In 1993, Navarro worked part-time as a mitigation investigator for a Las Vegas law firm and as a contract law clerk for several organizations. From 1994 until 1996, Navarro worked as an associate attorney for a Las Vegas law firm, and she then worked as a sole practitioner in Las Vegas from 1996 until 2001. From 2001 until 2004, Navarro served as a Deputy Special Public Defender for Clark County, Nevada. Beginning in 2005, she served as a Chief Deputy District Attorney for the Civil Division in the Clark County District Attorney's office.
Federal judicial service
On September 11, 2009, Sen. Harry Reid contacted Navarro to inquire about her interest in serving on the federal bench. After a video conference interview with Reid, the senator told Navarro on September 22, 2009, that he would be recommending her to President Obama for consideration to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. On December 24, 2009, Obama formally nominated Navarro to the vacancy, which was created by the resignation of Judge Brian Sandoval. On March 4, 2010, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary voted to send Navarro's nomination to the full Senate for consideration. On May 5, 2010, the United States Senate voted 98–0 to confirm Navarro to her judgeship. She received her commission on May 6, 2010. On January 1, 2014 Navarro succeeded Robert Clive Jones as Chief Judge. She served as Chief Judge until September 2019.
Bunkerville standoff trials
In the first Bunkerville standoff case in 2017, Navarro declared a mistrial after a jury convicted two men of some of the counts in the indictment and reported that they were "hopelessly deadlocked" on the remaining counts. She scheduled retrials of the defendants in that trial for whom no verdict was reached, and trials of the remaining 11 defendants for June 26, 2017. On August 22, 2017, the remaining 4 defendants were found not guilty, and set free after being held without bail since 2016. On January 8, 2018, Judge Navarro dismissed the charges against the remaining 4 defendants "with prejudice", meaning they could not be tried again for the same charges. Navarro found that both prosecutors and the FBI had failed to turn overexculpatory evidence to the defense, and had therefore violated a "universal sense of justice" to an extent that nothing short of outright dismissal was appropriate.
