Do you work with technical writers?

How a technical writer is used in any given organization is going to depend on a couple of factors:

Size of the organization (the larger the organization, the more likely they are to specialize)
Other skill sets and experience of the technical writer (smaller organizations are more likely to hire you based on your other skillsets (software/hardware development/design, website design, etc.), with your technical writing expertise as an added benefit)

Unless you have specific expertise or experiene in a given subject (i.e. hardware, software, etc), you are not likely to be formally involved in the design process. That is not to say that you wouldn't be heavily involved with the designers/developers as you can't effectiviely develop documentation unless you understand how a product works. Technical writers often are actively used during the product test cycle.

Here are several websites that might prove useful to you:

http://www.calmis.cahwnet.gov/file/occguide/Techwrtr.htm (this is for California but there is some useful information here)

http://www.techwriter-certification.com/

http://www.cloudnet.com/~pdunham/newbietechwriterhome.html

http://www.newproducts.net/writer/soup.html (thrown in for the humor factor)

http://www.stc.org/

http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/

As far as the job search, most of the major online job boards include Technical Writing as major subject area.

Good luck.