About Skylight

Skylight is a digital consultancy using design and technology to help government agencies deliver better public services.

We’re at the forefront of a civic movement to reinvent how all levels of government serve families, patients, and many others in today's digital world.

If you want to play a part in driving this critical movement forward, we’d love for you to join our growing team of public interest technologists.

The work we do matters.

About the job

At Skylight, service designers tie together human, digital, and physical interactions to create or change how government organizations operate in order to create or improve a service. Service designers are expected to understand the problem and organizational landscape, identify opportunities, and iteratively develop services and solutions.

In this role, you'll be at the forefront of the Department of Homeland Security's transformative customer experience (CX) initiatives. By focusing on human-centered, equity-driven service delivery, you’ll help shape critical areas like immigration, travel, and law enforcement. Your efforts will have a direct and lasting impact, improving how DHS interacts with the public and building greater trust, satisfaction, and mission success. You'll be part of a dedicated team working to elevate government services for millions of people.

What you’ll do

  • Lead strategy and planning to define service design engagements
  • Iteratively conduct the core of activities of service design — research, ideation, prototyping, and implementation — as part of a multidisciplinary, lean-agile team 
  • Understand people and their behavior in relation to a service through research planning (e.g., what research methods to use), data collection (e.g., contextual inquiry), then synthesize research data through visualization and analysis (e.g., service blueprints)
  • Generate ideas related to addressing the problem space through ideation planning, idea generation (e.g., brainwriting), and idea selection (e.g., decision matrix)
  • Explore, evaluate, and communicate how people might experience or behave in future service situations through prototyping (commonly requires paper or clickable prototypes but may need other ways to validate user interactions and experiences)
  • Implement changes to the components of a service — organizational, operational, human, technological, and physical — through activities such as process reengineering, software development, and change management
  • Maintain organized, well-written documentation throughout the process

What we're looking for

Minimum qualifications

  • Can take a systems thinking approach to changing how elements of an organization interact and influence one another
  • Ability to plan, synthesize, and present research
  • Ability to identify the best opportunities for service improvement through ideation and experimentation activities
  • Know how to align policies, technology, infrastructures, and systems to drive meaningful outcomes for the business and users
  • Ability to lead collaborative research and design activities, influence others, and build consensus
  • Ability to work successfully within a professional services environment (e.g., can communicate effectively with clients)
  • Passionate about creating better public outcomes through great government services
  • A mindset and work approach that aligns with our core values
  • Ability to travel for work from time to time

Nice-to-have qualifications

  • Active federal public trust (tier 2)
  • Prior experience working with the Department of Homeland Security
  • Prior experience working in the civic tech space
  • Experience working in a remote-team environment

Don’t meet 100% of the criteria but think you can do the job? We’d love to chat anyway! We’re on a mission to build diverse teams, and studies have shown that women and marginalized folks are less likely to apply to jobs if they don’t check every box.

Other requirements

  • Ability to obtain and hold a federal public trust (tier 2).
  • All work must be conducted within the U.S., excluding U.S. territories. Some federal contracts require U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment.
  • You must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. now and in the future without sponsorship.
  • You may be required to complete a company background check successfully.
  • Some of our available roles are on federal contracts that require a degree or additional years of experience as a substitute.

Position type

This is a full-time, exempt position.

Location

This is a fully remote position.

Care package

Salary

We want to give you the most competitive salary possible. After all, you deserve it! To that end, we use the results of our interview process to determine what salary is most appropriate given your current level of seniority. For a Service Designer at Skylight, the current salary ranges are as follows:

  • Associate Service Designer: $90,000–$125,000
  • Service Designer I: $120,000–$140,000
  • Service Designer II: $135,000–$160,000
  • Senior Service Designer: $150,000–$185,000
  • Staff Service Designer: $170,000–$203,000
  • Principal Service Designer: $180,000–$230,000

Benefits

Your well-being is important to us, so we focus on supporting you in a variety of ways:

  • Medical insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance
  • Short-term and long-term disability insurance
  • Life and AD&D insurance
  • Dependent care FSA, healthcare FSA, health savings account
  • Dollar-for-dollar 401(k) match up to 10% of your salary with no vesting period
  • Paid time off, including 20 vacation days, 11 federal holidays, and flexible sick leave
  • Up to 12 weeks paid time off for all eligible new birth, adoption, or foster parents
  • Performance rewards, including annual salary increase, annual performance bonus, spot bonuses, and stock options
  • Business development / sales bonuses
  • Referral bonuses
  • Annual $2,000 allowance for professional development
  • Annual $750 allowance for tech-related purchases
  • Annual swag budget of $100 to display your Skylight pride with some merchandise (hoodies, hats, and more)
  • Dollar-for-dollar charity donation matching, up to $500 per year
  • Access up to $1,000 before payday to cover emergency expenses
  • Flexible, remote-friendly work environment
  • An environment that empowers you to unleash your superpowers for public good

Interview tips

We want you to have a great interview experience with us! Here are some tips to help you prepare for a successful interview:

  • Visit our join page to learn more about how our interview process works.
  • Check out our Career Pathways framework to learn more about the different roles within Skylight and the skills needed to do them.
  • Please include a portfolio of 1–2 showcase projects with your application. Your portfolio can be anything from a website to a slide deck (whatever works for you). So that we can prioritize your application for consideration, please ensure that you either remove your access password to your portfolio or provide access details.
  • If you’d like to request reasonable accommodations during the application or interviewing process, please contact our recruiting team at recruiting@skylight.digital.

We participate in E-Verify and upon hire, will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you’re authorized to work in the U.S.

We're an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, pregnancy, disability, work-related injury, covered veteran status, political ideology, marital status, or any other factor that the law protects from employment discrimination.

Apply for this Job

* Required

resume chosen  
(File types: pdf, doc, docx, txt, rtf)


Voluntary Self-Identification

For government reporting purposes, we ask candidates to respond to the below self-identification survey. Completion of the form is entirely voluntary. Whatever your decision, it will not be considered in the hiring process or thereafter. Any information that you do provide will be recorded and maintained in a confidential file.

As set forth in Skylight’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

Race & Ethnicity Definitions

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection. As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measure the effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categories is as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.


Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability

Form CC-305
Page 1 of 1
OMB Control Number 1250-0005
Expires 04/30/2026

Why are you being asked to complete this form?

We are a federal contractor or subcontractor. The law requires us to provide equal employment opportunity to qualified people with disabilities. We have a goal of having at least 7% of our workers as people with disabilities. The law says we must measure our progress towards this goal. To do this, we must ask applicants and employees if they have a disability or have ever had one. People can become disabled, so we need to ask this question at least every five years.

Completing this form is voluntary, and we hope that you will choose to do so. Your answer is confidential. No one who makes hiring decisions will see it. Your decision to complete the form and your answer will not harm you in any way. If you want to learn more about the law or this form, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) website at www.dol.gov/ofccp.

How do you know if you have a disability?

A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your “major life activities.” If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:

  • Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
  • Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
  • Blind or low vision
  • Cancer (past or present)
  • Cardiovascular or heart disease
  • Celiac disease
  • Cerebral palsy
  • Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
  • Diabetes
  • Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
  • Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
  • Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
  • Intellectual or developmental disability
  • Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
  • Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
  • Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
  • Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
  • Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
  • Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
  • Short stature (dwarfism)
  • Traumatic brain injury

PUBLIC BURDEN STATEMENT: According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 no persons are required to respond to a collection of information unless such collection displays a valid OMB control number. This survey should take about 5 minutes to complete.


Enter the verification code sent to to confirm you are not a robot, then submit your application.

This application was flagged as potential bot traffic. To resubmit your application, turn off any VPNs, clear the browser's cache and cookies, or try another browser. If you still can't submit it, contact our support team through the help center.