Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Skylight is a digital consultancy that helps government agencies deliver better public services. They are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to design, implement, and maintain software systems aimed at improving services for young adults transitioning out of the foster care system.
Responsibilities
- Engineer a software product end-to-end — frontend and backend — as part of a cross-functional team that includes researchers, designers, product managers, and other engineers
- Design and optimize the platform’s LLM-powered features — semantic search across a knowledge base, prompt engineering, and retrieval quality — so foster youth get accurate, relevant guidance
- Build accessible, Section 508–compliant interfaces and the APIs and services behind them, keeping secure data exchanges reliable and performant
- Evaluate and improve the safety and quality of LLM interactions, so the experience stays trustworthy for the young people who rely on it
- Build secure, compliant software that meets federal security standards and defends against common vulnerabilities
- Achieve technical excellence by advocating for and adhering to lean-agile engineering practices such as API-first design, simple design, continuous integration, version control, and automated testing
- Mentor other engineers and share knowledge to strengthen the team’s engineering practice
Skills
- Experience designing and improving RAG based LLM systems including semantic search
- Experience designing multiple LLM/agent interactions to search and refine data sets
- Experience using LLMs to aggregate, refine, and review data sets
- Strong prompt improvement skills and understanding of LLM patterns that work
- Ability to write clean, working, and reusable code
- Can produce high-quality code by adhering to good practices such as automated testing
- Familiar with how to build secure, compliant software and defend against common vulnerabilities
- Possess a foundational understanding of data engineering, including how to use various datastores to handle persistent data in software systems
- 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 working on cross-functional teams (product, design, engineering, ops) in iterative delivery
- A mindset and work approach that aligns with our core values
- Familiarity with our specific stack: Python (LangChain and FastAPI), Postgres with pgvector, Next.js, and embedding and chat models such as Amazon Titan and Claude
- Experience working with databases and/or cloud infrastructure
- Familiarity with CI/CD best practices
- Experience with infrastructure as code (e.g., Docker, Terraform)
- Experience delivering technology in government, regulated industries, or other public-benefit settings
- A track record of staying aligned and accountable on remote teams
Benefits
- 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 $2000 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
Company Overview