Head of People Operations

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

Since launching several years ago, our team has grown rapidly. We find ourselves in an exciting position to further deepen our partnerships within the government contracting space, to continue to attract and retain amazing teammates, and to scale our capacity to make an even bigger difference in the world.

Currently, our company is organized into three main groups: Executive Office (sets and operationalizes the strategic direction of the company), Federal Health & Civilian (focused on federal health and civilian missions), and Defense & Security (focused on defense, national security, and public safety missions).

As our Head of People Operations, you’ll be responsible for leading people operations across the company so we can continue to attract, empower, and retain amazing public interest technologists. Your work will be central to improving and scaling our ability to make a genuine difference in the world. Our Head of People Operations must have proven experience navigating the evolving legal, regulatory, and social landscapes while preserving organizational values and maintaining trusted relationships with employees, leaders, customers, and government stakeholders.

What you’ll do

Talent acquisition

Manage the talent life cycle, from workforce planning through onboarding, as part of the broader employee life cycle

Provide leadership to the Head of Recruiting, who reports to this role, and grow the talent function over time

Understand the current and future talent needs of the organization, and build and maintain a strategic talent pipeline

Manage the onboarding process

HR

Ensure awareness of and compliance with relevant labor laws, and lead employee relations, including sensitive and legal matters

Perform benchmark research on compensation and benefits, and partner on HR functions such as payroll

Manage and optimize our HRIS (Rippling)

Create organizational charts and define each position’s responsibilities

Manage the offboarding process

People & culture

Own company-wide employee engagement: design and run engagement programs that reach across business units

Manage our performance management system (e.g., individual performance planning, performance evaluation, internal promotions, continuous feedback)

Support the development and ongoing improvement of a professional capability framework for describing and measuring how to progress and be successful in various roles at Skylight

Discuss career-pathing options with high-potential employees and their team leaders

Organize and oversee individual and team training programs (both internal and external)

Design programs that build culture, drive engagement, and retain great people as we scale

Create and implement succession plans

Across all three pillars

Partner closely with business unit leaders and the executive team to align people strategy with the needs of the business

Build fair, consistent people practices that reach a broad range of talent pools, reduce bias in how we evaluate candidates, and partner with organizations that widen our candidate reach

Implement data-driven approaches to continually improving our people operations and talent outcomes

Understand and drive the adoption of emerging best practices related to people operations

What we're looking for

Minimum qualifications

Experience as a people operations leader or similar role

Experience scaling people operations in a fast-growing organization

Demonstrated experience building high-performing, mission-driven workplace cultures where employees feel respected, supported, and empowered to do their best work

Sound judgment balancing transparency and visibility with confidentiality, privacy, and risk

Experience recruiting design and technology professionals, such as product managers, product designers, user researchers, content strategists, software engineers, and DevOps engineers

Experience working with remote teams

Awareness of relevant labor laws and how to comply with them

Ability to operate at strategic and tactical levels

Excellent interpersonal, motivational, and relationship management skills

Organized, detail-oriented, and quality-minded

Superior written and oral communication skills

Strong data and analytical skills

Comfortable navigating Human Resources Information Systems, Applicant Tracking Systems, and tools that support performance management and other HR functions

Passionate about creating better public outcomes through great government services

A mindset and work approach that aligns with our core values

Ability to travel for work from time to time

Nice-to-have qualifications

Experience with Rippling or a comparable HRIS

Experience in a government contracting, consulting, or professional services environment

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 successfully complete a company background check.

Position type

This is a full-time, exempt position.

Location

This is a fully remote position.

Care package

Salary

The salary range for this position is $170,000 to $240,000, based on experience and qualifications.

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

Paid time off, including 20 vacation days, 11 federal holidays, and flexible sick leave

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

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're an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, pregnancy, disability, work-related injury, covered veteran status, political ideology, marital status, or any other factor that the law protects from employment discrimination.