The Role
About Nava
Nava is a consultancy and public benefit corporation working to make government services simple and effective. Since 2013, 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 better 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’s Principal Software Engineer (Data Architect) works with fellow Nava engineers to design, review, and build well-crafted data solutions. The incumbent collaborates with government partners and other contractors to architect, implement, and deploy new systems and improvements to existing systems, while working in an agile manner to efficiently deliver new features that meet user needs.
What you'll do
- Document, improve, and maintain data strategies and artifacts, including logical and physical data models, data dictionary, data architecture roadmap, and data security policies, using industry best practices and adhering to government standards, along with operational runbook procedures
- Collect data access patterns and review current data models to optimize designs for customer use cases
- Standardize data ingestion and processing pipelines to scale with increasing utilization
- Audit and reverse-engineer business rules in legacy systems, and build data connectors for integrating them into a data and analytics platform
- Implement large-scale data ecosystems within cloud-based platforms that include data management and data governance of structured and unstructured data
- Leverage and enhance automation to speed development and improve reliability and performance
- Work with cross-functional project teams to gather business requirements and translate to detailed technical specifications
- Work with Government partners to assist and develop data engineering applications and pipelines that will enable data services and processing capabilities, such as advanced analytics, AI/ML, and experimentation
- Design, develop, test, automate, and deploy data engineering solutions in a cloud platforms, such as AWS
- Participate in software design and code reviews
- Develop automated testing, monitoring and alerting, and CI/CD for production systems
What we're looking for
- 10+ years of software engineering experience
- 5+ years of experience with Cloud Data architecture (AWS preferred)
- Experience with professional software engineering practices using such tools and methodologies as Agile Software Development, Test Driven Development, CI/CD, and Source Code Management
- Familiar with modern data technologies including data lakes, data warehouses, and real-time analytics
- Experience with building ETL pipelines to ingest, process, and store data
- Experience with data orchestration frameworks, such as Apache Airflow, AWS Step Functions or Temporal
- Experience with business intelligence and analytics platforms
- Proficient with relational databases and advanced SQL queries
- Prior experience with Python, Java, or Scala programming across multiple use-cases
- Experience with data cleaning and data modeling while protecting sensitive data
- Proficient with building data integrations using both API and file-based protocols
- Comfortable troubleshooting complex data and systems interaction problemsHighly organized and demonstrates critical reasoning and problem-solving skills
- Works well independently, as part of a team, and with stakeholders
- Effective oral and written communication skills to relay technical concepts clearly and concisely
Desired Skills
- Familiarity with DevOps IaC tools (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, and CloudFormation)
- Experience with security scanning tools (e.g., Nessus, BurpSuite, Netsparker, OWASP)
- Experience working with and programmatically interfacing with legacy systems
- Experience with healthcare quality data, e.g., provider, beneficiary, claims, and quality measure data
- Familiarity with test automation frameworks
Other requirements
All roles at Nava require the following:
Must be legally authorized to work in the United States.
Must 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.
Time off – Vacation, holidays (including Juneteenth), and floating days to rest and recharge.
Company holidays- Enjoy 12 paid federal holidays each year on top of your regular PTO.
Annual bonus – When Nava meets 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 paid 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 budget – Annual allowance for courses, tuition, certifications, & LinkedIn Learning access.
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.
Insurance coverage – Nava provides disability, life, and accidental death insurance at no cost.
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, 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, 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. Additionally, if employed with Nava, you must be based in the U.S. and cannot work from outside the country.
Stay in touch
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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.
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The Company
What We Do
Nava is a public benefit corporation working to radically improve how government serves people. Formed as a team of designers and engineers in the effort to fix HealthCare.gov in 2013, Nava now works with Medicare and the Department of Veterans Affairs. With a strong research practice and a depth of experience scaling digital services, Nava helps more than sixty million people access critical government services.
We’re thinkers and designers of civic technology. We work holistically across engineering, research, design, and operations to proactively envision the services of a better future. We build with empathy and inclusion, and as we come from many backgrounds and countries ourselves, we seek and value different perspectives. We’d love for you to come join us.
