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. We’re looking for a Proposal Manager to lead our teams through federal, state and local procurements - large and small - to propose solutions that improve government services for vulnerable populations
Our mission is to partner with government to deliver digital services that make programs simple, effective, and accessible to all. As a public benefit corporation, our intent is not to win as much work as we can, but to design a portfolio that makes the highest leverage progress against that mission.
About this Role
Working directly with Capture Managers and Nava Subject Matter Experts, you will help to build the leading portfolio of mission-aligned digital transformation work. Day-to-day you will structure and execute our efforts to respond to solicitations and deliver design/coding challenges in support of Nava’s growth goals. You’ll be responsible for deconstructing procurement requirements, developing and orchestrating a schedule, and understanding the compliance architecture in order to help Nava deliver compliant, complete and compelling responses. Strategically, you will build our Proposal Management processes and practices and curate and grow Nava’s core content in order to communicate our capabilities, experience and modern approach to delivering digital services.
Opportunities and Challenges
Nava provides the opportunity to do meaningful, impactful, mission-oriented work. As a public benefit corporation, the people who work at Nava have a fiduciary duty to our stated mission: to improve the accessibility, effectiveness, and simplicity of government services. When identifying and pursuing opportunities we must ensure that we are well suited to win and deliver successfully, but also evaluate the work against our mission and values. This is a high bar, but it’s why we’re here, and it informs what we do and how we operate across all phases of the business.
You will be operating within the Federal and State government ecosystem, which means collaborating dynamically with other government contractors and civil servants. Working with people outside of your company means you’ll likely encounter different working styles, cultural norms, and be responsible for maintaining order and focus without authority. At the same time, working as part of a larger team allows us to deliver on projects of larger scale and complexity.
The government contracting ecosystem is a compliance-driven multi-stakeholder environment - which adds significant complexity to our work, particularly when compared to the operating environments for companies of our size in the private sector. Successful members of our team understand how to be innovative within this environment when crafting solutions and proposal responses. Finding and recommending ways to improve the way government digital services are procured and built is one of the highest-leverage ways we help fulfill our mission.
Who we’re looking for
You are an experienced Proposal Manager who is ready to help Nava understand and navigate federal, state and local procurement processes. You are able to quickly learn Nava’s capabilities and leverage our prior experience in support of well structured and winning proposal efforts. You are excited to help Nava tell our story in a way that resonates with prospective clients.
You’re detail-oriented and able to organize and manage processes, responsibilities, and team operations. You create clear frameworks to engage subject matter experts with varying degrees of familiarity with federal procurement in a structured and predictable way. You’re at home in rapidly evolving, ambiguous situations and can adjust your strategy as the needs change.
Most of all, you’re excited about building a mature Proposal Management practice at Nava, motivated by making progress against our company mission, and ready to contribute to a high energy, purpose driven Business Development team.
What you’ll do
- Build a proposal management practice that helps Nava increase proposal quality and in support of Nava’s growth goals
- Lead Nava Client Solutions Managers, Subject Matter Experts and reviewers through well-structured proposal efforts; effectively engage Nava leadership (Contracts, Staffing, etc) and teaming partners at the right times with the right information
- Author proposal content such as descriptions Nava’s past performance and capabilities
- Manage concurrent proposal efforts without sacrificing clarity or quality
- Develop and support a compliance checklist for each opportunity, including evaluation criteria, required forms and contractual documents
- Curate, organize and and build ’evergreen’ content that speaks to Nava’s capabilities, projects and modern practices
Required skills
- Experienced professional with 4+ years managing large solicitation responses for federal/state/local clients
- Experience in the Government Contracting IT industry, proposals/procurements and contracting understanding of either the US Federal Government or general State Governments
- Must have Gov’t proposal experience and general knowledge of terminology/acronyms/lingo and application of NAICS and FAR
- Understand the cyclical requirements, timelines and expectations of Federal business development, proposals and contractors
- Must have professional writing, editing and communication skills in English and professionally represent Nava outside of the office at industry and networking events
- Experience developing and iterating consistent and effective Proposal Management processes
- Experience developing proposals in support of modern digital services, custom development or highly tailored solutions
- Experience curating and building high value and broadly applicable ’evergreen’ content
- Experience creating or working with experts to translate complex concepts into compelling graphical content
- Ability to guide a multi-vendor team to a winning bid by providing structure while being flexible to new information and gathering input and feedback from across the team
- A proven ability to establish order, calm, and accountability through an effective proposal management practice
- An adaptive, empathetic, collaborative, and positive mindset
- Highly resourceful, reliable, and detail-oriented
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.
Stay in touch
Sign up for our
newsletter to find out about career opportunities, new partnerships, and news from the broader civic tech community.
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
[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.
