Economist

Nakupuna Companies • Arlington, VA

8d • Onsite

About The Position

Nakupuna Companies is looking for an Economist to support the Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Research, Development, and Acquisition (ASN RD&A) at the Pentagon. This position is 100% on-site. The ideal candidate is detail oriented, excels at multi-tasking in a fast-paced environment, and is a top-notch communicator. The ideal candidate is a detail-oriented self-starter with significant DoW and economic analysis experience in support of high-level officials, to include in-depth familiarity with macroeconomic trends and microeconomic behaviors.

Requirements

• Experience in advanced economic analysis and modeling.
• Outstanding skills in quantitative analysis and statistical techniques.
• Self-motivated and self-monitoring, exceptional oral and written communications, and ability to multi-task.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Experience editing technical documents to ensure proper format, grammar, and style.
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office Suite, including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Bachelor’s degree in economics from an accredited university.
• Four to seven years utilizing statistical analysis, mathematical methodologies, and modeling techniques to develop data for conducting research and analysis on economic data/trends and producing forecasts, interpretive reporting, and media used for risk assessment, communication, and decision making.
• Should be able to design and organize data into reports and illustrations to present economic information used for decision making and solution development.
• Active Secret clearance.
• Must be a U.S. citizen.

Nice To Haves

• Department of Navy experience strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Serves as the team's lead subject matter expert on both macroeconomic trends and microeconomic behaviors.
• Monitors and analyzes global economic indicators, including Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) flows, to identify key trends by country of origin, industry sector, and strategic importance.
• Analyzes aggregated internal case data and open-source M&A research to produce the team’s authoritative "Quarterly Economic Threat & Trend Report."
• Applies microeconomic principles to conduct "Sector Health Assessments," quantifying risks such as market concentration, anti-competitive behavior, and the specific incentives driving firm-level decisions.
• Develops firm-centric risk profiles, evaluating corporate structures, financial health, and potential for undue influence based on an understanding of their unique market position and business strategy.
• Quantify the health of key market sectors with DON equity, assessing risks like over-leveraging, lack of competition, or adversarial market manipulation.
• Each quarter, select one high-interest industrial sector (e.g., hypersonics, unmanned systems) and conduct a quantitative "Sector Health Assessment."
• Develops and maintains a "Watchlist" of at-risk technologies by modeling how both macro trends and micro-level competitive dynamics could create future vulnerabilities.
• Authors strategic "Economic Deep Dive" reports on complex topics that integrate both macro policy and micro behavioral analysis.
• Develop predictive models to forecast how emerging economic trends will impact the defense industrial base and future acquisition programs.
• Based on identified analytical gaps, design and propose new dashboard widgets or data fields that will help the team better visualize and understand macro-level risks.
• Develop and refine the methodologies used to assess sector health and quantify the economic risk to DON equities, ensuring the team's analytical approach remains cutting-edge.
• Submit one "Analytic Improvement Proposal" each quarter, suggesting a new methodology, data source, or dashboard feature to the Senior Analyst.
• Maintain and refine the documentation for all predictive models and statistical tools used in trend analysis.
• Provide executive-level assistance in program planning, scheduling, and document development, to include preparation of point and talking papers, executive summaries and executive correspondence for Department senior leaders.
• Use standard formats and guidelines to draft and prepare official documents and communications.

Benefits

• The Nakupuna Companies use a market-based compensation strategy to ensure that our employees are compensated within applicable market ranges commensurate with multiple factors, including but not limited to the individual’s particular combination of education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience, as well as contract-specific affordability, organizational requirements, and position location.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior