Senior/Staff Technical Product Manager (CDC)

Skylight

2d•$150,000 - $203,000•Remote

About The Position

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. We work with a team at CDC that builds and maintains an integrated disease surveillance system used by state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) health departments across the country. It gives jurisdictions case management for a wide range of conditions, and a secure path for moving epidemiologic, laboratory, and clinical data to CDC. Our role is to modernize it — a cloud-based platform designed to improve scalability, security, and adaptability to evolving public health needs. You’ll own a full stack feature team that supports data migration, case investigation, or epidemiological reporting of clinical health data. This is a role where your prioritization calls turn on architecture and engineering tradeoffs as often as they turn on user needs. The work runs on two tracks at once: building out the modernized, cloud-based platform and getting jurisdictions to adopt it, while the long-standing legacy version stays in production for the states that depend on it. The work is split across several feature teams plus a contract leadership group, so you’ll be one of a few product managers coordinating across a large, open-source system deployed in several hosting configurations. Expect real technical depth and real bureaucratic complexity, often in the same afternoon. 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.

Requirements

Technical fluency with software-based products — enough comfort with architecture, APIs, and data systems to make prioritization calls that hinge on engineering tradeoffs
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
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

Prior hands-on engineering experience
Experience modernizing legacy systems or migrating them from on-prem infrastructure to the cloud
Familiarity with healthcare or public health data, or prior experience in a public health setting
Experience working alongside other product managers on large, multi-team efforts
Experience delivering technology in government, regulated industries, or other public-benefit settings
A track record of staying aligned and accountable on remote teams

Responsibilities

Own the backlog and roadmap for a feature team, deciding what to build next based on the technical landscape, CDC’s priorities, and what jurisdictions need from their data
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
Write and prioritize user stories, build release plans, and facilitate team ceremonies such as planning meetings, stakeholder syncs, and retrospectives
Partner with CDC and state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) stakeholders to manage velocity and prioritization, and to transfer product skills and knowledge to government teams over the course of the project
Creatively navigate bureaucratic challenges and keep the work compatible with existing processes and technologies, paving the way for more intuitive processes in the future

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 $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