With digital services becoming essential to government operations, a frustrating hurdle persists: highly skilled technologists eager to serve the public good struggle to enter government careers. Despite strong applicant interest and motivation to make a difference, qualified candidates aren’t making it past the front door of public service.
This last winter, U.S. Digital Response (USDR) and Service Design Collective (SDC) sought to answer why this was happening. Through in-depth interviews with technologists across various disciplines and a landscape analysis of both digital team roles and civic tech ecosystem resources, our research uncovered persistent barriers affecting job seekers at all experience levels and across all levels of government.
Inside this report, you'll find:
- A current snapshot of the civic tech landscape, including government teams, supporting organizations, and available resources
- First-hand accounts from job seekers about their motivations and challenges
- Analysis of systemic barriers in the hiring process that affect even senior technologists
- Insights into how access to personal connections and navigation of guidance from books, articles, and blog posts can shape success in entering the field
Our findings paint a clear picture: while the civic tech field is growing and job seeker interest and motivation remains high, the path to public service is unnecessarily complex. The research reveals that talented technologists face significant hurdles in discovering opportunities, understanding requirements, and navigating application processes—challenges that persist across federal, state, and local levels.
Sweeping changes and reductions in force under the new federal administration are dramatically reshaping opportunities for civic tech job seekers in 2025. The findings in the report still point toward critical opportunities for improvement across the ecosystem, from standardizing application processes to creating clearer pathways for private sector skill translation.
Whether you're building a government digital service team, supporting public sector transformation, or considering your own civic tech journey, this research provides valuable context for understanding today's talent landscape and the actions needed to strengthen pathways into public service.
Read the full report here.
Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash
