Vice President of Defense & Security

About the job

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 movement forward, we’d love for you to join our growing team of public interest technologists. The work we do matters.

• Own and expand Skylight’s portfolio of work with defense and security customers, managing it as an independent business.
• Research and interpret key market drivers (policy shifts, mission priorities, funding patterns, evolving threat landscapes) and proactively understand each defense and security customer’s goals, challenges, and requirements.
• Translate market insights and customer feedback into innovative or enhanced service offerings, aligned with Skylight’s strategy and core capabilities.
• Build strategic relationships with government stakeholders, mission leadership (military and civilian), change agents, and vendor partners to identify and pursue new business opportunities.
• Lead and oversee bid & proposal processes to successfully secure client engagements.
• Transform each client’s objectives and constraints into customized engagement strategies, delivering unique experiences and impactful results efficiently.
• Assemble and manage multi-disciplinary teams — leveraging talent sourcing and subcontracting with vendor partners — to ensure successful client outcomes.
• Provide transparent oversight and ongoing visibility into the status, health, and effectiveness of each client engagement.
• Facilitate open retrospectives with clients and Skylight teams to assess effectiveness, identify improvement areas, and implement actionable changes.
• Step in with hands-on client delivery support when necessary to maintain high-quality outcomes.
• Oversee and support core operational functions, including human resources management, to enable team success and organizational effectiveness.

• Experience in defense, homeland security, or justice mission environments.
• Ability to manage a multi-million-dollar profit & loss business, including multiple client engagements with multiple subcontractors.
• Ability to sustain and grow a professional services business through business development, opportunity capture, and bid & proposal.
• Strong understanding of how a professional services and government contracting business works.
• Startup mentality, including a high degree of entrepreneurialism and resourcefulness.
• Excellent general management and leadership skills.
• Outstanding organizational skills, including attention to detail.
• Experience building and managing high-performing teams.
• Relentless commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Collaborative, supportive leadership style.
• Excellent interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
• Strong business acumen.
• Superb written and oral communication skills.
• Relentless commitment to excellence and quality in everything we do.
• Strong understanding of business functions such as people ops, finance, marketing, business development, etc.
• Ability to collect, analyze, and derive actionable insights from financial, operational, and performance data.
• Ability to serve as a coach/mentor to other leaders and managers.
• Ability to work successfully within a professional services environment (e.g., can communicate effectively with clients).
• Passionate about creating better public outcomes through great government services.
• Ability to travel for work from time to time.

• Prior experience working in the civic tech space.
• Experience working in a remote-team environment.

• All work must be conducted within the U.S., excluding U.S. territories. Some federal contracts require U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment.
• 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.
• Some of our available roles are on…