About Nava
Nava is a consultancy and public benefit corporation working to make government services simple and effective. Since 2015, federal, state, and local agencies have trusted Nava to help solve highly scrutinized technology modernization challenges.
As a client services company, we guide agencies constrained by legacy systems to a future with sharp user experiences built on secure, reliable, fault-tolerant cloud infrastructure. We bill for our time, offering our expertise and problem-solving approach to help our government partners enhance their digital products and services. People are at the heart of our work, from members of the public who rely on benefit programs to government agency staff. Through human-centered design and modern engineering best practices, we help our government partners understand user needs and deliver on their missions more effectively. This focus gives everyone at Nava the opportunity to do work that is meaningful, impactful, and deeply connected to public good.
Position summary
Nava is at the forefront of reimagining how our government serves its people, and we’re looking for a Policy Strategist to help us increase our impact within government.
Nava is building new approaches to legacy system modernization that go beyond replacing old technology. We are investing in AI-enabled tools and delivery methods that help agencies understand existing systems faster, simplify unnecessary complexity, and modernize safely without rebuilding outdated policy and procedures into new platforms.
As a Policy Strategist on Nava’s Technical Solutions & Services team, you will play a central role in this work. Rather than focusing on a single program area, you’ll apply policy expertise across domains to help interdisciplinary teams modernize legacy systems quickly and responsibly.
This role sits at the intersection of policy, product, and technology. You will help translate statutes, regulations, and procedural guidance into clear, testable inputs for modern systems — and help teams distinguish between what is legally required, what reflects historical interpretation, and what can be simplified or reimagined. You will also contribute to early-stage product development, experimentation with AI tools, and external validation of Nava’s modernization approaches through pilots, demos, and stakeholder conversations.
This is not a traditional policy advisory role. It is a hands-on, forward-deployed role for someone who sees policy not just as a constraint, but as a lever for better outcomes.
What you'll do:
Translate Policy into Executable System Logic
- Analyze statutes, regulations, policy manuals, and guidance governing public benefit programs.
- Use AI-assisted tools to extract policy requirements and convert them into structured business rules, specifications, and decision logic.
- Evaluate the accuracy and completeness of extracted rules, ensuring fidelity to legal requirements and policy intent.
- Document traceability between system logic and underlying policy sources.
Bridge Policy and Technical Implementation
- Partner closely with engineering and product teams to inform system architecture, calculation logic, and workflow design.
- Help teams distinguish between what is legally required, what reflects historical interpretation, and what is a discretionary or legacy artifact.
- Identify opportunities to simplify, streamline, or safely modernize policy-driven processes without compromising compliance.
- Support testing and validation efforts by helping define representative scenarios, edge cases, and comparison criteria.
Experiment with AI-Enabled Modernization Approaches
- Participate in rapid experimentation using AI tools to accelerate policy analysis, legacy system understanding, and rules extraction.
- Help design human-in-the-loop workflows that balance speed with accuracy, transparency, and accountability.
- Contribute to defining where AI can be reliably used in policy and modernization work — and where human judgment remains essential.
Build Repeatable Frameworks and Reusable Assets
- Develop and refine reusable approaches for policy intake, rule extraction, documentation, and validation.
- Help create shared taxonomies, templates, and playbooks that enable teams to apply policy insights consistently across projects.
- Contribute to the evolution of Nava’s legacy modernization offerings by turning project learnings into scalable patterns.
- Participate in external conversations with government stakeholders to test assumptions, surface risks, and gather feedback.
Anchor Work in Outcomes
- Help teams define what success looks like for modernization efforts, including speed, accuracy, clarity, and reduction of unnecessary complexity.
- Evaluate whether new approaches meaningfully improve outcomes for agencies, staff, and the people they serve.
- Make clear recommendations — not just analyses — to support timely decision-making in ambiguous environments.
Required Skills
- 5+ years of experience in public policy, program implementation, policy analysis, or a related field — or a combination of relevant graduate-level education and experience
- Demonstrated experience interpreting and applying federal and/or state statutes, regulations, or policy guidance in real-world contexts.
- Ability to translate complex policy into clear, actionable recommendations for non-policy audiences.
- Strong ability to build and nurture relationships with both internal teams and external partners
- Self-directed and comfortable working independently with minimal supervision
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including technical and policy contexts
- Ability to document research processes, findings, and recommendations clearly, concisely, and in an organized manner
Desired skills
- Direct experience implementing government program policy and/or operational changes in the context of building technology solutions
- Experience or familiarity working in agile project management environments and applying human-centered design principles
- Experience working on government technology modernization, civic tech, or large-scale systems change.
- Experience or interest in rules-as-code, business rules engines, or policy-to-technology translation.
- Exposure to AI-assisted research, analysis, or documentation tools.
- Experience contributing to pilots, demos, proposals, or early-stage product development.
What we're looking for:
- Skilled in analyzing public programs through qualitative and quantitative research to guide government implementation decisions and propose practical solutions
- An adaptive, empathetic, collaborative, and positive mindset
- Highly resourceful, reliable, and detail-oriented
- Comfortable with ambiguous, rapidly-evolving environments with many parallel threads
- You enjoy working closely with technologists and product leaders, and you’re energized by early-stage work where ideas are tested, refined, and validated through real use.
Other requirements
All roles at Nava require the following:
Legal authorization to work in the United States
Ability to meet any other requirements for government contracts for which candidates are hired
Work authorization that doesn’t require visa sponsorship, now or in the future
May be subject to a government background check or security clearance, depending on the contract
Perks working with Nava
Health coverage — comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans to support your overall health needs
Insurance coverage — Nava provides disability, life, and accidental death insurance at no cost
Time off — vacation, holidays (including Juneteenth), and floating holidays to rest and recharge
Company holidays — enjoy 12 paid federal holidays each year on top of your regular PTO
Annual bonus — when Nava meets its goals, eligible employees receive a performance-based annual bonus
Parental leave — paid time off for new parents, plus weekly meals delivered to your home
Wellness program — full platform offering physical, mental, & emotional health resources & support tools
Virtual care — see doctors online with no copay through UnitedHealthcare’s virtual visit program
Sabbatical leave — earn extended unpaid leave after continuous service for personal growth or rest
401(k) match — Nava matches 4% of your salary to support your retirement savings plan
Flexible work — remote-first environment with flexibility built around your schedule and responsibilities
Home office setup — company laptop & setup assistance provided via Staples for remote work needs
Utility support — monthly reimbursement to help offset eligible home office utility expenses
Learning opportunities — internal training programs and resources to help grow your professional skills
Development opportunities — LinkedIn Learning access & an annual allowance for courses, tuition, & certs
Referral bonus — get rewarded when you refer great people who join the Nava team
Commuter benefits — pre-tax commuter programs to support in-office travel when applicable
Supportive culture — A collaborative and remote-friendly team environment where people genuinely care
Location
We have fully remote options if you reside in one of the following states:
Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, DC, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Utah, 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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Please contact the recruiting team at [email protected] 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.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Nava is committed to providing equal employment opportunities without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, gender and/or gender identity or expression, color, creed, religion, religious creed, age, national origin, ethnicity, disability, veteran or military status, sex, sexual orientation, reproductive health autonomy, pregnancy, childbirth, and medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth, genetic information, domestic violence victim status, marital status, citizenship status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Nava prohibits any such discrimination or harassment. This policy applies to all employees, applicants, contractors, and temporary workers of Nava.
