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.
Skylight is partnering with a U.S. Air Force program office that runs a portfolio of civil engineering systems. These systems serve users across civil engineering, security forces, and services, including readiness managers, range personnel, and fire and emergency services. Releases are slow today. Regression testing is manual, security review happens after development finishes, and code freeze to production can take a month or more. We’ll move the program to an outcome-driven model with test automation and security built into the pipeline, starting with migrating the first application onto a DoD software factory. Leadership wants this office to become the model other Air Force offices adopt.
In this role, you’ll own test strategy across the portfolio and lead the move from manual to automated regression, so the team can ship with confidence and say clearly when a release is ready.
What to know going in
Your first 30 days are about working with the Skylight team and government personnel, learning how the program office gets changes to users today, and understanding where testing and security slow things down. This is new work that replaces a traditional support model, so part of the job is coaching your government partners to keep these practices running after we leave. Expect to work alongside government engineers and other contractors, with tools and processes changing as the work gets underway.
This role is contingent on Skylight being awarded the underlying contract. If we’re not awarded the contract, we’ll let you know promptly and discuss whether there are other opportunities that fit.
What you’ll do
Design the test strategy for a portfolio of web applications, and decide pragmatically what to automate first
Build automated regression suites and integrate them into the CI/CD pipeline
Move the team from manual to automated regression testing, shrinking the time from code freeze to production
Lead a shared pool of four test engineers starting in February, and help them grow
Communicate release confidence clearly to non-technical stakeholders
Pair with and coach government testers and engineers so automated testing sticks after we leave
What we’re looking for
Basic qualifications
Ability to write clean, working, and reusable code
Familiar with how to build secure, compliant software and defend against common vulnerabilities
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 designing test strategy and building automated regression suites for web applications
Experience leading testers or a test effort
Experience working in a government or regulated environment with formal security authorization (ATO)
Experience working on cross-functional teams (product, design, engineering, ops) in iterative delivery
A track record of staying aligned and accountable on remote teams
A mindset and work approach that aligns with our core values
Nice-to-haves
Experience with Selenium or behavior-driven test tools like Cucumber, and test case management in Zephyr…