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, software engineers design, implement, and maintain software systems to improve government services for users. This software is built to meet the needs of regular users of government services as well as Skylight’s partners in government.

As an Engineering Lead, you’ll drive technical strategy and execution across multiple delivery teams, supporting a range of public health initiatives in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This role offers a unique opportunity to solve entrenched data-related challenges that impact real-time public health interventions in the U.S. You’ll lead teams of software engineers, DevOps engineers, and data engineers to deliver modern, open-source, and modular tools that improve public health data interoperability and streamline the flow of information.

What you’ll do

  • Lead and mentor cross-functional teams of software, DevOps, and data engineers, fostering collaboration, high performance, and supporting both technical growth and professional development
  • Develop and implement a robust technical strategy focused on scalable, production-ready solutions to enhance public health data interoperability
  • Collaborate closely with CDC technologists, public health experts, and stakeholders to design and build open-source tools that improve data flow across systems
  • Promote a culture of technical excellence by embracing modern engineering practices such as API-first design, continuous integration, automated testing, and shift-left security
  • Oversee the architecture and delivery of large-scale, distributed systems capable of supporting high availability and large numbers of concurrent users
  • Ensure the development of SaaS and distributed on-premise products tailored to public health needs, particularly in data management and response capabilities
  • Drive cross-team alignment, ensuring product, design, and technical solutions are fully in sync with the CDC's mission and goals
  • Foster a culture of innovation and continuous improvement across all teams and projects
  • Provide hands-on support as needed, helping teams navigate obstacles and stay on track to meet project goals

What we're looking for

Minimum qualifications

  • Strong experience leading engineering teams across software, DevOps, and data engineering disciplines
  • Proven ability to coach and mentor engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and professional development
  • Experience delivering production-ready, large-scale applications that handle large numbers of concurrent users
  • Expertise in cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP) and DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure automation, and monitoring
  • Demonstrated cross-functional leadership, with experience managing collaboration between technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • Experience in SaaS and distributed on-premise product development
  • Strong stakeholder management and communication skills to ensure alignment across teams and with the overall public health mission

Nice-to-have qualifications

  • Understanding of public health data systems, including challenges related to real-time data interoperability
  • Prior experience with open-source, modular systems development
  • Experience working with the CDC
  • 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 an Engineering Lead at Skylight, the current salary ranges are as follows:

  • Senior Engineering Lead: $150,000–$185,000
  • Staff Engineering Lead: $170,000–$203,000
  • Principal Engineering Lead: $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.
  • 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.

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