I left USDS in June 2021, but during my time there, there were no job roles. USDS has "communities of practice" that roughly correspond to the roles you would see at a big tech firm (e.g., software engineers join the Engineering CoP, PMs join the Product CoP, recruiters join the Talent CoP), but the expectation is that USDSers will work on a wide variety of projects that utilize their tech skills.
USDS has a streamlined hiring process that is much quicker than you see elsewhere in government. I submitted a resume, got a call back in a couple of days, did two phone interviews, then got an offer to join the Engineering CoP. The post-offer process was extremely government-y, but by that time, I was excited to join and willing to put up with a lot. After joining, I was given an opportunity to choose a project to work on. I ended up working on ~6 projects across 3 agencies during my two years there.
I wanted to go back into a role where I could spend most of my day coding. I would like to go back and do another 2 year term at some point, but I'd like to advance more in my IC role first.
Absolutely! The kind of impact you can have working on government services is pretty astounding, and USDS is a great way for people with private industry bona fides to dip into civic work, complete a few projects, then return to their high paying jobs.
USDS has a streamlined hiring process that is much quicker than you see elsewhere in government. I submitted a resume, got a call back in a couple of days, did two phone interviews, then got an offer to join the Engineering CoP. The post-offer process was extremely government-y, but by that time, I was excited to join and willing to put up with a lot. After joining, I was given an opportunity to choose a project to work on. I ended up working on ~6 projects across 3 agencies during my two years there.