Epidemiology Strategist (CDC)

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, epidemiologists play a critical role in improving the digital infrastructure that powers public health. In this role, you’ll work across teams to make sure the information systems we co-develop with our government partners are firmly grounded in applied public health practice.

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 be a primary source of epidemiology expertise for the teams building that platform, solving ad hoc problems as they surface and taking a systematic lens to where the work is headed overall. Your job is to keep evolving features, user experience, and data models aligned with public health policy, case surveillance and investigation workflows, and what health departments actually need from their data.

What to know going in

The work runs on two tracks at once: building out the modernized, cloud-based platform while the long-standing legacy version stays in production for the jurisdictions that depend on it. You’ll be part of a small team of epidemiologists providing niche subject matter expertise to both internal and external partners. With STLT health departments, that means sharing the guidance they need to carry out public health surveillance. Internally, it means working with product managers, designers, researchers, and engineers — bringing public health practice into technical decisions, and translating in both directions.

What you’ll do

• Act as an internal epidemiology strategist, working with technical, product, and research leads to represent the day-to-day realities of epidemiologists and disease investigators in system design, development, and implementation decisions
• Partner with CDC and state, tribal, local, and territorial (STLT) public health stakeholders to align system workflows and functionality with evolving public health policies, practices, and data requirements
• Make sure the system supports real-world case investigation and surveillance workflows across a range of conditions and programs
• Translate national public health standards into concrete guidance that can be implemented at the STLT level
• Provide technical assistance to support surveillance, investigation, and analysis activities across the jurisdictions that use the system
• Develop, test, and release standardized disease data collection forms aligned to CDC message mapping guides
• Provide subject matter expertise on integrating core public health data streams, such as electronic laboratory reporting (ELR), electronic case reporting (eCR), vital records, and immunizations
• Help the team decide which user needs and system issues to tackle first, and how to approach them iteratively using human-centered design
• Advocate for STLT needs and priorities so that public health voices are represented at every level of the work

What we’re looking for

Basic qualifications

• At least 5–7 years of experience in public health practice, including past employment at a state, tribal, local, or territorial health department
• Experience using integrated disease surveillance systems and conducting case investigation workflows
• Familiarity with public health data standards, including ELR, eCR, and HL7 message mapping guides
• Comfort with ambiguity, iterative problem solving, and helping teams prioritize the most meaningful next step
• Experience navigating and adapting to evolving public health policies, data requirements, and real-world constraints
• Ability to work successfully within a professional services environment (e.g., can communicate effectively with clients)
• A passion for creating better public outcomes through great government services
• 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

• MPH, MSPH, or PhD in epidemiology
• Experience configuring surveillance system features such as custom data-entry form builders and workflow decision-support rules
• Experience working on multidisciplinary teams involving public health, informatics, and software development
• Experience applying human-centered design principles to public health or health IT work
• A recognized reputation across the public health community for excellence in public health practice
• Prior experience working in the civic tech space
• Experience working in a remote team environment

Don’t meet every qualification but think you can do the job? We’d still love to hear from you. If you’re excited about the role, apply. We consider candidates with a range of backgrounds and experiences.

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.
• 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 must complete a company background check successfully.

Logistics

Position type

This is a full-time, exempt position.

Location

This is a fully remote position.

Travel

This role may require occasional or regular travel based on company, client, or contract needs.

Care package

Salary

The salary range for this position is between $130,000 and $165,000, 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
• 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

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 [email protected].

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.