Director of Engineering
About Nava
Nava is a consultancy and public benefit corporation working to make government services simple, effective, and accessible to all. Since 2013, federal, state, and local government agencies have trusted Nava to build transformative digital services to help people access public benefits. Meeting our mission is an opportunity to restore trust between people and public institutions. We focus on populations that are the least protected because the stakes are higher.
As a client services company, we work with government agencies to improve how people apply for benefits, navigate their health care, and more. We bill for our time, selling our expertise and problem-solving methodology to government clients. Our clients hire us to help improve their products and services so that their users and beneficiaries have a better customer experience.
These end-users—the humans who benefit from our work—are at the core of everything we do. We research beneficiaries’ needs to help our government clients better deliver on their missions, providing everyone at Nava opportunities to do meaningful, impactful work.
Position summary
Nava is at the forefront of reimagining how our government serves its people, and we’re looking for an experienced Director of Engineering to help drive this mission forward.
You care deeply about working on technology that affects people’s lives, and are passionate about building large-scale systems that are well-designed, fast, scalable, and secure. You will work on a cross-functional team to build scalable digital services for our government—designing, implementing, and delivering software that is depended on by millions of Americans.
You will be working to create modern, human-centered interfaces for government services. By finding innovative answers to decades-old problems, you’ll make these vital services more accessible to Americans from all walks of life. If you believe that government interfaces, websites, and applications can be simple, effective, and easy to use, this is the place for you.
You will lead engineering teams to build new systems with modern technology within the existing ecosystem of legacy government systems. Our work is to build functional, resilient software for production so that vital services are consistently available to those who need them. This usually means getting to know legacy systems and determining how to replicate the systems' behavior or how to integrate with these systems.
You will be working within the government ecosystem, which means working, sometimes closely, with other government contractors and civil servants. Working with people outside of your company means you'll likely encounter different working styles and cultural norms. At the same time, working as part of a larger team allows us to deliver on projects of larger scale and complexity.
What you'll do
- Make things go, strive for smoothness in how the team works, and remove the logistical and procedural obstacles that get in the way
- Build scalable, consistent processes and best practices in collaboration with other Nava practices (Engineering, Design, Delivery, and Product)
- Coordinate engineering staffing and hiring with our Delivery Operations, Program Management, and Talent Acquisition teams.
- Ensure the team understands their role in effective operations
- Collaborate with VP of Engineering and other engineering leaders to meet company objectives, recruit and hire, establish best processes and practices, grow according to the team vision, and represent engineering for Nava
- Manage a team of 4-8 direct reports across multiple projects
- Comfortable doing the double duty of engineering leadership and people management with the right balance of compassion and candor
- Develop and refine equitable practices and cultivate a diverse and effective team, fostering equal opportunity and an inclusive environment for all
- Seek support from champions within Nava or amongst clients, especially in the digital services and digital transformation space, where there is anticipated resistance to new practices or decisions
- Provide support for direct reports on any contract (E.g. scrubbing in to help get a project on track, providing direct support if a member on the Engineering team encounters a complex stakeholder management situation in partnership with other program or practice leads)
- Deliver value to government partners by working with cross functional project leadership and leading project engineering teams
Required skills
- Deep experience in engineering quality, strategy, management, and operations in a fast-growing company
- Experience managing complexity, developing strategy and conducting long-term planning
- 10+ years of engineering experience
- At least 4+ years experience in a Solutions Architect or a similar role
- At least 4+ years experience in a Software Engineer or a similar role
- Experience in building data analytics platforms using modern data stack
- Experience leading a large, complex 80+ person engineering team
- Experience working with cross functional leads overseeing 6+ separate scrum teams
- Meaningful experience working on web-based systems, both front-end and back-end
- Experience working on large-scale applications and systems
- An adaptive, empathetic, collaborative and positive mindset
- Ability to think holistically around engineering issues
- Knowledge of engineering fundamentals and architecture
- Expertise developing well-crafted software
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, technical and otherwise
- Experience with modern web development frameworks
- Experience designing and implementing application architectures and code that is highly scalable, available, and performant
- Self-directed, requiring minimal supervision
Desired skills
- Experience with Agile tools, including but not limited to Jira and Confluence, is preferred
- Hands-on experience with nextjs/javascript/typescript is preferred
- Knowledge of healthcare quality measures
- Experience within government contracting or professional service firms
$171,000 - $190,000 a year
Other requirements
The individual working in this position:
● Must be legally authorized to work in the United States and meet any other requirements for government contracts for which they are hired.
● Candidates who are offered a job with Nava must possess work authorization that does not require sponsorship by their employer for a visa now or in the future.
● May be subject to a government security investigation and must meet eligibility requirements for access to classified information or applicants who are eligible for security clearances.
Perks working with Nava
● Competitive benefits: We prioritize your well-being, offering highly competitive medical, dental, and vision benefits.
● Generous time off: Enjoy 20 days of accrued PTO, 12 paid federal holidays, 5 floating holidays, and unlimited sick leave.
● Annual discretionary bonus: Paid annually to eligible employees. When Nava does well, you do well.
● Parental leave: Receive 16 weeks of fully paid parental leave and weekly meal deliveries during your leave.
● Employee wellness program: Access our comprehensive Employee Wellness Program.
● Virtual doctor visits: Enjoy zero copay virtual doctor visits through UHC.
● Fertility support: Benefit from fertility support and treatment options.
● Sabbatical leave: We offer a sabbatical leave program.
● 401k contributions: We match 4% of your salary in 401k contributions.
● Flexible work arrangements: We offer flexible work arrangements to suit your needs.
● Home office setup: Receive assistance with your home office setup and a monthly phone allowance.
● Utilities reimbursement: Get a monthly partial reimbursement for utilities (where applicable).
● Learning and development: Access our comprehensive learning and development program.
● Tuition and Professional development budget: Receive a prorated annual tuition and professional development budget and a LinkedIn Learning license.
● Equity stock options: Benefit from equity stock options.
● Employee referral program: Participate in our employee referral program.
● Commuter benefits: Enjoy commuter benefits.
● Insurance coverage: Receive short and long-term disability insurance, as well as life and accidental death insurance.
● Inclusive culture: Join our diverse, inclusive, highly collaborative, and vibrant culture that supports remote work.
Location
You can work in a hybrid work arrangement from one of Nava’s offices in NYC, DC, or San Francisco. We also have fully remote options if you reside in one of the following states:
Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, DC, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin.
*If you are not living in one of the states listed above, unfortunately, you will not be considered for a position at this time.
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Nava PBC equal opportunity employer that is deeply committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, age, gender, religious or political beliefs, national origin or heritage, marital status, disability, sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, genetic information, pregnancy, status as a protected veteran or any characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion not only reflects our values as a public benefit corporation but also enriches our ability to do our work. Learn more about where we are today and hope to be by 2025.
Please contact the recruiting team at recruiting@navapbc.com if you would like to request reasonable accommodation during the application or interviewing process.
We participate in E-Verify. Upon hire, we will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. This role requires you to work from the contiguous United States.