Senior/Staff/Principal Technical Product Manager (U.S. Air Force)

Skylight; United States; Remote; USD 120,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) with match

Flexible PTO and holidays

Remote-friendly work environment

Job summary

Skylight is seeking a technical product manager to shape strategy for legacy modernization projects with the U.S. Air Force and other government partners.

You’ll own the direction, translate user needs into a compelling roadmap, and balance architecture, integrations, and migration tradeoffs while collaborating with researchers, designers, and engineers. You’ll lead in an agile, remote-friendly environment, guiding backlog and release planning, and mentoring government partners to sustain

Qualifications

• Understand lean product principles and how to apply them (e.g., minimum viable product) at various stages of the product life cycle to mitigate risk, validate assumptions, and amplify learning
• Can develop a product strategy that is informed by the problem to be solved, prioritizes outcomes over feature sets, and establishes the direction of the product over time (e.g., product roadmap)
• Ability to execute the product strategy by breaking down the scope into usable chunks of value and maintaining a prioritized backlog with validated user stories

Responsibilities

• Lead a cross-functional team of researchers, designers, engineers, and SMEs to build and ship high-impact products and services
• Translate needs from users and government partners into a product strategy, including vision, objectives, measures of success, roadmaps, and backlog
• Manage direction, scope, and priorities of the modernization effort, weighing architecture and migration tradeoffs alongside user needs
• Write user stories, prioritize stories, and build release plans
• Work with government teams to transfer digital skills and product knowledge
• Pave the way for intuitive processes by navigating bureaucratic challenges

Skills

Lean product principles

Product strategy

Backlog management

Human-centered design

Stakeholder management

Agile/lean methodologies

Technical fluency

Mentoring Gov partners

Cross-functional teamwork

Values alignment

Job 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, 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.

A technical product manager specializes in products with significant technical depth — platforms, APIs, data systems, or modernization efforts — where product decisions depend on fluency with the underlying architecture and engineering tradeoffs.

Skylight has partnered with the U.S. Air Force across multiple legacy modernization efforts. The work spans modernization of legacy systems, new capability development in multi-vendor environments, iteration on established platforms, all inside an agile transformation and broader organizational change.

You’ll own product direction for a legacy modernization effort where the architecture, integrations, and vendor landscape shape what’s possible. Expect to make the technical tradeoffs legible to stakeholders, pair closely with your government partners, and put AI-assisted ways of working to use across the team.

What to know going in

Your first 30 days are about working with the Skylight team and government personnel, learning the client’s domain and organization, and enabling your government partners. Access to users varies from team to team, so you’ll need to get creative about how you reach them. The client is early- to mid-transformation, so expect organizational and operational change along the way.

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

• Lead a cross-functional team of researchers, designers, engineers, and subject matter experts to build and ship high-impact products and services
• Translate needs from users and government partners into a product strategy, including vision, objectives, measures of success, product roadmap, and product backlog
• Manage the direction, scope, and priorities of the modernization effort, weighing architecture, integration, and migration tradeoffs alongside user needs
• Write user stories, prioritize stories, and build release plans
• Work in close partnership with government teams to transfer digital skills and product knowledge throughout the course of the project
• Creatively navigate bureaucratic challenges, paving the way for more intuitive processes in the future

What we’re looking for

Basic 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
• Can develop a product strategy that is informed by an understanding of the problem to be solved, prioritizes outcomes over feature sets, and establishes the direction of the product over time (e.g., product roadmap), including success criteria
• Ability to execute the product strategy by breaking down the product’s scope into usable chunks of value that can be realized sooner rather than later, creating and maintaining a prioritized backlog with validated user stories, and facilitating team ceremonies over the course of the product’s iterations
• Understand how to engage in the process of human-centered design in order to better inform product direction
• Ability to manage clients and stakeholders in a way that builds trust, alignment, and healthy environments for individuals and teams
• Understand the merits of different software development methodologies (e.g., agile, lean) and how to put them into practice
• Enough technical fluency to weigh architecture and engineering tradeoffs with engineers and explain them to non-technical stakeholders
• Interest in mentoring, coaching, and pairing with government partners so they can carry the work forward
• Experience working on cross-functional teams (product, design, engineering, ops) in iterative delivery
• A mindset and work approach that aligns with our core values

Nice-to-haves

• Military or government experience
• Experience leading legacy modernization efforts
• Experience delivering technology in government, regulated industries, or other public-benefit settings
• A track record of staying aligned and accountable on remote teams

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 and maintain a Common Access Card (CAC), which requires a favorable background check.
• You must complete a company background check successfully.

Position type

This is a full-time, exempt position.

Location

This is a fully remote position.

Travel

Expect occasional travel to Air Force bases across the U.S., quarterly at most.

Expected start date

November 2026

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 $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)
• 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 [e-mail].

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.