Engineering Technical Writer Position

Who We Are

Sycamore Growth Group is a specialty R&D tax credit firm, founded in 2011 and based in Dublin, Ohio. We're about 20 people and growing: tax attorneys, CPAs, and engineering writers. Our clients apply science and technology to everything from automation systems and food processing plants to specialty engineering, wastewater treatment facilities, biotech, software, and AI.

We are an inch wide and ten miles deep. Most notably, we pride ourselves on industry-leading written substantiation of our clients’ R&D efforts. We learn what our clients actually built, how they built it, and what they did not know when they started. Then we write project reports to justify their R&D claim to the Internal Revenue Service. A project report that looks good on the surface is not enough; it has to make a credible case that withstands scrutiny. Our clients trust us to stand between them and the IRS, and elite writing is how we keep that promise.

The Role

Our clients' work can look simple to a layperson. Take a landfill. It is not just a big hole. Building one that does not catch fire, does not pollute the surrounding environment, and breaks down waste into usable, even helpful, byproducts draws on thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, chemistry, soil mechanics, microbiology, structural engineering, and more. Our job is to see that science, understand it, and explain it.

We find the real technical uncertainty at the core of a client's project and explain clearly how the team resolved it. Our writing becomes the technical backbone of the client's R&D tax credit claim.

Key Tasks:

  • Interview engineers and project managers. Ask the questions that get past “we just figured it out” to what they tried, what failed, and why.

  • Site visits. See the plants, shop floors, labs, and job sites for yourself. Our writers don't just read about the work or lean on AI to explain it.

  • Dig into project documentation. Read drawings, specs, test results, change orders, and design notes, and pull a clear story out of them.

  • Write about uncertainty and experimentation. Explain what was technically uncertain at the start of a project and the methods used to resolve it: modeling, prototyping, testing, iteration, and design changes.

  • Edit heavily. Take rough drafts, including AI-assisted ones, and through thought and questioning, shape them into a cogent analysis.

  • Check every reference. Verify that citations and sources are both accurate and relevant.

What We Are Seeking

An insatiable curiosity about science. Someone who enjoys learning how our clients apply technology, and is the kind of person who reads the placard at the dam or asks the HVAC tech what they are doing. Engineers can tell when someone is genuinely interested, and they open up to that person.

Better questions, and more of them. That is Sycamore's strength. We believe the quality of your work is a function of the quality of your questions and your attention to detail. You listen, follow up, and politely push past a vague answer until you understand what actually happened.

An editor's eye. You look for what is not being said, and for what is being said that does not help. You can explain something complicated clearly to a smart reader who is not an engineer, without oversimplifying.

Savvy command of AI, and an aversion to AI slop. You use AI as a research assistant that does some of the heavy lifting. However, you also know it lacks the perspective a thoughtful writer brings: it uses 100 words where 10 are needed, and 10 where 100 are needed. To the lazy eye, an AI-written report looks impressive. Under scrutiny, it unravels. You recognize this, and you do not let it reach a client.

Background that fits:

  • A degree in engineering: mechanical, environmental, biology, civil, chemical, software, industrial, materials, electrical, etc

  • 2 years of experience in technical writing, engineering, proposal writing, science or trade journalism, or a similar field. 

  • You live in the Columbus, Ohio, area. We are hybrid: in-office Monday, Tuesday, & Thursday. And this role involves regular in-person interviews and site visits. 

  • Comfortable traveling to client sites, mostly in Ohio and the Midwest.

What you don't need: 

Any knowledge of tax law. We will teach you the R&D tax credit rules, including the four-part test, what counts as qualified research, and how the IRS evaluates claims. We can teach tax rules. We cannot teach curiosity and attention to detail.

Qualities We Value

These four traits describe the people who do well here:

  • Curiosity. An interest in understanding how things work and why.

  • Humility and Humor: The ability to take the work seriously without taking ourselves too seriously.

  • Follow-through:  A focus on completing work accurately and efficiently.

  • Authenticity. An honest, genuine, and respectful approach to working with others.

What we offer

  • $72,000 - $84,000

  • Health, dental, and vision coverage

  • 401(k) with safe harbor contribution and profit sharing 

  • 15 PTO plus 10 holidays. Plus remote July & January

  • Hands-on training in R&D tax credit law from tax attorneys and CPAs who practice it every day

  • Steady variety. No two projects are alike.

How to apply

Send your resume to: info@sycamoregrowthgroup.com.