Senior/Staff Software Engineer (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, 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.

What you’ll do

• Engineer mobile software products 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

What we're looking for

Minimum qualifications

• Ability to write clean, working, and reusable code
• Experience with Full-stack, mobile app dev experience (e.g., iOS/Android, React Native, Swift, Kotlin)
• Mobile application development in a system of systems
• 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
• 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
• 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 align with Skylight’s core values
• Ability to travel for work from time to time

Nice-to-have qualifications

• Familiarity with software engineering best practices
• Consulting experience, and mentoring/coaching per