Sonoma Water Technical Writing Specialist - Promotional

This recruitment is promotional only. You must presently be a full or part-time regular or probationary County of Sonoma, Community Development Commission, Sonoma County Fairgrounds, or Sonoma County Water Agency employee in order to apply for this position.

The Sonoma County Water Agency (Sonoma Water) has requested a county-wide promotional certification to fill a Technical Writing Specialist position. Qualified County employees who wish to be considered for future positions should consider applying to this recruitment. This employment list may also be used to fill future full-time or part-time positions as they occur during the active status of the list.

The formal title for this position is Water Agency Technical Writing Specialist. Employees of Sonoma Water are employees of a special district and are not subject to the provisions of the Civil Service Ordinance of the County of Sonoma.

As a Sonoma Water Technical Writing Specialist, you will be responsible for composing, editing, and finalizing agreements and detailed construction project specifications; preparing construction contracts, assisting in administering the public project bid process, requests for proposals, and requests for statements of qualifications in compliance with regulations and established policies and procedures, and reviewing and editing various types of technical reports.

Additional responsibilities include:

• Reviewing and editing technical documents for grammar, clarity, and consistency
• Following standardized processes, templates, and guidelines to streamline documentation creation and ensure consistency across projects
• Collaborating with cross-functional teams to create clear, concise, well-structured, and comprehensive technical documents, agreements, reports, guidelines, and contracts

The ideal candidate joining Sonoma Water as a Technical Writing Specialist will possess many of the following:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills used to translate complex technical ideas and material into clear, concise language, and the ability to facilitate thoughtful and clear dialogue with a wide variety of colleagues
• The capacity to handle a broad range of duties and to continually assess and adjust work efforts based on competing priorities of multiple projects
• The ability to actively listen, communicate well with others, gather and organize information, actively learn, visually interpret information, analyze issues, and solve problems
• The ability to gather information from subject matter experts and other sources while understanding the broader business context and how it connects to current work assignments
• College-level coursework or experience and training in the areas of engineering, technical writing, contract law, environmental studies, or other subject matter that is relevant to Sonoma Water's core functions
• Advanced MS Office/business technology skills to efficiently incorporate multiple file formats into single documents and to quickly understand and use a large library of document templates

Experience and

Education:

Any combination of education, training, and experience that would likely provide the required knowledge and abilities listed. Normally, this would include academic coursework in engineering, technical writing, contract law, journalism, natural resources, accounting, business or public administration, English, or a closely related field, and two years of experience managing construction projects, grants, engineering projects, and/or public work projects which included writing and editing of reports, manuals, specifications, proposals, and/or agreements.

License:
Possession of a valid driver's license at the appropriate level including special endorsements, as required by the State of California, may be required depending upon assignment to perform the essential job functions of the position.

Certification:
For assignments involving construction management, the Constructions Documents Technologies certification from the Construction Specification Institute is highly desirable.

Working knowledge of:
English grammar, vocabulary, spelling, punctuation and composition; basic mathematics; document structure and formatting techniques; organizational techniques; and interviewing and listening techniques; the techniques of writing and editing technical reports, agreements, and grant proposals; contract principles and roles; civil engineering, natural…