StaffPrincipal Software Engineer, Lead (HHS)

About Skylight

Skylight is a digital consultancy using design and technology to help government agencies deliver better public services. Were at the forefront of a civic movement to reinvent how all levels of government serve families patients and many others in todays digital world.

If you want to play a part in driving this critical movement forward wed love for you to join our growing team of public interest technologists. The work we do matters.

About the job

At Skylight lead software engineers combine hands-on development with technical leadership to guide strategy and delivery. They raise the engineering bar while ensuring systems are secure resilient and scalable.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is launching one of the most ambitious transformations in government and this is a rare chance to be part of it. Youll join a high-impact team of product managers researchers designers engineers and security experts working side-by-side with HHS leadership to modernize the systems people rely on to access healthcare strengthen cybersecurity that protects personal data launch digital services used by tens of millions every day and integrate data and AI responsibly into daily work across the department so teams at every level can make smarter safer decisions.

As a lead software engineer on this project youll provide direction while staying hands-on designing and building services with an emphasis on reliability security and simplicity. Youll help standardize engineering practices improve observability and embed security and compliance into delivery from the start. Just as importantly youll prepare federal teams to sustain these improvements by sharing knowledge and practices that last from training and enablement to reusable tools like templates playbooks and decision records.

What youll do

• Lead technical direction for one or more products and platforms from discovery through production operations
• Design and build services with an emphasis on reliability security and iterative releases
• Apply modern delivery practices including continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) trunk-based development code review and automated testing
• Standardize environments with infrastructure as code (IaC) and policy as code for secure repeatable delivery
• Improve observability and service health with metrics logs and traces guided by service level objectives (SLOs)
• Embed security and compliance from day one supporting evidence automation and continuous Authority to Operate (ATO) practices
• Mentor engineers facilitate technical design reviews and model pragmatic high-quality engineering practices
• Help federal teams sustain improvements by delivering training and enablement and by leaving behind reusable resources such as templates playbooks and decision records

What were looking for

Minimum qualifications

• Experience leading engineering for complex production systems and delivering measurable outcomes
• Strong hands-on skills building services and APIs in a modern language and runtime with clean reliable reusable code
• Familiarity with modern delivery practices CI/CD automated testing code review and operating services in cloud environments
• Proficiency with IaC and environment automation
• Understanding of secure software practices and how to integrate compliance into delivery
• Knowledge of data persistence and patterns for building resilient observable services
• Clear communication skills with executives and cross-functional teams
• Commitment to equipping federal teams with documentation training and mentoring so improvements last beyond the contract
• Ability to work effectively in a professional services environment
• Passion for improving public outcomes through great government services
• A mindset and work approach that align with Skylights core values
• Ability to spend time onsite at HHS in Washington DC either by being based locally or by traveling regularly for inperson work when its important

Nice-to-have qualifications

• Experience with containers and orchestration (e.g. Docker Kubernetes) or platform engineering
• Background in cloud and application modernization integrations or shared services at enterprise scale
• Familiarity with compliance and security environments such as ATO the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) or the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA)
• Experience guiding cost performance and reliability tradeoffs across multiple teams
• Track record of mentoring engineers and raising engineering practices across organizations
• Experience working effectively on hybrid or distributed teams

Dont meet 100% of the criteria but think you can do the job Wed love to chat anyway! Were 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 dont check every box.

Other requirements

• 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.
• 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 role requires some in-person time in Washington DC. Candidates based in the DC area should be able to work on-site at HHS periodically. Candidates outside the area are also welcome to apply as long as they can travel to DC frequently for on-site collaboration. A relocation incentive of up to $10000 is available.

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

• Associate Software Engineer: $90000$125000
• Software Engineer I: $120000$140000
• Software Engineer II: $135000$160000
• Senior Software Engineer: $150000$185000
• Staff Software Engineer: $170000$203000
• Principal Software Engineer: $180000$230000

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
• Flexible paid time-off-policy (generally around 25 days per year) plus 11 paid federal holidays
• 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 $2000 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
• 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 youd like to request reasonable accommodations during the application or interviewing process please contact our recruiting team at .

We participate in E-Verify and upon hire will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that youre 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.