Senior/Principal Software Engineer (Python)

Nava; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Nava is seeking a Tech Lead to define the technical strategy and lead the engineering team in building scalable, open-source solutions for government clients. You will coordinate across delivery teams, guide architecture, and ensure alignment with business needs, standards, and maintainability.

You will mentor engineers, shape the technical roadmap, and collaborate with product teams, stakeholders, and contractors to develop new systems and improve existing ones.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years managing engineers and leading technical delivery.
• Proven ability to architect and deliver scalable, maintainable, and secure distributed systems.
• Advanced proficiency in modern programming languages and frameworks (e.g., Python, React, Node.js, or equivalent).
• Strong understanding of system integration, data migration, and API/interface development.
• Hands-on experience with DevOps practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of engineers, providing regular coaching, feedback, and support for professional growth
• Define the technical vision and architectural roadmap in collaboration with clients and the delivery team
• Work closely with government stakeholders to get buy-in on technical initiatives. Build technical alignment across client, stakeholders, and vendor partners
• Act as a liaison between developers, executives, and non-technical stakeholders
• Make key architectural decisions that balance long-term program goals with short-term delivery needs
• Oversee technical delivery, managing risks, dependencies, and trade-offs to keep projects on track
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices in code quality, testing, security, and documentation
• Work closely with cross-functional product teams to identify and mitigate technical risks
• Guide the engineering team on planning, estimation, prioritization, trade-offs, and balancing technical debt and meeting project milestones

Skills

Team leadership

Software architecture

Distributed systems

Python

React

Node.js

DevOps

API design

Job description

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

As the Tech Lead, you will define the technical strategy and lead the engineering team in building modern, scalable, open-source solutions. You will coordinate across delivery teams, guide architecture and implementation, and ensure that the system meets business needs, technical standards, and long-term maintainability goals. You will collaborate with the product team, government stakeholders, and other contractors to build new systems and make improvements to existing systems.

What you'll do

• Lead and manage a team of engineers, providing regular coaching, feedback, and support for professional growth
• Define the technical vision and architectural roadmap in collaboration with clients and the delivery team
• Work closely with government stakeholders to get buy-in on technical initiatives. Build technical alignment across client, stakeholders, and vendor partners
• Act as a liaison between developers, executives, and non-technical stakeholders
• Make key architectural decisions that balance long-term program goals with short-term delivery needs
• Oversee technical delivery, managing risks, dependencies, and trade-offs to keep projects on track
• Establish and enforce engineering best practices in code quality, testing, security, and documentation
• Work closely with cross-functional product teams to identify and mitigate technical risks
• Guide the engineering team on planning, estimation, prioritization, trade-offs, and balancing technical debt and meeting project milestones

Required skills

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including 2+ years managing engineers and leading technical delivery
• Proven ability to architect and deliver scalable, maintainable, and secure distributed systems
• Advanced proficiency in modern programming languages and frameworks (e.g., Python, React, Node.js, or equivalent)
• Strong understanding of system integration, data migration, and API/interface development
• Hands-on experience with DevOps practices, includi