Data Scientist
Posted Updated
Summary
Data scientist at Nava PBC, a consultancy serving government agencies: works the full data lifecycle — collecting and cleaning large datasets, building and deploying statistical/ML models, and communicating insights via dashboards and visualizations (Python, SQL, Tableau/Looker) to help government clients make decisions. Includes some business development activity.
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.
This role is open for multiple levels and titles. Final title/compensation will be determined by how your interview weighs against our core competencies during your interview cycle.
Position summary
A data scientist uses data, statistics, and programming to help projects make better decisions and build predictive models that solve our clients’ problems. The data scientist works across the full data lifecycle, from collecting raw data to communicating insights to stakeholders in clear, actionable ways. Additionally, this role is responsible for exploring data using visualization libraries and business intelligence tools to identify relationships, trends, and anomalies that might not be obvious from raw data alone. These visualizations support both exploratory analysis—helping the data scientist generate hypotheses—and explanatory analysis—helping project teams quickly grasp key insights so they can make informed decisions.
All duties will be in service of Nava's values: Be Active Stewards, Delivery over Dogma, Build Together, Innovation Requires New Perspectives, and Progress Takes Work.
What you'll do
- Work with stakeholders to understand business problems and define data-driven questions to answer.
- Collect, clean, and transform large structured and unstructured datasets from multiple sources.
- Explore data to find patterns, trends, and anomalies using statistical analysis and visualization.
- Build, evaluate, and deploy machine learning and statistical models to make predictions or automate decisions.
- Communicate findings through dashboards, reports, and presentations to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Participating in business development activities
- Participating in client stakeholder meetings related to growth
- Attending conferences and networking with potential clients
- Reviewing strategy plans and outlining technical requirements for potential work
- Hiring and growing data scientist talent
Required skills
- 5+ years of experience in data science or applied ML roles
- Experience owning end-to-end analytics from discovery to modeling to storytelling to implementation
- Experience working with large, complex datasets across multiple sources
- Strong proficiency in Python
- Ability to design, train, evaluate, and operationalize ML models at production scale
- Builds and ships advanced statistical/ML models and pipelines using tools like Python and SQL in production
- Strong grasp of probability theory, random variables, common distributions, expectation, variance, and covariance.
- Solid training in estimation and inference: confidence intervals, likelihood, maximum likelihood estimation, and Bayesian basics
- Ability to choose appropriate statistical techniques for messy, real-world data and explain trade-offs, limitations, and uncertainties.
- Track record of translating statistical findings into clear, decision-ready narratives and recommendations for stakeholders.
- Ability to stay current with new methods and tools and apply them thoughtfully to real-world problems.
- Ability to create compelling visualizations (Tableau, Looker, matplotlib, Plotly) that clearly communicate patterns, trends, and insights to both technical and non-technical audiences.
- Mastery of probability theory, statistical inference, linear algebra, and optimization.
- Extensive experience designing and interpreting experiments (including A/B tests and causal inference methods such as DiD, IVs, and matching).
- Strong intuition for model assumptions, uncertainty, and bias/variance tradeoffs; fluency with a broad range of statistical and machine-learning models and diagnostics.
Compensation
$100,800—$122,850 USD
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 a virtual visit program (depending on available providers)
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, Connecticut, DC, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, 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.
Stay in touch
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Please contact the recruiting team at recruiting@navapbc.com if you would like to request any form of 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.
Skills
As published by greenhouse · 20 questions · 3 written answers
Basics
First Name, Last Name, Preferred First Name, Email, Phone, Resume/CV, Cover Letter
Short answers (4)
- LinkedIn Profile:
- How did you hear about us? (Previous or Current Employee, LinkedIn, Conference, Job board, etc) optional
- Were you referred to Nava? If so, please provide their name below. optional
- What is your targeted salary compensation based on this posting?
Pick from a list (13)
- Are you legally authorized to work in the United States?
- Will you now, or in the future, require any type of sponsorship for employment Visa Status (e.g., H-1B)?
- What is your highest level of education completed?
- Do you live in one of our approved remote work states? Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, DC, 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
- What state will you be working in? optional
- Please note: This role requires you to work from the contiguous United States.
- In the last 5 years, how many have you lived in the Continental United States? (Must be at least 3 out of the last 5 years)
- What past or current government experience? optional
- Have you previously been employed by the U.S. Federal government (including as a civilian, military service member, contractor, or in any other official capacity)? optional
- If you answered “Yes”, please note that you will be required to provide a post Employment Government Ethics opinion letter prior to hire. If you have the letter, please attach to your application. optional
- Do you have any active non-competes or restrictive covenants that may hinder us from hiring you? optional
- Are you currently subject to any federal or regulatory cooling-off periods that would restrict your ability to engage in this role? optional
- Some of Nava’s projects may require an “On Call” rotation. Are you comfortable participating in an on-call rotation if required by the needs of the project? (Please note: a “No” answer will not disqualify you from consideration.) optional
Written answers (3)
- If you answered yes to any of the above, please specify what agencies you have worked for previously: optional
- If the above answer is “yes”, could you provide details on the duration and scope of any such restrictions? optional
- Additional Information Add a cover letter or anything else you want to share optional