilities in the delivery of training.
• Experience working with facility management software would be considered an asset
• Knowledge of facility management, space management, building maintenance, or construction would be considered an asset
• Bilingualism (French and English) oral and written would be considered an asset

Key Competencies at uOttawa:
Here are the required competencies for all or our employees at uOttawa:

Planning: Organize in time a series of actions or events in order to realise an objective or a project. Plan and organize own work and priorities in regular daily activities.
Initiative: Demonstrate creativity and initiative to suggest improvements and encourage positive results. Is proactive and self-starting. Show availability and willingness to go above and beyond whenever it is possible.
Client Service Orientation: Help or serve others to meet their needs. This implies anticipating and identifying the needs of internal and external clients and finding solutions on how to meet them.
Teamwork and Cooperation: Cooperate and work well with other members of the team to reach common goal(s). Accept and give constructive feedback. Able to adjust own behaviour to reach the goals of the team.

#LI-Onsite

The University of Ottawa embraces diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We are passionate about our people and committed to employment equity. We are at our best when everyone has a seat at the table, and when we are made to feel like we belong. We foster a culture of respect, teamwork and inclusion, where collaboration, innovation, and creativity fuel our quest for research and teaching excellence. While all qualified persons are invited to apply, we welcome applications from Indigenous persons, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women and LGBTQIA2S+ persons. The University is committed to creating and maintaining an accessible, barrier-free work environment. The University is also committed to working with applicants with disabilities requesting accommodation during the recruitment, assessment and selection processes. Applicants with disabilities may contact to communicate the accommodation need. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.

Note: if this is a union position: The hiring process will be governed by the current collective agreement related to the union affiliation noted above; you can click to find out more.

University of Ottawa