About Nava
Nava is a consultancy and public benefit corporation dedicated to making government services simple, effective, and accessible. Since 2013, federal, state, and local agencies have relied on Nava to create transformational digital services that help people obtain public benefits. Achieving this mission is a way to rebuild trust between the public and government institutions, especially for communities with the greatest need.

As a client services organization, we partner with government agencies to improve how people apply for benefits, manage their health care, and more. We bill for our time and provide expertise, helping our clients enhance their products and services so users have better experiences.

The people who ultimately use these services are central to our work. We study their needs so our clients can better fulfill their missions, giving everyone at Nava the chance to do meaningful and impactful work.

Position Summary
The Director of Design, Operations ensures the team works efficiently by removing operational barriers and leading processes across the Design Organization. This role promotes practices that support rapid learning, high-quality work, reuse, and creativity, and ensures the Design Org can effectively recruit, hire, and grow. The Director works closely with cross-functional partners across Nava’s Delivery Organization and provides clarity and support to stakeholders.

Opportunities and Challenges
Government contracting involves complex, compliance-heavy environments, especially compared to similarly sized private-sector companies. Team members succeed when they can innovate within these constraints. Improving how government digital services are funded and built is one of the most impactful ways we advance our mission.

What you’ll do
• Provide operational leadership and people management grounded in compassion and transparency
• Develop equitable practices and foster a diverse, high-performing Design team that honors individual experiences
• Work closely with product, engineering, and business development teams to fully integrate design throughout product development
• Engage supporters within Nava and with clients to help overcome resistance to new ideas or practices
• Promote reuse and help new designers access Nava’s best practices and institutional knowledge
• Ensure the team understands its role in strong operations

Hiring and Staffing
• Oversee hiring and staffing for the Design Org and partner with Design leadership to recruit, hire, and grow the team in alignment with company goals
• Place staff on programs quickly and appropriately
• Coordinate with teaming partners to meet contractual staffing needs
• Define and share best practices for hiring and staffing across Nava
• Develop and manage hiring and staffing initiatives and training

Leadership
• Manage up to eight direct reports working across multiple projects
• Provide coaching, guidance, and support to designers, including helping them structure and review their work
• Serve as an escalation point for direct reports
• Meet regularly with senior and principal designers and Design Managers to identify training needs, remove obstacles, and support operations
• Spot opportunities for collaboration or escalation across other departments
• Ensure staff consistently meet billable hours expectations
• Perform other duties as needed

Growth
• Act as a strategic partner in shaping Nava’s growth approach
• Help drive revenue growth by supporting business development
• Provide input on bid assessments to guide which opportunities Nava pursues
• Assign subject matter experts to strengthen proposals
• Identify key personnel for business development efforts
• Contribute to proposal writing, coaching, market research, and proposal reviews

Required skills
• Deep experience across creative, strategic, technical, managerial, and operational aspects of large-scale human-centered design
• Proven ability to manage complexity, set strategy, and plan long-term
• Strong track record of building relationships with external partners
• 10+ years practicing human-centered design
• 5+ years managing people and leading teams
• Experience in fast-growing organizations; government contracting or professional services experience is a plus
• Adaptive, empathetic, and collaborative leadership style
• Strong organizational, written, verbal, and presentation skills

Desired skills and experience
• Experience managing business operations in a professional services firm (billable hours, contracts, client services)
• A mindset focused on building and scaling organizations
• History of leading agile transformation and improving design management practices

Salary
$165,000–$175,000 per year

Other requirements
All Nava roles require:
• Legal authorization to work in the United States and compliance with government contract requirements
• Work authorization that does not require current or future visa sponsorship; most roles require U.S. citizenship or a green card
• Ability to meet eligibility requirements for security clearances if needed

Perks of working with Nava
• Competitive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• 20 days of PTO, 12 federal holidays, 5 floating holidays, and unlimited sick leave
• Annual discretionary bonus
• 16 weeks fully paid parental leave plus weekly meal delivery
• Employee Wellness Program
• Zero copay virtual doctor visits
• Fertility support coverage
• Sabbatical program
• 4% 401k match
• Flexible work arrangements
• Home office setup support and monthly phone stipend
• Utility reimbursement where applicable
• Learning and development programs
• Tuition and professional development budget with LinkedIn Learning access
• Equity stock options
• Employee referral program
• Commuter benefits
• Short- and long-term disability, life, and accidental death insurance
• A collaborative, remote-friendly culture

Location
Remote work is available if you live in one of these 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.
Applicants outside these states cannot be considered at this time.

Stay in touch
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For accommodation requests during the application or interview process, email recruiting@navapbc.com.
We participate in E-Verify and will use your Form I-9 to confirm work authorization. This role requires you to work from the contiguous United States.