USDS Alumni Network: Jiten Vaidya
When you join USDS, you become part of a community that extends to life after your tour of duty. In this blog series, we share the stories of USDS Alumni. Find out what they worked on, where they are now, and why you should join us!
Jiten Vaidya, He/Him, previously Digital Services Expert, Engineering at Digital Service Veterans Affairs, currently CEO at PlanetScale
What’s your background and what did you do at USDS?
For most of my career I have been a backend infrastructure engineer and manager. But fun fact: I have also written an Android app that saw over 100,000 downloads. I worked at the USDS for a little over three and a half months, ending my tour of duty on December 15, 2017.
When I joined, I was a little concerned about whether I could make a difference in three months, but after my experience here, I wholeheartedly recommend that you should consider doing it for as long or short a duration as you can.
I worked at the Digital Service at Veterans Affairs or DSVA for short. DSVA is responsible for running vets.gov, one of the most trafficked government websites, and CaseFlow which is an online tool that makes the process of adjudicating appeals more efficient.
What projects did you work on during your time at USDS?
I worked on two projects during my time at the DSVA.
- Uniting vets.gov and CaseFlow devops teams into a single SRE team
- Improving the online experience for scheduling medical appointments
What was your biggest challenge?
When you have worked for fast paced companies most of your career, you develop a certain sense of urgency about getting things done. Given that I was at USDS for a relatively short stint, in my case, this was even more heightened. Folks at USDS and some folks in the agencies we were helping shared this sense of urgency, but it was not shared by all the government contractors and agency personnel. It was challenging to deal with this.
What is your favorite memory?
It is difficult to think of one memory, because there are so many. I guess, having to buy a blazer in a hurry to attend a lunch meeting at the Navy Mess is up there :).
What are you up to now?
After I got back from my stint at USDS in mid-December last year, I started a company called PlanetScale. Our goal is to build a scalable multi-cloud transactional database-as-a-service based on the open source project vitess.
What would you tell someone who is thinking of doing a tour of duty?
The way USDS works is by solving an urgent issue, building credibility and then using that credibility to push for systemic changes. There is a lot of good work to be done. What we need are good people. So please consider joining the USDS for however long you can. You will work with awesome people, you will have an impact and you will improve the way our government functions. What more can you ask for as a citizen?
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.
If you have questions regarding employment with the U.S. Digital Service, please contact us at usds@omb.eop.gov and visit usds.gov/join.
