Senior Technical Editor

Level:             Senior

Location:       McLean, VA / Washington, DC (onsite and offsite support as authorized by the customer).

Clearance:     No Clearance Required. However the agency will conduct a National Agency Check and Inquiries (with fingerprinting), which consists of searches of records covering specific areas of a person's background during the past five (5) years. Those inquiries are sent to current and past employers, schools attended, references, and local law enforcement authorities.

Education:    Master’s degree in English, Journalism, or a technical field

Outcomes:

The successful candidate is expected to accomplish the following outcomes in the first year on the position:

·        Deliver accurate, high-quality, accessible, and timely products and services that meet FHWA requirements and support positive Government performance feedback.

·        Identify and resolve quality, coordination, schedule, or technical issues early enough to prevent customer or mission impact.

Responsibilities:

·        Oversee the entire editorial process for high-stakes technical documentation, ensuring stylistic consistency across large-scale programs and mentoring junior staff.

·        Transform raw data and engineering jargon into authoritative documents that meet the stringent requirements of the agency, including reference checking, fact checking, and ensuring copyright compliance.

·        Conduct substantive editing, verify technical accuracy, and ensure compliance with agency style guides for all documents, reports, and manuals.

·        Apply and enforce the GPO Style Manual, Chicago Manual of Style, FHWA guidance, Section 508 accessibility requirements, and copyright/permission requirements.

·        Review complex schematics, tables, figures, references, and supporting content for integration, consistency, accuracy, and readability.

·        Manage the full lifecycle of a document from outline to final publication including online and web publishing.

·        Mentor and provide quality oversight to junior editors and writers and assign editorial work based on schedule and complexity.

·        Coordinate with authors, researchers, technical SMEs, designers, project managers, Public Affairs, legal reviewers, and other stakeholders

Qualifications:

·        10+ years of progressively responsible professional experience in technical editing, writing, publishing, or related editorial work.

·        Supervisory and project management experience supporting complex editorial and publication workflows.

·        Expert-level command of English grammar, substantive editing, copyediting, proofreading, and Federal publishing standards.

·        Expert knowledge of the GPO Style Manual and ability to apply Section 508 accessibility requirements to online and web products.

·        Ability to work independently and manage high-stakes documents from initial development through final publication.

The following qualifications are desired:

·        Transportation experience, especially highway or surface transportation research.

·        Federal technical publishing experience.

·        Experience editing large technical reports, manuals, and complex engineering content.

Travel: Continental U.S. (CONUS) travel may be required to attend customer meetings, program reviews, stakeholder engagements, training events, conferences, production activities, or mission-related activities as directed.