Senior/Staff Service Designer (U.S. Air Force)

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 work with a U.S. Air Force enterprise DevSecOps provider that delivers platforms and services to software teams across multiple value streams. Our team provides strategic product, design, engineering, and customer experience support to the program.

You’ll help create one unified customer journey across those value streams. That means analyzing end users, the operational workflows they depend on, and how customers fit into those workflows, then using that understanding to shape how the user portal evolves.

What to know going in

This is a systems and analysis role, closer to business analysis than interface design. Front-end design, rapid prototyping, and design feedback loops aren’t part of the work. If your portfolio is mostly screens, this probably isn’t the right fit. We’re looking for work that shows journey mapping, workflow analysis, and decisions you helped stakeholders reach.

What you’ll do

• Map a unified customer journey across multiple value streams, connecting end users, operational workflows, and the teams that support them
• Represent customer needs and requirements for each value stream, and help multiple engineering teams agree on how to sequence the user portal
• Plan, conduct, and synthesize research into service blueprints, journey maps, and system maps that the whole program can act on
• Identify and prioritize service improvements without sacrificing the capabilities users rely on today
• Facilitate program increment (PI) planning events and working sessions that turn stakeholder input into clear decisions
• Maintain organized, well-written documentation throughout the process

What we’re looking for

Basic 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
• Experience in service design or business analysis, including analyzing end users and operational workflows
• Strong stakeholder management or consulting experience, including representing user needs to multiple teams with competing priorities
• Experience working on cross-functional teams (product, design, engineering, ops) in iterative delivery
• A mindset and work approach that aligns with our core values

Nice-to-haves

• Customer success experience
• User research experience
• Military or defense experience
• Experience delivering technology in government, regulated industries, or other public-benefit settings
• A track record of staying aligned and accountable on remote teams

Don’t meet every qualification but think you can do the job? We’d still love to hear from you. If you’re excited about the role, apply. We consider candidates with a range of backgrounds and experiences.

Other requirements

• Some of our available roles are on federal contracts that require a degree or additional years of experience as a substitute.
• All work must be conducted within the U.S., excluding U.S. territories.
• This contract requires U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment.
• This contract requires you to obtain a Common Access Card (CAC) and special access.
• You must complete a company background check successfully.

Logistics

Position type

This is a full-time, exempt position.

Location

This is a fully remote position.

Travel

This role requires quarterly travel to San Antonio, Texas.

Expected start date

October 19, 2026

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
• 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)
• Flexible, remote-friendly work environment
• An environment that empowers you to unleash your superpowers for public good

Interview tips

Our process includes a preliminary screen, a skills interview, a behavioral interview, and a reverse interview where you meet your potential team — usually four conversations across two to three weeks. 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.
• Browse our case studies to learn more about our work.
• Please include a portfolio of 1–2 work samples with your application. Your portfolio can be anything from a website to a slide deck — whatever best showcases your work. We suggest choosing work samples that highlight your skills and experience in relation to the qualifications outlined in the job posting. Unless specified in the job requirements, your portfolio doesn’t need to be tied to any particular industry or field — just select samples that best represent your expertise. To ensure we can review your application promptly, please remove any access passwords on 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 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.