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Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Fullstack (ACF)

United States

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 that improve government services for users. Frontend engineers go further by shaping how those systems are experienced — creating intuitive, accessible, and reliable interfaces that help people navigate complex information and complete critical tasks with confidence.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is expanding its Digital Services team during an exciting period of growth, focused on delivering modern, user-centered digital products, exploring AI-enablement opportunities, and building long-term technical capacity.

In this role, you'll hit the ground running in a fast-moving, cross-functional environment — coordinating immediately with researchers, designers, engineers, and government stakeholders to deliver against an ambitious vision from day one. This role sits at the intersection of product strategy, change management, enablement, and service delivery, and demands someone who can orient quickly, build trust across teams, and ensure new digital capabilities are not only built, but understood, usable, and sustained.

What you’ll do

  • Build and maintain modern web applications that help ACF deliver high-impact digital services
  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams — including designers, researchers, and product managers — to translate user and business needs into scalable technical solutions
  • Develop robust backend systems and APIs while delivering dynamic, accessible, and performant frontend interfaces
  • Integrate AI and ML capabilities where they enhance usability or automation
  • Apply lean-agile engineering principles such as API-first design, version control, automated testing, and continuous integration
  • Identify and address technical debt, performance issues, and opportunities for improvement
  • Choose the right tools, frameworks, and technologies for the job, with a preference for open-source solutions
  • Support maintainable, secure, and compliant development practices through documentation, code review, and knowledge sharing

What we're looking for

Minimum qualifications

  • Experience building modern web applications using React, Vue, or Svelte, applying component-driven design principles
  • Experience building backend data systems using Python, .NET, Java, or Ruby
  • Experience integrating with backend APIs (REST or GraphQL) and enterprise-wide tools
  • Experience working in cloud environments such as AWS (e.g., S3, CloudFront, API Gateway)
  • Ability to write clean, reusable, and maintainable code
  • Familiarity with building secure, compliant software and defending against common vulnerabilities
  • Foundational understanding of data engineering, including how to use various datastores to handle persistent data in software systems
  • Understanding of how different components of software systems fit together while maintaining performance, reliability, and availability
  • Understanding of the importance of putting users at the center of your work, including thinking through the impact and implications of any code you write
  • 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

  • Experience using AWS hosting and build services such as CloudFront, S3, Amplify, or Cognito
  • Familiarity with data visualization frameworks (e.g., D3.js, Plotly, Chart.js)
  • Experience designing natural language interfaces (e.g., search, tagging, annotation tools)
  • Experience contributing to accessibility-first or government digital service projects
  • Understanding of performance optimization, observability, and continuous delivery best practices
  • Familiarity with role-based authentication and identity management
  • 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

  • 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 will be required to obtain a Tier 4 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 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 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

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 $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
  • 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 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.

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