Senior/Staff DevOps Engineer

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, DevOps engineers work with developers throughout the software development life cycle to ensure code can be reliably and repeatedly released on demand with a high degree of quality. They understand both software development and operations, with expertise in areas such as networking, security, test automation, and continuous integration/deployment.

Our federal health and civilian work covers the systems people rely on to get healthcare and public health information, apply for financial aid and benefits, and reach the records the government keeps on their behalf. These systems serve millions of people, carry sensitive data, and can’t afford to go down — so modernizing them means improving them while they stay available and secure.

We’re hiring DevOps engineers across this portfolio as teams form and grow. You’ll own the CI/CD pipelines and cloud infrastructure a delivery team ships on, working alongside the engineers building on them. We’ll match you to a team based on where your experience fits best.

What you’ll do

• Build and maintain the CI/CD pipelines and AWS infrastructure that keep records systems reliable, secure, and releasable on demand
• Engineer a great experience for developers working in web-based environments such as Python, Java, and Node.js through automation, virtualization, and process improvement
• Advocate for and adhere to lean-agile engineering principles and practices such as simple design and automated testing
• Protect sensitive data by applying security and privacy best practices
• Conduct security audits and risk analyses, then plan and implement remediations
• Select and use the right tools, frameworks, languages, and technologies for the job, with a preference for open-source solutions

What we’re looking for

Basic qualifications

• Understand the general concepts of modern software development and can work closely with software engineers
• Able to work in a cloud-centric world, which includes managing disparate, interconnected systems and ensuring the availability, reliability, and resiliency of these systems
• Can enable teams to deliver value to users and the business continuously (e.g., CI/CD pipelines)
• Know how to build secure, compliant applications and defend against common vulnerabilities
• Can work with software engineers to instrument applications and configure infrastructures for monitoring, metrics, alerting, logging, auditability, and compliance
• Know how to create and maintain your infrastructure as code and standardize deployment processes
• 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

• Hands-on experience with AWS (S3, Athena, SQS, Lambda, OpenSearch, EKS ) and infrastructure as code (e.g., Terraform)
• Data migration/ETL experience highly preferred
• Experience building and operating CI/CD pipelines for cloud-native applications
• 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.
• 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 may require occasional or regular travel based on company, client, or contract needs.

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

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

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.

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.