Software Engineer (Ruby on Rails)
Published on March 25, 2026
Nava is a public benefit corporation, which means we have a social mission written into our founding charter. The people who work at Nava have a fiduciary duty to our stated mission: to improve access, effectiveness, and simplicity of government services.
As a professional services firm, we achieve our mission by partnering with government clients at the state and federal levels. We bill for our time, selling our expertise and problem-solving methodology to government clients who hire us to help improve their products and services so that their users and beneficiaries have a better experience.
These end-users — the humans who benefit from our work — are at the core of everything we do. They inspire and motivate us. Working with our government clients to align their goals with their beneficiary's needs enables them to better deliver on their mission and provides everyone at Nava opportunities to do meaningful, impactful work.
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.
Position summary
You will work on small teams to build scalable applications for our government—designing, implementing, and delivering services that millions of Americans depend on. You care deeply about working on technology that improves people’s lives, but don’t think technology is always the answer. You are passionate about building large-scale systems that are inclusive, well-designed, fast, scalable, and secure, and you'll help set high standards for our teams in terms of simplicity, empathy, and accessibility.
The full stack engineer in this role will be focused on Ruby on Rails and developing end to end systems for one of Nava's major government partners. The objective is to modernize an existing legacy enterprise platform to improve its public facing processes, and experiences which will enable users to have more access to the programs and services that they need, in real-time, in a more user friendly and uncomplicated way. This individual will be involved in everything, from strategy, and planning through to post production testing, and support.
What you'll do
- Working with fellow Nava engineers to design, review, and build well-crafted software
- Collaborate with government partners and other contractors to architect, implement, and deploy new systems and improvements to existing systems
- Working in an agile manner to efficiently ship new features that meet user needs
- Creating tools and processes to automate our development, testing, and production workflows
- Writing and reviewing technical documentation, performing code reviews
- Participating in an on-call rotation to support production systems and investigate issues when they occur
- Taking part in hiring activities (e.g., submitting referrals, conducting interviews, and attending interview debriefs), as needed
Required skills
- Ruby, Ruby on Rails, JavaScript
- At least 4 years of experience of full-stack engineering contributing development initiatives, in a fast paced, dynamic environment in a self directed manner, that required minimal supervision.
- Meaningful experience working on web-based systems, both front-end and back-end
- Experience working on large-scale applications and systems
- An adaptive, empathetic, collaborative and positive mindset
- Ability to think holistically around engineering issues
- Knowledge of engineering fundamentals and architecture
- Expertise developing well-crafted software
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, technical and otherwise
- Experience with modern web development frameworks
- Experience designing and implementing application architectures and code that is highly scalable, available, and performant
- Self-directed, requiring minimal supervision
- Ability to work with others on a team
- Previous experience as a software engineer
- Aptitude for giving and receiving feedback
- Experience with testing, specifically automated testing
- Knowing code quality tools such as Linter
- Experience with system design such as designing systems that will be sustainable with high usage, designing a front end and back end that talk to each other
Please note: the level of the role will be determined by Nava leadership based on experience and skillset.
Compensation
$120,600—$135,900 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 UnitedHealthcare’s virtual visit program
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, DC, Delaware, 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
*If you are not living in one of the states listed above, unfortunately, you will not be considered for a position at this time.
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Please contact the recruiting team at recruiting@navapbc.com 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.
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.