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United States Digital Service | Senior Software Engineers, Senior Site Reliability Engineers, Senior Designers, and more! | Washington, DC | ONSITE https://www.

United States Digital Service | Senior Software Engineers, Senior Site Reliability Engineers, Senior Designers, and more! | Washington, DC | ONSITE https://www.usds.gov/ https://www.usds.gov/ The best of technology. The best of government. And we want you. We're looking for the most tenacious designers, software engineers, product managers, and more, who are committed to untangling, rewiring and redesigning critical government services. You'll join a team of the most talented technologists from across the private sector and government. No government resume required! We work on some of the biggest issues affecting the American people there are, immigration, veterans service, students, health care, and more. We're especially looking for talented senior engineers to join us to help shift move government tech in the right direction. See one of our Reports to Congress for examples of what you could be working on: https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2017/07/ https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2017/07/ Apply here: https://www.usds.gov/apply https://www.usds.gov/apply

Matt_Cutts 7y ago
If anyone has questions about the US Digital Service, I'll keep an eye on this thread. Here's a few things that we did in the last month or two: - a federal computer system that took six years to build was flaky, crashing, and slow. It's 3.75M lines of Java code, and some engineers went in to get the system back up, then helped add monitoring, then made changes based on that monitoring which significantly sped up the system (80% faster, I think?). This is a system that handles important processes for the government with 1,000 daily users and ~70,000 weekly users. - we consulted on how to make it easier for farmers to hire seasonal workers. Most of the work was done by contractors, but we offered some product management help and some content strategy. The new tool makes it simpler for farmers to navigate a process that involves dealing with multiple federal agencies. You can see the new tool/site at https://www.farmers.gov/manage/h2a https://www.farmers.gov/manage/h2a - we're running pilots on how to improve hiring in the US government. It's harder than it should be to hire folks into government, and we're working to improve that. This involves the Office of Personnel Management and several other federal agencies. In fact, you can preview one of those job postings at https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/532244000 https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/532244000 and apply for that soon. But again, the main place to learn about us (and apply!) is https://www.usds.gov/ https://www.usds.gov/ . Let me know if you have any questions!
- shyneeup 7y ago
  I'm curious do you only hire people with US citizenship?
  - polymerase 7y ago
    It's in the apply link: "All U.S. Digital Service positions require U.S. citizenship."
- collinstevens 7y ago
  I looked around the "Hiring FAQ" and it doesn't state if a degree is required, is it? Also, I saw the salary range had a maximum range of $160,000, is this a hard cap? I'm already making this in base salary not including overtime and bonuses and it does not seem that bonuses or overtime are mentioned in the FAQ. I took a look at the housing situation near the office and to get something close to comparable to my situation is nearly double the price of my current living situation, yet I would make less with no upward potential, if given a lateral transfer which would be the maximum. I'm critical about this because I'm always interested in this position (company/job?) when the hiring thread comes around. I look at this hiring post every time this thread goes up, but never post anything because it doesn't seem like it would work out due to quality of life loss and loss of upward potential.
  - nacin 7y ago
    Degrees are not required. The salary is a hard ceiling, based on federal law pay scales (and is currently $166,500). A lot of people who have come through USDS are motivated that a tour of duty can truly make a difference on the lives of millions of Americans. It isn't easy work, but it's exceptionally rewarding.
  - dkhenry 7y ago
    While the total compensation may be less then your total income now, I can tell you its 100% possible to live in the DC area on that salary, without a significant drop in quality of life. That includes if you have a family. The Metro lines go out into the Virginia and Maryland suburbs and you can find nice places to live with some of the nations top school districts. Additionally while you will take a temporary hit to income, you will be working on projects that have real impact on the lives of every american in the country. You will be empowered to make changes and do what is right at the highest level of the government. You will be heartbroken at the amount of need, and the amount of pain that is caused by things you can fix. You will be exposed to all the failures of the government, and you will be right at the center of some of its greatest successes. At the end of your tour of duty you will be sad that there wasn't more you could do, but you will be forever grateful for the opportunity to have served and to have made the country better. You will probably leave not even looking for the most money at your next job, but just trying to figure out how you can continue to have purpose anywhere near the same level you just experienced. If you are on the fence do it.
sidcool 7y ago
Does one need to be US citizen to apply here? Do you sponsor Visa? It would be exciting working for US govt.
- Matt_Cutts 7y ago
  You do need to be a US citizen. My understanding is that some other groups in government, like 18F and the Technology Transformation Service, don't require you to be a citizen. More info: https://join.tts.gsa.gov/ https://join.tts.gsa.gov/

Matt_Cutts 7y ago

If anyone has questions about the US Digital Service, I'll keep an eye on this thread. Here's a few things that we did in the last month or two: - a federal computer system that took six years to build was flaky, crashing, and slow. It's 3.75M lines of Java code, and some engineers went in to get the system back up, then helped add monitoring, then made changes based on that monitoring which significantly sped up the system (80% faster, I think?). This is a system that handles important processes for the government with 1,000 daily users and ~70,000 weekly users. - we consulted on how to make it easier for farmers to hire seasonal workers. Most of the work was done by contractors, but we offered some product management help and some content strategy. The new tool makes it simpler for farmers to navigate a process that involves dealing with multiple federal agencies. You can see the new tool/site at https://www.farmers.gov/manage/h2a https://www.farmers.gov/manage/h2a - we're running pilots on how to improve hiring in the US government. It's harder than it should be to hire folks into government, and we're working to improve that. This involves the Office of Personnel Management and several other federal agencies. In fact, you can preview one of those job postings at https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/532244000 https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/532244000 and apply for that soon. But again, the main place to learn about us (and apply!) is https://www.usds.gov/ https://www.usds.gov/ . Let me know if you have any questions!

shyneeup 7y ago
I'm curious do you only hire people with US citizenship?
- polymerase 7y ago
  It's in the apply link: "All U.S. Digital Service positions require U.S. citizenship."
collinstevens 7y ago
I looked around the "Hiring FAQ" and it doesn't state if a degree is required, is it? Also, I saw the salary range had a maximum range of $160,000, is this a hard cap? I'm already making this in base salary not including overtime and bonuses and it does not seem that bonuses or overtime are mentioned in the FAQ. I took a look at the housing situation near the office and to get something close to comparable to my situation is nearly double the price of my current living situation, yet I would make less with no upward potential, if given a lateral transfer which would be the maximum. I'm critical about this because I'm always interested in this position (company/job?) when the hiring thread comes around. I look at this hiring post every time this thread goes up, but never post anything because it doesn't seem like it would work out due to quality of life loss and loss of upward potential.
- nacin 7y ago
  Degrees are not required. The salary is a hard ceiling, based on federal law pay scales (and is currently $166,500). A lot of people who have come through USDS are motivated that a tour of duty can truly make a difference on the lives of millions of Americans. It isn't easy work, but it's exceptionally rewarding.
- dkhenry 7y ago
  While the total compensation may be less then your total income now, I can tell you its 100% possible to live in the DC area on that salary, without a significant drop in quality of life. That includes if you have a family. The Metro lines go out into the Virginia and Maryland suburbs and you can find nice places to live with some of the nations top school districts. Additionally while you will take a temporary hit to income, you will be working on projects that have real impact on the lives of every american in the country. You will be empowered to make changes and do what is right at the highest level of the government. You will be heartbroken at the amount of need, and the amount of pain that is caused by things you can fix. You will be exposed to all the failures of the government, and you will be right at the center of some of its greatest successes. At the end of your tour of duty you will be sad that there wasn't more you could do, but you will be forever grateful for the opportunity to have served and to have made the country better. You will probably leave not even looking for the most money at your next job, but just trying to figure out how you can continue to have purpose anywhere near the same level you just experienced. If you are on the fence do it.

sidcool 7y ago

Does one need to be US citizen to apply here? Do you sponsor Visa? It would be exciting working for US govt.

Matt_Cutts 7y ago
You do need to be a US citizen. My understanding is that some other groups in government, like 18F and the Technology Transformation Service, don't require you to be a citizen. More info: https://join.tts.gsa.gov/ https://join.tts.gsa.gov/