18f.gsa.gov

At the end of last year, we asked everyone at 18F to reflect on a
meaningful
project
they worked on in 2015. We received dozens of responses, ranging from
working on internal
tools
to almost doubling our
workforce.

To celebrate our second anniversary, we once again reached out to people
across 18F. This time, we were curious about:

What led them to 18F

What their pathway into the federal government looked like

What they’ve loved working on so far

We got more than 100 responses, including people from every team and
time zone, and we’re excited to share their responses over the next few
days. Today’s post answers the question: Why did you join 18F?

Want to see your name on this list? You can see open positions and how
to apply on our join
page.

Why did you join 18F?

Design

18F Design provide content, visual, and interactive design to the rest
of the organization.

{{ "shawn" | team_photo }}
“I wanted a new challenge, and I wanted to learn from some of the best
minds in design and technology.” - {{ "shawn" | team_link }}

{{ "maya" | team_photo }}

“18F started up during my Code for America fellowship, so I had a chance
to observe what 18F was doing while I was completing my fellowship. It
was a natural progression from using technology to solve local issues to
national issues. I knew that the variety of projects, impact, and people
working here was unparalleled. I could tell the people who worked at 18F
were extremely talented, had a depth of experience, and hearts the size
of Jupiter (as Todd Park likes to say). Designing for the public good
was the only thing that felt worthwhile to me.” - {{ "maya" | team_link}}

{{ "brethauer" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F to make a big impact on how our government works and
serves its people. I love getting to combine design, technology, and
public service by working on real, impactful products and services for
the public. I’ve worked on many different things at 18F, and I’m
constantly amazed both by my colleagues and how much I am always
learning and growing here.

I came to 18F after getting a masters in information management and
human-computer interaction, and time at the Sunlight Foundation and
NPR.” - {{ "brethauer" | team_link }}

{{ "jeremy" | team_photo }}

“The answer to why I joined is not actually all that interesting — it's
the same reason I've taken almost every job I've had: it seemed like 18F
is a bunch of good people focused on problems worth solving.

​The more interesting question is why — as I approach my two year mark,
the average lifespan of most jobs that my demographic and I take — I'm
not tempted to leave.

This is hard work. It is taxing both mentally and emotionally. The
problems we are working on are indeed worth solving, and are also
momentous, entrenched, and many will outlast our best attempts to solve
them. We will at times be completely overwhelmed by the size and
complexity of tasks that at first blush seemed simple.

To me, more interesting than why I came is why I am staying. And I'm
staying for essentially one reason: I stay because I feel that I have
stumbled on an exceedingly rare thing, a thing that I have experienced
precious few times in my life. I have found in 18F a band of colleagues
that not only have the ambition to focus on ridiculously hard problems
and the gumption to think they can make progress, that recognizes that
this work, while serious, needs creativity and creativity eschews prim
and proper seriousness. I'm staying because I have found in 18F a
nurturing community that celebrates each other's successes, that helps
each other up and dusts each other off after our inevitable missteps,
that all the while believes not only in the fundamental rightness of our
mission, but in each other.

I'm staying because I have found my people.” - {{ "jeremy" | team_link}}

{{ "erica" | team_photo }}

“I was inspired by the passionate, skilled cohort I saw working on
projects with huge potential for impact. In my experience, interacting
with government services often leaves people feeling frustrated and
disempowered. I wanted to design services that effectively meet the
needs of their users, while helping to build a design culture in
government.” - {{ "erica" | team_link }}

“Having the chance to work on distributed teams was one of the main
reasons I joined 18F. I love knowing that the people building products
for the American public are spread out all over the country. Re-thinking
the way I collaborate on designs to accommodate a team that spans 3
time-zones has been one of the most exciting parts of my job.” -
{{ "john-demoyer" | team_link }}

{{ "nicole-fenton" | team_photo }}

“I wanted to work for a civic organization that understands the value of
editorial strategy, working in the open, and working remotely.” -{{ "nicole-fenton" | team_link }}

{{ "egoodman" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I like solving complicated design questions, and
the federal government offers some of the most complicated questions out
there.” - {{ "egoodman" | team_link }}

{{ "mhz" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I want to make government services things people
delight in using. There is no reason that interacting with the
government needs to be stressful and difficult.” - {{ "mhz" | team_link }}

{{ "jhunter" | team_photo }}

“I was drawn to its commitment to improving opportunities for the
general public by transforming government — increasing its efficiency,
transparency, and accountability.” - {{ "jhunter" | team_link }}

“I chose to work at 18F because I see it as an opportunity to improve
how government works from the inside. I spent a lot of years translating
government documents and data so regular people can get the information
they need to improve their lives and inform themselves. But now there is
a demonstrated willingness by the government to be better at
communicating efficiently and to provide more reliable and tested tools.
I saw that willingness as an opportunity for me to contribute all I’ve
learned in my career so far and to make a difference.” - {{ "ryan-sibley" | team_link }}

{{ "gail" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I felt that my UX skills could make life easier
for those who are in the most need. Working in the private sector didn’t
satisfy my need for meaningful work. Put more succinctly, I was looking
for work that I’d be willing to do for free. The work at 18F has
enriched my life more than I could imagine.” - {{ "gail" | team_link }}

{{ "jthibault" | team_photo }}

“Because this is a really exciting time for technology and digital
services in government, I wanted to work on products that improve the
public’s experience with government, and I wanted to become a more
engaged citizen.” - {{ "jthibault" | team_link }}

{{ "christopher-goranson" | team_photo }}

“It was a fantastic opportunity to continue work started through the
Presidential Innovation Fellows program. Improving government products
and services for the American people with a group of incredibly talented
individuals and strong government partners provided a great opportunity
for meaningful work.” - {{ "christopher-goranson" | team_link }}

Acquisitions

The acquisitions team provides innovative services and solutions to
support digital service delivery. Their teams have a mix of former
contracting officers, developers, and product manager who manage access
to the Agile Delivery Services Marketplace, RFP ghostwriting consulting,
and the micro-purchase platform.

{{ "robin-carnahan" | team_photo }}

“As a former state elected official, I lost a lot of sleep worrying
about IT projects. I joined 18F to help reimagine the way state and
local governments design and procure technology so the public gets
better results, taxpayers save millions, and all those public servants
lose less sleep.” - {{ "robin-carnahan" | team_link }}

“I joined 18F to work towards a great mission and to be at a place that
allowed me to grow and develop professionally. I was finishing my last
year of part-time law school when I joined 18F. I always felt very
fortunate that I could start a job somewhere that was flexible about
night school. During my time here, I’ve seen countless colleagues
receive encouragement and support to develop their skill set outside of
18F. Coming into 18F, I had spent a lot of time interning in different
parts of government, and I was never satisfied with the way they handled
technology. Being at a place like 18F, where helping government improve
its use of technology is our mandate, is a dream job.” {{ "alan" | team_link }}

“To work on how technology could improve government service delivery in a deeper way than just as a communications platform.” - {{ "laura-gerhardt" | team_link }}

{{ "alla" | team_photo }}

“I’ve always been passionate about public service and have spent time
working on tech issues in various federal agencies. I distinctly
remember the 18F announcement blog post and hoping there would one day
be room for someone like me (a lawyer/product manager) to join the
spectacular team GSA was building.” - {{ "alla" | team_link }}

{{ "mark-hopson" | team_photo }}

“Margaret Mead said it best 'Never doubt that a small group of
thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the
only thing that ever has.'” - {{ "mark-hopson" | team_link }}

{{ "jessie-posilkin" | team_photo }}

“To work with smart and kind people who work well on teams.” -
{{ "jessie-posilkin" | team_link }}

“From the outside, it seemed like what I thought an ideal government
should be. Like most federal agencies, it's focused on serving the
public and has a genuine desire to Do Good, but unlike a lot of
government, it is willing to struggle against the old way in order to Do
Better.” - {{ "michael-walker" | team_link }}

{{ "vdavez" | team_photo }}

“To play a small part in ensuring that America is as hopeful for our
future as we were when we made one giant leap for mankind.” - {{ "vdavez" | team_link }}

Operations

Team Ops handles all activities related to travel, non-travel
purchases, legal matters, and equipment requests.

{{ "joshbailes" | team_photo }}

“18F offered me a chance risk something big for something good. The big
risk was giving up my career path position elsewhere in government to
work for an inside-the-government start up. The good was the goal of
making government more accessible to individuals.” - {{ "joshbailes" | team_link }}

“I joined 18F because I saw it as a way to take my existing experience
in operations to the next level. I came here from the Peace Corps, where
I was a computer literacy teacher at a high school in Burkina Faso, and
managed a lot of the day-to-day operations of the program on the side.
Since starting nine months ago (already!), what I appreciate most about
18F is how much I've been able to learn from every division in the
organization. I love having the opportunity to help rethink a variety of
processes from travel to purchasing to staffing on a daily basis.” - {{ "ethan" | team_link }}

{{ "matt" | team_photo }}

“It sounded like a great opportunity to work alongside really talented
people and learn completely new skills” - {{ "matt" | team_link }}

Outreach

The Outreach team is responsible for promoting the work of digital
innovators at 18F and across government. Our work spans a number of
media outlets, including the content of 18F’s public-facing
website, our
blog, our external and internal
newsletters, our Twitter feed (@18F),
responses to press, and responses to emails to 18f@gsa.gov.

{{ "boone" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F to help people connect to their government.” - {{ "boone" | team_link }}

{{ "andre" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because while I loved working at a non-profit
government watchdog, I wanted the opportunity to switch sides and start
working on some of the problems I’d been identifying.” - {{ "andre" | team_link }}

{{ "melody" | team_photo }}

“The idea of creating and improving products and tools that could
potentially touch millions of people was really appealing, but I
actually decided to join because of the people. They were smart, funny,
warm, and dedicated to the type of public service that I value — and I
wanted to share and learn from and with them. (It’s been great.)” -
{{ "melody" | team_link }}

Product

*Each project at 18F has a product lead whose job is to ensure the
project is moving forward. A product lead looks at the whole picture and
figures out how to make it work, including making sure we’re
user-centered and agile, taking care of billing and logistics, and
handling other details so that the rest of the team can do its job. We
tend to be generalists, often with skills in code or other disciplines
as well as product. More information about our Product team is available
in the 18F Product
Guide

{{ "sarah" | team_photo }}

“Our government is on track to become more and more expensive, while the
services we deliver to our people become increasingly unusable and
unavailable. We’ve seen what happens in the world when governments stop
working. If this trend continues, then I think in 5-10 years, my kid
won’t have a country to grow up in. 18F is one part of the movement to
change that reality.

Over the past 15 years, technology has advanced: virtualization has made
it cheaper to run web applications, and made it easier to design and
develop in iterative cycles that respond to what we learn through the
process. Our software has become more interdependent as the majority of
our people use online services and mobile devices. This creates a
challenge of complexity while also providing opportunity to streamline
services. The majority of people could help themselves through direct
online access to services, 24/7 through their mobile devices and the
staff in government offices could focus their efforts on those who
actually need additional assistance. We can create dramatically better
services at significantly lower lost … with the gap able to be closed by
people with skills like mine. It was sacrifice, and at the time appeared
to be a career-limiting move, but sometimes you just gotta do the right
thing.” - {{ "sarah" | team_link}}

{{ "larry-bafundo" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I believe that there’s tremendous opportunity to
bring people and government together through technology. A lot of what
we’ve learned in the private sector about product development, service
design, and what makes for a great digital experience can be applied at
the federal level and affect millions of Americans for the better.” -
{{ "larry-bafundo" | team_link }}

{{ "leah" | team_photo }}

“I had been working in open data and volunteering in the civic hacking
community for awhile, so I had been talking to Presidential Innovation
Fellows and other founders for almost a year before 18F finally came
together. This is my dream job; I’ve been working toward it for years,
even when I didn’t know 18F was it.” - {{ "leah" | team_link }}

{{ "gray" | team_photo }}

“I saw GSA as the place that had the ability and mandate to shift gears
and really scale out the digital efforts in government.” - {{ "gray" | team_link }}

“The magnitude of the challenge drew me to 18F. Government is foreign to
me, and I have loved picking up government parlance and custom via
immersion.” - {{ "alan-brouilette" | team_link }}

{{ "bret" | team_photo }}

“I saw 18F as the best place to magnify my ability to drive positive change in the world.” - {{ "bret" | team_link }}

{{ "anna" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I felt a strong pull towards both public service
(coming from the nonprofit world) and the tech sector for quite some
time, and 18F seemed like the perfect place to make an impact in an
environment that melded those areas into one!” - {{ "anna" | team_link}}

{{ "raphy" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because of the people and the mission.” - {{ "raphy" | team_link }}

Strategy

We help agencies transform into modern, high-functioning organizations
through new management models, culture change, modern practices,
empowered talent, data access, technology, and collaboration tools. We
transform how agencies understand and execute projects: what to build,
how to build, and who will build it.

{{ "alan-atlas" | team_photo }}

“I came to 18F for two reasons. Neither reason was something
specifically in my head but once a colleague introduced me to the idea
of 18F and I learned about the organization and its mission and work, it
quickly became compelling for me. The first part of my 'why' was that it
was a chance to help the government build software better in order to
deliver services to the country better. It's no secret to anybody in
high tech that the government has needed some help in this area for a
while, but it's still almost a secret that there is now a way to come
and help. And I wanted to come and help. The second reason, for me, was
professional. As a professional Agile coach, trainer, and consultant,
the U.S. Government represents probably the most challenging
customer/client possible. In government, even when there is a desire to
change, actually doing so is still a difficult challenge. So I came to
the toughest place on earth for plying my trade. And that, ladies and
gentlemen, is my 'why'.” - {{ "alan-atlas" | team_link }}

{{ "kane" | team_photo }}

“I really wanted to give what I could do to my country. My expertise is
in recovering brownfield software projects and the cost of that for
government and the American people is incredibly high.” - {{ "kane" | team_link }}

“I joined 18F because I genuinely believe that thoughtful, well-planned,
well-coordinated use of technology can have a significant positive
impact on the function of our government and its ability to serve the
public. Personally, I am deeply invested in projects where technology
can be used to support social service policy designed to meaningfully
improve the lives of Americans living in underserved and underprivileged
communities.” - {{ "lane-becker" | team_link }}

{{ "angela-colter" | team_photo }}

“I heard Sarah Richards, who was the head of content design at GOV.UK at the time (this must have
been around 2013), talk about the work the Government Design Service had
been doing to improve government services for citizens. I was blown away
by the work they had done and how effective they’d been. I thought, if
we ever start something like that here in the U.S., I want to be a part
of it.” - {{ "angela-colter" | team_link }}

“I joined 18F because of the unique ability to help culturally and
technologically transform the government, guided by principles of
transparency and collaboration. I love the fact that all code I write
can be open source, all frameworks and papers I write can be used by the
public, and that I have the ability to work across the government in
many fascinating agencies and organizations. I feel like I can make a
real impact here.” - {{ "adrian-webb" | team_link }}

{{ "mike-hsu" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F to help government modernize and streamline their IT processes and mostly to make a difference.” - {{ "mike-hsu" | team_link }}

{{ "jayhuie" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F to multiply and accelerate the impact I was having in
government across agencies and being able to deliver change across
culture, policy, and technology facets.” - {{ "jayhuie" | team_link }}

{{ "michael-cata" | team_photo }}

“Two decades ago, I was a nerdy kid in the public library reading about
submarines, helicopters, and battleships. Two years ago I was looking
for an opportunity to serve my country. Two months ago I joined 18F. Two
days ago I started working working with the Navy to help build a
platform that serves sailors around the world.” - {{ "michael-cata" | team_link }}

{{ "romke" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I was looking for a way to work in government and
make an impact. 18F has been a blessing by allowing me to work with a
great group of people on causes that make our lives better as a country
and people.” - {{ "romke" | team_link }}

{{ "kedelman" | team_photo }}

“I want to help agencies do better for more people using fewer
resources. 18F is one of the best places to try to do that in government
today.” - {{ "kedelman" | team_link }}

“The ability to be 'in the arena'"' as Teddy Roosevelt would say. The
ability to jump in and help with some of our nation's greatest
challenges. The ability to affect positive change. The ability to work
with really smart, interesting people in 18F and across government. This
is a special time to be serving as our government core operations and
services are being transformed by technology.” - Philip Harding

{{ "ed-mullen" | team_photo }}

“I feel selfish when I think about why I wanted to join 18F. I wanted to
work on things that have deep meaning and deliver real impact to people
and the country, using the best methods of the trade, with people who
are leaders in their field, within an organization intentionally
nurturing a thoughtful, inclusive, and gratifying culture.” - {{ "ed-mullen" | team_link }}

“You would be justified in calling me a social impact junkie. I've been
working in the civic technology space for several years, and feel like
I've found my professional happy place in using the powers of
human-centered design to help government better serve the American
people in the digital age. However, my career before 18F was always
focused on the local level, so the prospect of putting my skills and
experience to work at the federal level was really exciting, since the
amount of potential impact that our work can have on people's lives
becomes just mind-boggling at that national scale. Plus, having worked
at very small organizations for most of my career, I was really drawn to
the giant well of talent here at 18F, and it's been incredible to work
with such a huge variety of ridiculously talented people whom I get to
learn from every day.” — {{ "alex-pandel" | team_link }}

Infrastructure

The infrastructure team helps 18F navigate the “federal compliance
architecture.” This work applies to much more than technology: it
applies to our entire operation, including how we work inside the law,
how we secure our systems, how we collect data from the public, and how
we spend money.

“I joined 18F for a few reasons. First, I’m a big fan of what the UK’s
GDS has been doing, and I wanted to be able to contribute to the U.S.
government’s move towards building people-centered digital government
services. I see that as a vitally important mission, and for selfish
reasons 18F was ideal because they have an office in San Francisco, and
they are a remote-first team (we use a lot of Slack and Screenhero),
which means I can work from home much of the week. Second, I get to use
cutting-edge technology. I’ve spent the past month working on the
cloud.gov team, where we’re
building a cloud for government using CloudFoundry and AWS. Recently
we’ve been building out monitoring using Riemann, InfluxDB and Grafana,
and it’s been fun to get my hands dirty on that. Third, I’m getting to
work with some really great people.” - {{ "jez-humble" | team_link }}

{{ "noah" | team_photo }}

“Since I joined the government in 2010, I've thought we've needed a
centralized technology team to support federal agencies who are
constantly asked to do more with less. I couldn't be more honored to be
part of a team that's here to help agencies with their critical public
missions.” - {{ "noah" | team_link }}

{{ "kimberdowsett" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F to support their mission of transparency and help foster
the public’s trust in government. I work with technology not readily
available at other agencies and serve as an advocate for agile
development, encryption, and privacy. I work with the best and brightest
folks I’ve ever met, and I wake every day excited to face new and
interesting challenges.” - {{ "kimberdowsett" | team_link }}

“It was a good example of disrupting government, and I wanted to be part
of something that was moving quickly and would keep me on my toes. I
also saw strong leadership. Phaedra and Aaron are dynamic leaders, and I
wanted to support them in any way that I could.” - Vicki McFadden,
Associate Administrator, GSA

{{ "kara" | team_photo }}

"I came to 18F because of the mission. I'm attracted to work where I can
do the most good for the most people. And there's so much good work to
do here: To infuse human centered design across federal government. To
make the digital services the people interact with more usable, and
useful. To influence experiences that yes, maybe even make the
interactions delightful. #AspirationalFTW To paraphrase President Obama's speech in Selma last year: It's such an honor to be able to work on improving this great nation of ours.” - {{ "kara" | team_link }}

Engineering

18F Engineering is responsible for delivering high quality, robust,
open source software. We also evangelize best practices relating to
software testing, scalability, security, and agile development.

{{ "holly" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F to use my professional skills in service of making the
world a better place. For a while I wasn’t sure how my background as a
software developer and manager could be of use tackling big problems
like poverty, climate change, and income inequality. Then I started to
hear about the work being done in the U.S. government by people like
Megan Smith and DJ Patil, and by USDS and 18F. I quickly realized that
this is where I need to be, with these amazing people using technology
to help our government realize its mission.” – {{ "holly" | team_link }}

{{ "lenny-bogdonoff" | team_photo }}

“I was looking to be surrounded by smart, talented people who were
passionate about the problems they were solving. I wanted to know that
the effort I exerted was for a purpose beyond shareholder value or
recognition. I felt I wasn't sure what I was going to exactly do, but I
trusted the fact that 18F attracted a high caliber of people and the
problems worked on were for a greater purpose.” - {{ "lenny-bogdonoff" | team_link }}

{{ "nick" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I believed in the vision. When I first heard about
what 18F was doing I knew I wanted to be a part of it because it would
change government forever, for the better.” - {{ "nick" | team_link }}

{{ "christine" | team_photo }}

“To use my skills to make an impact for digital services in government,
and ultimately the American people!” - {{ "christine" | team_link }}

“I joined 18F to work on high impact projects that help other people.” - {{ "colin-craig" | team_link }}

{{ "kaitlin" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because after five years of working for a government
watchdog, I wanted to try to improve government from the inside. I have
loved working on CALC and opening up federal spending data via the DATA
Act implementation.” {{ "kaitlin" | team_link}}

{{ "afeld" | team_photo }}

“I was looking for somewhere I could work on open source full-time.
That, coupled with an awesome mission and potential for impact, was a
huge draw.” - {{ "afeld" | team_link }}

{{ "annalee" | team_photo }}

“I learned to code so I could help build a more just and equal world.
18F offered the opportunity to work on projects that'd have a positive
impact on a lot of people's lives.” - {{ "annalee" | team_link }}

“I joined 18F because it is our responsibility to make government work
better for everyone." - {{ "anthony-garvan" | team_link }}

{{ "yoz" | team_photo }}

“I was involved in volunteer-run e-democracy projects in the UK before I
moved to San Francisco. I watched many of my old friends & colleagues
get the UK's Government Digital Service started from afar, and found it
inspiring to see their huge success in transforming government with user
experience principles.

When my second child was born, I got a heavy dose of the American
citizen's interaction with contemporary federal bureaucracy, which I
think of as "the plastic chair and take-a-number experience". It was
doubly frustrating to navigate that while seeing an example, across the
Atlantic, of how much better things could be. So when I saw 18F gearing
up to apply the same lessons, I jumped aboard. I'm partly driven by the
value of making government more accessible to everyone, but even more
so, there's the engineer's motivation of seeing something that I know
how to fix.” - {{ "yoz" | team_link }}

“I joined 18F to create and deploy best-in-class technology solutions to
improve interaction, availability of services, and competitiveness of
government services for citizens.” - {{ "steven-harms" | team_link }}

{{ "jacobharris" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I wanted to try a new career path in a place that
valued autonomy and flexibility but was also dedicated to the greater
good. I came to 18F from the New York Times, which was fascinating like
many other journalism organizations but somewhat hard on people like me
who need greater work-life balance or who have to work remotely. I also
didn’t see a career path that worked for me. I have scrubbed into
several projects here mid-stream and I am always struck by how
supportive and positive my colleagues have been at making sure I
understand the work and where I fit into it. I also love the all-hands
meetings because it’s awesome to see where everybody is reporting in
from.” - {{ "jacobharris" | team_link }}

“I seek mission-driven work, and 18F is that in spades. I have loved
working on projects that make other people’s day-to-day lives better.” -
{{ "pkarman" | team_link }}

{{ "jeremiak" | team_photo }}

“I wanted to be a part of this experiment to gradually erode the notion
that interacting with government services must be a terrible experience.
The fact that 18F represents that opportunity, alongside inspiring
colleagues while working in the open excited me even more.” -
{{ "jeremiak" | team_link }}

{{ "cm" | team_photo }}

“18F is our best chance to improve government technology through
efficiency, transparency, and agility. Our impact is mighty.” - {{ "cm" | team_link}}

{{ "sasha" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I believe that government plays a critical role in
our society and the better it functions, the more it can better balance
the power of other large organizations. My path to 18F included almost
25 years (off and on) in software and nearly as long involved in local
activism and non-profit community work.” - {{ "sasha" | team_link }}

{{ "eric" | team_photo }}

“I came to 18F from the Sunlight Foundation, a non-profit organization
that works on the technology and policy of government transparency. I
was thrilled to be able to keep working on making a more transparent,
responsive, and effective government from inside.” - {{ "eric" | team_link }}

“I joined 18F to do work that was more soul satisfying. I felt that open
source and lean processes could be combined to make the public sector
efficient.” - {{ "vraj-mohan" | team_link}}

{{ "amanda-robinson" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F to help build great digital tools for government with a
team of amazing people.” - {{ "amanda-robinson" | team_link }}

{{ "marco" | team_photo}}

“I joined 18F after I had been working in the San Francisco startup
world for a few years and felt the excitement around startups had grown
a little stale. In picking my next venture, I decided I wanted an
opportunity to make a difference for people in need. I found 18F through
the Presidential Innovation Fellowship program. I contacted somebody at
the PIF program about submitting an application, and they told me I was
too late, but I should look into 18F. I immediately liked what I saw in
18F and started the hiring process.” - {{ "marco" | team_link }}

{{ "micahsaul" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I decided I had to put my money where my mouth is.
It was an opportunity to take an active role in making our country a
better place.” - {{ "micahsaul" | team_link }}

{{ "becky" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I wanted to be part of the tech revolution in
government and was excited to join a team of smart, committed colleagues
from diverse backgrounds.” - {{ "becky" | team_link }}

{{ "clinton-troxel" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F to work for people instead of for money.” {{ "clinton-troxel" | team_link }}

{{ "jessie" | team_photo }}

“Some people say that private sector tech companies don't care about
changing the world. I’ve found that to be far from the truth. But what
is true is that many changes can only come from within. As part of 18F,
I am able to help as part of that within.” - {{ "jessie" | team_link }}

{{ "lindsay" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I wanted to directly build transparency in
government. I came from the Sunlight Foundation, which was a great
platform to innovate on government technology and transparency. I
started off as a reporting intern and was inspired to learn how to code,
so over the course of five years, I became a web developer. I now have
the privilege of being on the team that builds the FEC’s first API and
are building beta.fec.gov.” {{ "lindsay" | team_link }}

Talent

The Talent Team is a group of problem solvers dedicated to making
government the most sought-after workplace. In short, we are building
the team that delivers the beautiful, useful services that make up our
21st century digital government.

{{ "cristina" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I am mission driven and what better mission than
improving the public’s access to government services through improved
digital tools and transparency.” - {{ "cristina" | team_link }}

{{ "amanda-schonfeld" | team_photo }}

“I joined 18F because I wanted to feel that my work had a higher
purpose. I have lots of experience working in the design and tech world,
and have had the opportunity to recruit people to build large commerce
sites and develop marketing campaigns to increase profits for products,
but I have never had an opportunity to do work where the ultimate
purpose is to make people's lives better. I had previously aspired to
finding an opportunity like that, but I also wanted to be sure that the
work being done was utilizing good design and strong technology
practices. 18F is transforming government by using research, good
design, and implementing helpful and sustainable technology to develop
tools and systems that allow for the American people to have successful
interactions with the United States government. What better way to make
an impact than that? I was totally excited and thrilled at the prospect
of joining 18F.” {{ "amanda-schonfeld" | team_link }}

Business Strategy

Intake is the process by which 18F listens to potential partners,
discusses possible solutions to their challenges, and determines
appropriate next steps. In short, it’s how we do business development
for inbound inquiries.

“In my past two years at GSA, I have worked within FAS and PBS on
client-facing initiatives. I came to 18F through the ELP Program and
felt inspired by the impactful work that 18F does for other agencies. I
relate most to the innovative spirit and mindset that 18F wants to
inject into the government and am happy to be part of the journey!” -
Olesya Minina

{{ "will" | team_photo }}

“After implementing government rules and regulations in the private
sector and working within the intersection of complex organizations and
enterprise technology, I was interested in doing the similar work inside
government and better understanding the specific challenges of
government technology. Put simply: this is my dream job, and these are
my dream coworkers.” - {{ "will" | team_link }}