Senior/Staff Security 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, security engineers stay up to date with the cutting edge of security and help teams implement new processes, tools, and remediations. They’re familiar with modern software development and work in cross-functional teams to inform and guide security best practices at all stages of the software development life cycle.

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 focus on security automation: generating authorization evidence from the pipeline so security review happens alongside development instead of after it.

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

• Automate security evidence generation and map controls under RMF to support continuous authorization
• Author control implementations and the body of evidence, including documenting controls inherited from the software factory
• Conduct security audits and risk analyses, and plan and implement remediations
• Translate compliance requirements into practical engineering choices the team can act on
• Build trust with security reviewers and authorizing officials, and explain technical tradeoffs clearly
• Pair with and coach government teams so they can sustain these security practices after we leave

What we’re looking for

Basic qualifications

• Able to detect risks by continually reviewing all aspects of the application for vulnerabilities and enumerating them
• Able to mitigate and prevent risks by proactively working with teams to build secure and compliant systems
• Familiarity with common sources of vulnerability information
• Familiarity with regulatory requirements regarding security and compliance
• Experience taking systems through RMF and ATO, ideally in DoD, including authoring the control implementation and body of evidence
• Experience automating security evidence generation or mapping controls under RMF
• Can write clean, working, and reusable code in at least one programming language
• 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 continuous ATO, eMASS, and POA&M management
• Experience documenting inherited controls from a cloud platform or DoD software factory (Cloud One, MDaaS, Platform One, or similar)
• Experience with compliance as code, including GitLab CI, Checkmarx or other static code scanning, and SBOM generation
• Experience with cloud infrastructure and infrastructure as code
• Experience delivering technology in government, regulated industries, or other public-benefit settings

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 be able to obtain a Common Access Card (CAC) and any special access required for this contract.
• 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 includes occasional travel to Montgomery, AL, and other U.S. Air Force bases.

Expected start date

We’re targeting a start date of November 30, 2026, pending contract award.

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

• Associate Security Engineer: $90,000–$125,000
• Security Engineer I: $120,000–$140,000
• Security Engineer II: $135,000–$160,000
• Senior Security Engineer: $150,000–$185,000
• Staff Security Engineer: $170,000–$203,000
• Principal Security 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)
• 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 [email protected].

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.