Principal Manager, People Operations Business Partner

Position summary

The Principal Manager, HR Business Partner is a strategic people leader responsible for the direction, effectiveness, and growth of Nava's HR Business Partner function, including the direct management and development of the People Operations Business Partner (POBP). This role sets the strategy for how Nava's people practices support the business, translating enterprise priorities into workforce frameworks, organizational design principles, and talent strategies that HR Business Partners apply across their assigned business areas.

The Principal Manager builds a high-performing People Operations Business Partner team, coaching and developing POBP talent while serving as a trusted strategic advisor to senior executives on organizational structure, workforce planning, performance, and labor and employee relations. This role co-owns the enterprise frameworks: workforce planning, career pathing, and organizational design standards that POBP’s use to advise business leaders, and ensures those frameworks remain consistent, equitable, and aligned with Nava's mission.

As Nava evolves toward an AI-native operating model, the Principal Manager, People Operations Business Partners sets the strategic point of view on how artificial intelligence and automation will change roles, skills, team structures, and management practices, and equips the POBP team to guide leaders through that change responsibly, balancing efficiency gains with employee trust, equity, compliance, and sound human judgment. Working closely with People Operations leadership, Finance, Legal, Talent Acquisition, and business operations leaders, the Manager ensures that people strategy and POBP practice are financially responsible, legally compliant, operationally practical, and aligned with Nava's values.

All responsibilities will be carried out in service of Nava’s values: Be Active Stewards, Delivery over Dogma, Build Together, Innovation Requires New Perspectives, and Progress Takes Work.

What you'll do

Directly manage, coach, and develop the People Operations Business Partner, setting clear goals and providing regular feedback and career development support

Build and scale the People Operations Business Partner function across the employee lifecycle managing the workload distribution as the organization scales

Establish performance expectations, competencies, and quality standards for POBP work and regularly assess the team

Foster a culture of accountability, trust, and continuous improvement within the POBP team

Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to senior executives on organizational design, workforce planning, performance management, and employee relations

Translate enterprise business priorities into people strategy, ensuring HRBP practice aligns with company goals

Set the strategic point of view on how AI and automation will affect roles, skills, team structures, and management practices, and equip HRBPs to guide leaders through responsible adoption

Partner with Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, and Learning & Organization Enablement leadership to deliver a cohesive, enterprise-wide employee experience

Represent the People Operations Business Partner function in enterprise-level people strategy and planning discussions

Develop and maintain Nava's enterprise workforce-planning frameworks, and career-pathing structures that POBPs apply across business areas

Partner with Finance, Operations, and Delivery business leaders to align workforce plans with delivery commitments, organizational capacity, and financial plans

Guide organizational design decisions, including team restructures, leadership transitions, position eliminations, and other significant workforce actions

Evaluate spans of control, reporting structures, and organizational capability across the business to identify opportunities for greater effectiveness

Set standards for evaluating technology-enabled efficiency proposals, ensuring they are supported by realistic change-management plans and workforce data

Coach the POBP team on how to develop leaders and managers on organizational leadership, team effectiveness, accountability, and performance

Identify recurring, cross-organizational manager challenges and direct the development of scalable tools, guidance, and learning interventions

Champion the build of inclusive, accountable, and psychologically safe teams across the business

Guide the POBP team through complex or sensitive leadership situations, promoting sound judgment, consistency, and fairness

Own the people and organizational strategy for significant business changes, setting direction for the HRBP team's execution

Direct assessments of stakeholder impact, organizational readiness, and employee-relations risk for major change initiatives

Set change-management standards and ensure the HRBP team delivers clear implementation plans, communications, and manager resources

Monitor the impact of organizational changes at the enterprise level and adjust strategy based on workforce data and outcomes

Serve as an escalation point for complex, high-risk, or sensitive labor and employee relations matters

Partner with Legal and People Operations leadership on high-impact investigations and risk assessments

Maintain enterprise-level knowledge of applicable federal, state, and local employment requirements and ensure HRBP practice reflects current law

Set the strategy for employee- and labor-relations practices related to AI-enabled workplace changes, including monitoring, workload, and role requirements

Support employee-relations practices within Nava's unionized environment and ensure compliance with collective bargaining obligations

Identify systemic patterns in employee concerns and direct the development of organization-wide solutions

Escalate significant organizational, legal, cultural, or employee-experience risks appropriately

Sponsor and oversee complex, cross-functional people initiatives from problem definition through implementation and evaluation

Coordinate with leaders across People Operations, Finance, Legal, IT, Talent Acquisition, and delivery teams

Provide clear, executive-level updates on initiative progress, risk, and outcomes

Ensure initiatives are meaningfully adopted and sustained across the organization

Set the strategy for using workforce data to identify trends, organizational health indicators, and emerging risks

Partner with People Workforce Insights, Staffing, and Finance to improve enterprise workforce reporting and decision-making

Translate data into clear insights and recommendations for executive leadership

Ensure appropriate data integrity, confidentiality, and documentation standards across the POBP function

Drive cross-functional initiatives that improve the employee and manager experience

Identify and resolve policies, processes, systems, or operating practices that create unnecessary complexity, inconsistency, risk, or administrative burden

Direct improvements that increase clarity, scalability, compliance, and organizational effectiveness

Ensure People Operations programs and processes are practical for managers and aligned with Nava’s broader people strategy

Champion the adoption of self-service tools and standardized practices while preserving appropriate judgment for complex situations

Required skills

10+ years of People Operations and/or Human Resources experience

Demonstrated experience translating business strategy into organizational design, workforce planning, and talent strategy at the enterprise level

Thorough knowledge of People Operations and Human Resources principles and applicable federal and state regulations (FMLA, ADA, FLSA, NLRA, etc.)

Strong competency with HCM systems

Demonstrated ability to influence senior executives and stakeholders without relying on formal authority.

Experience coaching and developing talent

Ability to develop and maintain collaborative working relationships with executives, managers, employees and union representatives

Strong analytical skills and experience using workforce data to identify trends, evaluate risk, and support decisions

Strong judgment and the ability to provide clear recommendations in complex, sensitive, or ambiguous situations

Ability to develop and maintain collaborative working relationships with employees, managers, and union representatives

Ability to work independently and with little supervision

Extraordinary discretion, confidentiality, flexibility, and willingness to work closely with a cross-functional team

Proficiency in GSuite, Slack, Zoom, Excel, Apple computers, and other tools used to support a remote-work environment

Attention to detail and the ability to work independently and in a team environment

Ability to work effectively in a distributed, remote-first environment

Desired skills

Experience supporting a government contractor, professional-services organization, consulting organization, technology company, or project-based workforce

Experience working in a unionized environment or supporting labor-relations matters

Experience with Workday HCM

Experience supporting organizational redesign, workforce restructuring, mergers, acquisitions, or other significant organizational changes

Experience with job architecture, compensation administration, talent reviews, succession planning, or workforce analytics

Experience supporting leaders in a rapidly evolving and scaling organization

Compensation

$132,000—$148,500 USD