Staff Product Manager (CDC)

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 managers are responsible for strategy, planning, execution, stakeholder management, and team health. Product managers partner with researchers, designers, engineers, client stakeholders, and others to inform their product decisions. At a high level, it’s the product manager’s job to figure out what to build next and why.

In this role, you’ll work closely with leading public health experts and technologists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help build a modern, response-ready public health data system. You'll be part of a dynamic initiative developing open-source, modular tools that empower public health agencies to enhance data collection, processing, and analysis — ultimately strengthening their ability to respond to public health threats. This is a unique opportunity to contribute to a national effort that will shape the future of public health data infrastructure.

What you’ll do

• Lead a cross-functional team of researchers, designers, engineers, and subject matter experts to build and ship user-centered, scalable solutions
• Translate complex user needs and mission requirements into clear product strategies, including vision, success metrics, roadmap, and backlog
• Manage the direction, scope, and priorities of the product initiative, building from user research to minimum viable products to scalable solutions
• Author and prioritize user stories, plan releases, and continuously iterate based on user feedback and technical constraints
• Facilitate team ceremonies such as planning meetings, stakeholder syncs, and retrospectives
• Use qualitative and quantitative feedback to guide product decisions and prioritize impact
• Work in close partnership with government teams to transfer digital skills and product knowledge throughout the course of the project
• Navigate organizational complexity to remove blockers, align teams, and advocate for agile, user-first practices
• Lead outreach initiatives to public health jurisdictions to foster product adoption
• Manage clients, stakeholders, and third party intermediaries in a way that builds trust, alignment, and healthy environments for individuals and teams
• Ensure solutions integrate smoothly with existing government systems, policies, and security constraints

What we're looking for

Minimum qualifications

• Understand lean product principles and how to apply them (e.g., minimum viable product) at various stages of the product life cycle in order to mitigate risk, validate assumptions, and amplify learning
• Proven ability to define outcome-driven product strategies grounded in problem framing, stakeholder goals, and user research
• Ability to break down complex scopes into manageable deliverables, lead prioritization, and execute against evolving product goals
• Experience using human-centered design methods to inform and iterate on product direction
• Strong collaboration skills across disciplines, especially working closely with design, engineering, and acquisition partners
• Strong familiarity with Scrum methodologies
• Familiarity with multiple delivery models (Agile, Lean, SAFe) and when to apply them effectively
• Ability to travel for work from time to time
• Proven experience with both greenfield and mature products, adaptable across product life cycles

Nice-to-have qualifications

• Ability to manage clients, stakeholders, and third part intermediaries in a way that builds trust, alignment, and healthy environments for individuals and teams
• Prior software engineering or engineering management experience
• Civic tech background. Prior involvement in the civic tech space
• Experience working with healthcare data and building data products.
• Remote teamwork. Experience collaborating effectively with distributed teams

Don’t meet 100% of the criteria but think you can do the job? We’d love to chat anyway! We’re on a mission to build diverse teams, and studies have shown that women and marginalized folks are less likely to apply to jobs if they don’t check every box.

Other requirements

• All work must be conducted within the U.S.
• You must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. now and in the future without sponsorship.
• As a government contractor, you may be required to obtain a public trust or security clearance.
• You may be required to complete a company background check successfully.

Position type

This is a full-time, exempt position

Location

This is a fully remote position.

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 Manager at Skylight, the current salary ranges are as follows:

• Associate Product Manager: $90,000–$125,000
• Product Manager I: $120,000–$140,000
• Product Manager II: $135,000–$160,000
• Senior Product Manager: $150,000–$185,000
• Staff Product Manager: $170,000–$203,000
• Principal Product Manager:  $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
• Access up to $1,000 before payday to cover emergency expenses
• 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.
• If you’d like to request reasonable accommodations during the application or interviewing process, please contact our recruiting team at recruiting@skylight.digital.

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.