Salary suggestions for unique position in San Diego

[jsadler -at- websidestory -dot- com]

Greetings Technical Writers

I took a ninety-day intern position at an internet statistics and traffic 
measurement company here in San Diego following graduation with a Masters 
of Science in Software Engineering degree from National University.  The 
term of this internship is about to expire.  I am currently making $14.00 
per hour, which I realize is on the low side, even for an inexperienced 
beginner in this field.  Since I have little experience currently in 
programming, I eventually want to move from code maintenance to development 
to R&D and software architecture (grandiose as it sounds today).

Knowing that I am interested in staying to work as a regular (non-temp) 
employee, the boss today proposed a new ambitious project/position for me.  
In this company, four groups of software developers (C++, Java, cgi-perl 
and database) work together on different products with very little 
coordination on matters of coding style, documentation of code, 
diagramming, and organization/administration of code and scripted 
processes.  From what I can see, the project managers are concerned mostly 
with the scheduling of projects, adherence to software development process 
models, and serving as liaisons to marketing and sales.

My task would be to bring some coherence into this disarray, inventory 
projects and code, 'encourage' approximately 15 developers to write their 
own code documentation (Javadoc, etc.) or at least elicit the natural 
language equivalents of the codebase where appropriate, as well as to write 
technical documents and develop coding templates and style guides.  I would 
serve as a webmaster for the internal document repository here, and store 
code documentation in Visual Source Safe.  The system may involve an 
in-house XML system which would be suited for the kinds of templates 
envisioned.  The boss had attempted to start such an initiative when he 
began working here, but was sidetracked by its maintenance and other 
strategic problems. So I have his full support and vision for this project. 
 I also am very excited about the prospect of working in this capacity, 
although I did make it clear that I intend to move on with my engineering 
career goals.  (Please note:  I am *not* trying to create controversy here 
by marginalizing technical writing.  I love technical writing and am quite 
good, and it will always be a part of my occupational calling.)

What would be a job title for such a position?  In this region, and with my 
little experience and newness in the field, what would be a good 
compensation, considering that I would also gain a fairly generous benefits 
package?  I have done substantial part-time free-lance technical writing 
(journal abstracting and French/Italian to English translating) over the 
past ten years.  I have good knowledge and considerable practice in 
HTML/XML and web publishing.

I will need to give a salary range by Friday at the latest.  Any 
reflections on the above scenario would be appreciated.

Thank you,
J Sadler

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