Senior Communications Design Manager

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

The Communications Designer is responsible for developing and managing Nava's brand to express our value proposition and reach our target audiences. The incumbent will be responsible for developing and maintaining our identity system and applying it across external and internal communications channels to ensure we are consistently on brand and delivering experiences that align with Nava's vision. For internal company-facing communications, they will be the primary emissary of Nava's brand.

As a member of the communications team, they will work closely with the comms team on digital, print, and social projects that support company brand strategy and business goals. All work will be done in service of Nava's values: Be Active Stewards, Pursue the Root Cause, Think Long-Term, Build Together, Inclusion is Essential and Progress Takes Work.

What you'll do

• Developing Nava's brand identity system consistently across mediums, and driving the adoption of Nava's brand identity across the company
• Managing brand assets such as Nava's brand mark, typography, style guides, illustrations, and photography
• Managing all of Nava's external facing brand materials, including G Suite templates, email signatures, LinkedIn Headers, recruiting materials, and more
• Managing Nava's comprehensive brand strategy, including brand positioning, brand characteristics, research-based audience segmentation, competitive or landscape research, and brand and identity usage guidelines
• Contributing to Nava's marketing strategy and plan to raise visibility, awareness, and preference for Nava
• Helping with visual and communications design needs on project work as needed
• Developing and maintaining ongoing Nava-internal brand processes
• Designing Nava's annual reports for digital and print (eg Public Benefit Report and DEI Report) — this includes conducting competitive analysis, conceptualizing, user research, user testing, and design
• Contributing to experience design for external and internal events; creating branded materials for events and conferences
• Creating decks, diagrams, and other visual elements for Nava's Business Development practice and contract bids
• Creating templates and a system of assets that the contract bid team can use to help bids look branded and submission-ready
• Working with the People Operations team to brand internal trainings for employees appropriately
• Working with executives on all-hands presentation decks (e.g. Nava annual goals presentations, offsite presentations, etc)
• Working with the BizOps team to develop company swag, processes for how to request swag internally, and ensuring quality control
• Other duties as required.
• Required skills
• 5+ years design experience, with branding, design firm, or ad agency strongly preferred.
• A strong foundation in visual design, typography, layout, grid systems, and concept development.
• Literacy in both web-based and print-based design software / processes
• Ability to collaborate closely with both a Frontend Designer and a printer
• Advanced knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator and Acrobat), Google Drive (Slides, Docs, and Sheets) and Figma.
• Experience with developing brand strategy and creating artifacts which clearly communicate the essence of a company's brand strategy.
• Experience working with frontend developers
• A track record of gaining trust and respect by consistently demonstrating sound creative, strategic, and analytical thinking skills.
• Ability to keep an eye on the big picture while managing the details.
• Exceptional attention to detail, multi-tasking, initiative, and follow-through skills.
• Effectively communicates and works well in a remote/distributed team environment.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required
• Desired skills
• Experience in UX research and design
• Moderate experience in project management
• Experience in art direction and the commissioning of illustration and photography