Legacy Lockpicks Sr. Policy Strategist

About NavaNava 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 summaryNava is at the forefront of reimagining how our government serves its people, and we’re looking for a Policy Strategist to help us increase our impact within government.Nava is building new approaches to legacy system modernization that go beyond replacing old technology. We are investing in AI-enabled tools and delivery methods that help agencies understand existing systems faster, simplify unnecessary complexity, and modernize safely without rebuilding outdated policy and procedures into new platforms.As a Policy Strategist on Nava’s Technical Solutions & Services team, you will play a central role in this work. Rather than focusing on a single program area, you’ll apply policy expertise across domains to help interdisciplinary teams modernize legacy systems quickly and responsibly.This role sits at the intersection of policy, product, and technology. You will help translate statutes, regulations, and procedural guidance into clear, testable inputs for modern systems — and help teams distinguish between what is legally required, what reflects historical interpretation, and what can be simplified or reimagined. You will also contribute to early-stage product development, experimentation with AI tools, and external validation of Nava’s modernization approaches through pilots, demos, and stakeholder conversations.This is not a traditional policy advisory role. It is a hands-on, forward-deployed role for someone who sees policy not just as a constraint, but as a lever for better outcomes.What you'll do:Translate Policy into Executable System LogicAnalyze statutes, regulations, policy manuals, and guidance governing public benefit programs.Use AI-assisted tools to extract policy requirements and convert them into structured business rules, specifications, and decision logic.Evaluate the accuracy and completeness of extracted rules, ensuring fidelity to legal requirements and policy intent.Document traceability between system logic and underlying policy sources.Bridge Policy and Technical ImplementationPartner closely with engineering and product teams to inform system architecture, calculation logic, and workflow design.Help teams distinguish between what is legally required, what reflects historical interpretation, and what is a discretionary or legacy artifact.Identify opportunities to simplify, streamline, or safely modernize policy-driven processes without compromising compliance.Support testing and validation efforts by helping define representative scenarios, edge cases, and comparison criteria.Experiment with AI-Enabled Modernization ApproachesParticipate in rapid experimentation using AI tools to accelerate policy analysis, legacy system understanding, and rules extraction.Help design human-in-the-loop workflows that balance speed with accuracy, transparency, and accountability.Contribute to defining where AI can be reliably used in policy and modernization work — and where human judgment remains essential.Build Repeatable Frameworks and Reusable AssetsDevelop and refine reusable approaches for policy intake, rule extraction, documentation, and validation.Help create shared taxonomies, templates, and playbooks that enable teams to apply policy insights consistently across projects.Contribute to the evolution of Nava’s legacy modernization offerings by turning project learnings into scalable patterns.Participate in external conversations with government stakeholders to test assumptions, surface risks, and gather feedback.Anchor Work in OutcomesHelp teams define what success looks like for modernization efforts, including speed, accuracy, clarity, and reduction of unnecessary complexity.Evaluate whether new approaches meaningfully improve outcomes for agencies, staff, and the people they serve.Make clear recommendations — not just analyses — to support timely decision-making in ambiguous environments.Required Skills5+ years of experience in public policy, program implementation, policy analysis, or