Staff/Principal Software Engineer (U.S. Air Force)

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.

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.

In this role, you’ll partner with a mission-critical organization within the U.S. Air Force Special Operations community to design, build, and maintain secure, scalable software systems that support highly specialized operations. You’ll apply modern engineering practices to improve complex workflows, integrate with existing defense systems, and deliver resilient solutions that enhance usability, operational efficiency, and mission readiness. Working in close collaboration with cross-functional teammates and government partners, you’ll help modernize legacy environments while ensuring performance, security, and reliability at scale.

• →Engineer a mobile software product as part of a cross-functional team, which includes user experience researchers and designers, product managers, engineers, and other functional specialists
• →Achieve technical excellence by advocating for and adhering to lean-agile engineering principles and practices such as API-first design, simple design, continuous integration, version control, and automated testing
• →Select and use the right tools, frameworks, languages, and technologies for the job, with a preference for open-source solutions
• →Analyze systems to identify technical debt, instability, unreliability, and other opportunities for improvement, as well as design, document, and communicate solutions
• →Coordinate with government partners to ensure seamless integration with their existing tools and processes

• Ability to write clean, working, and reusable code
• Can produce high-quality code by adhering to good practices such as automated testing
• Familiar with how to build secure, compliant software and defend against common vulnerabilities
• Experience building, optimizing, and integrating with mobile applications on iOS and Android platforms.
• Possess a foundational understanding of data engineering, including how to use various datastores to handle persistent data in software systems
• Understand the different pieces of software systems and how to fit them together, while keeping performance, reliability, and availability in mind
• Understand the importance of always putting users at the center of your work, including thinking through the impact and implications of any code that you write
• Experience delivering products in defense or similarly regulated environments
• Passionate about creating better public outcomes through great government services
• A mindset and work approach that align with Skylight’s core values
• Ability to travel for work from time to time

• Prior experience working in the civic tech space
• Experience working in a remote-team environment
• Familiarity with software engineering best practices
• Experience with multiple programming languages, to include Swift, Kotlin, and C++, and/or full-stack development
• Experience working with databases and/or cloud infrastructure 

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.

• 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.
• As a government contractor, you may be required to obtain a public trust or security clearance, up to Top Secret. 
• 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.

This is a full-time, exempt position.

This is a fully remote position.

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 Software Engineer at Skylight, the current salary ranges are as follows:

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

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 are an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, veteran status, or any other category protected by applicable law.