Senior/Staff/Principal Software Engineer, Legacy Modernization (U.S. Air Force)
Fully remote engineer at digital consultancy Skylight who refactors and migrates legacy U.S. Air Force web applications onto a DoD software factory with test automation and security built into the pipeline, while coaching government engineers and explaining technical tradeoffs to non-technical stakeholders.
- Compensation
- $150K–$230K / yr
- Location
- United States
- Work setup
- Remote
- Seniority
- Principal
- Employment
- Contract
- Experience
- Not specified
- Category
- Software engineering
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- Ability to write clean, working, and reusable code
- Produce high-quality code via good practices such as automated testing
- Familiar with building secure, compliant software and defending against common vulnerabilities
- Foundational understanding of data engineering and using datastores for persistent data
- Understand how software system pieces fit together with performance, reliability, and availability in mind
- User-centered approach to engineering work
- Experience shipping production software in a modern web stack, including refactoring or migrating legacy web applications
- Experience working in a government or regulated environment with formal security authorization (ATO)
- Experience on cross-functional teams (product, design, engineering, ops) in iterative delivery
- Track record of staying aligned and accountable on remote teams
- U.S. citizenship required for this contract
- Must be able to obtain a Common Access Card (CAC) and any required special access
- Must successfully complete a company background check
- All work must be conducted within the U.S., excluding U.S. territories
Nice to have
- Angular experience
- Experience migrating applications to the cloud or a DoD software factory (Cloud One, MDaaS, Platform One, or similar)
- Experience testing COTS-based systems such as Esri or IBM TRIRIGA
- Experience writing automated tests and working in CI/CD, ideally GitLab CI
- Experience using AI-assisted development tools paired with disciplined code review
- Experience delivering technology in government, regulated industries, or public-benefit settings
Full description
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. Legacy modernization engineers specialize in migrating, refactoring, or replacing legacy government systems with little to no downtime.
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 refactor and migrate aging Air Force web applications while keeping them running for the people who depend on them, and you’ll explain the technical tradeoffs clearly enough that government stakeholders can make good decisions.
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
- Refactor and migrate legacy web applications onto a DoD software factory, with little to no downtime for users
- Engineer software as part of a cross-functional team of researchers, designers, product managers, and other engineers