Senior/Staff Product Designer (U. S. Air Force) at Skylighthq

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, product designers play a critical role in understanding the problem space, identifying opportunities, and developing solutions using a lean-agile approach. Product designers are the primary user advocate on their team and engage in continuous research throughout the product life cycle. Working end-to-end from concept to implementation, product designers conduct research, facilitate design activities, and ensure the product team is building the right thing. In this role, you’ll partner with a mission-critical organization within the U.S. Air Force Special Operations community to modernize complex user experience journeys that underpin highly specialized operations. Leveraging your strengths in human-centered design and digital modernization, you’ll help deliver secure, scalable solutions that measurably improve usability, operational efficiency, and mission readiness. You will be responsible for managing and scaling a portfolio of software applications for the Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) through our BESPIN partnership. Your primary focus will be on mobile application UI/UX design and user discovery. What you’ll do • Work alongside product managers, engineers, and other practitioners responsible for making critical decisions about product strategy • Plan and conduct research to inform strategic product and design direction • Define end-to-end flows that incorporate well-thought-out information architecture, systems thinking, design principles, and common design patterns • Create simple and elegant user interfaces and/or evolve existing visual systems with clear rationale • Apply a design process that incorporates frequent iterations and feedback • Create mockups and design artifacts as needed to help the team develop a shared understanding of the product vision • Balance user and business needs within an agile working environment • Uphold human-centered design principles and evangelize its value to stakeholders, engagement partners, and subject matter experts • Promote empathy for the general public and government workers as we seek to improve their tools and technology What we're looking for Minimum qualifications • Able to plan, synthesize, and share out generative and evaluative user research to inform product and design direction • Proficiency in Figma and working within agile environments • Strong experience in human-centered design (HCD) • Ability to be flexible and navigate ambiguity • Can define scalable, end-to-end interaction flows that incorporate key design principles, intentional information architectures, common design patterns, and accessibility • Can create simple, elegant, and thoughtful user interfaces through the implementation of visual design elements, such as branding, illustration, iconography, typography, or microinteractions • Understand how to use different design processes (e.g., double diamond) and can produce documentation for storytelling that helps your team and stakeholders empathize with users • Can contribute to product strategy decisions by aligning design processes with lean/agile methodologies, serving as the primary voice for users, prioritizing and balancing user and business decisions, and crafting mental models to help define and refine product opportunities • Can facilitate and communicate well, including communicating your design rationale to different groups (users, teammates, stakeholders) effectively • Ability to demonstrate product design leadership through actions such as driving excellence in your team’s design execution • Able to leverage behavioral analytics tools, such as click maps and heat maps, to gain insights into user interactions with forms and interfaces, informing design decisions and usability improvements • Design and evaluate multivariant experiments using A/B testing platforms to assess the impact of design choices and optimize user experiences based on data-driven insights • 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 • Experience working with military users • Experience with AI/ML • Experience designing, multi-step forms with thoughtful validation patterns and clear error handling to support seamless user input experiences • Lead and facilitate collaborative workshops to align stakeholders, gather insights, and drive decision-making • Experience owning design work by leading projects or serving as the sole designer, balancing strategy, execution, and cross-functional collaboration • Prior experience working in the civic tech space • Experience working in a remote-team environment 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 • All work must be conducted within the U.S., excluding U.S. territories. This role requires U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment. • As a government contractor, you may be required to obtain a public trust or security clearance, up to Top Secret. • 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 role. 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 Product Designer at Skylight, the current salary ranges are as follows: • Associate Product Designer: $90,000–$125,000 • Product Designer I: $120,000–$140,000 • Product Designer II: $135,000–$160,000 • Senior Product Designer: $150,000–$185,000 • Staff Product Designer: $170,000–$203,000 • Principal Product 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) • 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 • 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. • 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 [Upgrade to PRO to see contact]. 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.