Principal Product Manager (Pacific/Mountain Time Zone)

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.  

Please note: the level of the role will be determined by Nava leadership based on experience and skillset.

Position summary 

The Principal Product Manager’s purpose is to work collaboratively with client stakeholders and cross-functional team members to define and execute on the vision and strategy for software products and services. A Principal Product Manager leads teams to iteratively deliver working software that meets user needs and business goals, working collaboratively with designers, engineers, project managers, and stakeholders. Responsibilities include translating user needs and  business goals into product requirements, defining user flows and other aspects of system behavior, documenting product specifications, and analyzing product metrics. 

What you'll do 

• Determining user needs and business requirements through stakeholder interviews and user research, often in collaboration with designer/researchers
• Defining the product vision, strategy, and roadmap showing how increments of working software will be delivered to achieve business goals
• Defining user flows, system behavior, and other product specifications that enable team members to design and build working software
• Defining quarterly or program increment goals to establish near- and mid-term milestones for delivering working software
• Iterating on the product vision, strategy, and roadmap as the team learns from feedback
• Collaborating with stakeholders to understand their goals and constraints, and using this information to determine product priorities  
• Building and maintaining trust with stakeholders by continuously aligning on a shared vision and set of priorities, and demonstrating how the team is delivering on this vision
• Coordinating across teams to implement software according to the roadmap and adapt based on learnings
• Breaking software features down into user stories or tasks that can be worked on in a sprint 
• Collaboratively prioritizing and refining the backlog of user stories and tasks to reflect product priorities
• Defining sprint goals; leading and contributing to sprint planning discussions that enable designers and engineers to design and build software features
• Ensuring that user stories have clear descriptions and acceptance criteria so that design and engineering tasks can be evaluated for completeness
• Reviewing product designs and working software to reflect the desired behavior and performance
• Engaging with stakeholders for approval of key decisions about how software products and services will function
• Coordinating and communicating decisions with the team and with stakeholders, using evidence gained from research and analysis  
• Ensuring stakeholders are kept up to date on software implementation progress, blockers, and risks
• Ensuring teams with dependencies on each other’s work are coordinating and communicating to deliver features that function as expected
• Resolve or escalate blockers that impede successful delivery, involving  the team as needed
• Defining metrics to be used to track the success of a software product or feature
• Collaborating with other teams to obtain data needed for metrics
• Monitoring metrics to ensure software features are performing as expected
• Using data to inform future decisions about what software features to build or improve upon
• Reporting metrics to stakeholders and team members verbally and in writing
• Running data queries to obtain the most up to date information about how the product or service is performing
• Testing behavior of software that is developed in order to validate that features are implemented as expected
• Documenting errors or any other pertinent observations about software functionality and appearance
• Performing checks to ensure that software is ready to be launched
• Communicating with users about new product features
• Updating user-facing documentation about the product
• Responding to user questions about the software product or service
• Coordinating team response to production incidents that affect the operation of the software product or service
• Setting direction across their portfolio and practice
• Sharing successes and challenges with Nava colleagues so that product managers can learn from each other’s experience
• Conducting interviews and evaluating potential new hires to build Nava teams
• Helping to onboard new team members to Nava’s product practice
• Coaching and mentoring other product managers
• Improving and sustaining Nava’s product management operations
• Operating as a Product Management subject matter expert fluidly and with influence across all core practice skills, with deep experience in a key portfolio specialty
• Business development: acting as business development leads for their program and portfolio
• Business development: acting as a Product Management subject matter expert on proposals for new software development contracts, including participating in market research sessions, proposal writing, and oral interviews
• Actively mentoring and coaching cross-functional teammates across their program and portfolio, help them grow their skill sets, and contributing that knowledge back to Nava at large

Required Skills

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
• At least 8-10 years of experience, at least 3 years as a product manager 
• Experience working with cross-disciplinary product teams to build software
• Experience working with scrum or other agile methodologies
• Excellent written and verbal communication skill
• Strong bias towards action; ability to step up into team gaps and ambiguous situations to create an action plan
• An adaptive, empathetic, collaborative, and positive mindset

 

 

Compensation$154,400—$173,700 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

Sign up for our newsletter to find out about career opportunities, new partnerships, and news from the broader civic tech community.   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.