She earned her PhD in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies from Harvard University (1988), and subsequently taught at the University of Hawaii (1988-1990), Stanford University (1990-1992), and Indiana University (1992–2005). She then worked as a research professor at the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University (2006–2010) before retiring from her position there and beginning a series of visiting professorships at various universities in the U.S.^[2]

Nattier is one of a group of scholars who have substantially revised views of the early development of Mahāyana Buddhism in the last 20 years. They have in common their attention to and re-evaluation of early Chinese translations of texts.^[3]

Her first notable contribution was a book based on her PhD thesis which looked at the Chinese Doctrine of the Three Ages with a focus on the third i.e. Mofa (Chinese: 末法; pinyin: Mò Fǎ) or Age of Dharma Decline. She showed that the latter was a Chinese development with no India parallel. The translation and study of the Ugraparipṛcca published as A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā)^[4][5] in 2003 also contained an extended essay on working with ancient Buddhist texts, particularly in Chinese.^[6]

Nattier's notable articles include a study of the Akṣobhyavūhya Pure Land texts,^[7] which asserts the early importance of this strand of Mahāyāna ideology; an evaluation of early Chinese Translations of Buddhist texts and the issue of attribution (which summarises several earlier articles on the subject); and a detailed re-examination of the origins of the Heart Sutra (1992), which demonstrates that the text was likely compiled in China.^[8]

Nattier was married to John R. McRae (1947-2011),^[9] a professor and researcher who specialized in the study of Chinese Chan Buddhism and was the author of The Northern School and the Formation of Early Chan Buddhism (University of Hawai`i Press, 1986) and Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (University of California Press, 2003).

Works in addition to those mentioned below in the "Sources" section.

• Nattier, Jan (1990), Once Upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline, Asian Humanities Press, ISBN 978-0895819260
• Nattier, Jan (2006), A Greater Awakening, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, retrieved August 2, 2019
• Nattier, Jan (2008), "A Guide to the Earliest Chinese Buddhist Translations: Texts from the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms Periods" (PDF), vol. X, Bibliotheca Philologica et Philosophica, IRIAB, pp. 73–88, ISBN 978-4-904234-00-6, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-23
• Nattier, Jan (2014), Now You Hear It, Now You Don't: The Phrase 'Thus Have I Heard' in Early Chinese Buddhist Translations (Chapter 3, in Buddhism Across Asia: Networks of Material, Intellectual and Cultural Exchange. Edited by Tansen Sen. Volume 1), ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore, pp. 39–64, ISBN 9789814519328, retrieved 11 November 2021

• Drewes, David (2010), "Early Indian Mahāyāna Buddhism I: Recent Scholarship", Religion Compass, 4 (2): 55–65, doi:10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00195.x, JSTOR j.1749-8171.2009.00195.x
• Lion's Roar Staff (October 26, 2011), John R. McRae, Buddhist scholar, dies at 64, retrieved August 2, 2019
• Kapstein, Matthew (July 2005), "Jan Nattier, A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to the Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā)", The Journal of Religion, 85 (3): 528–530, doi:10.1086/447737
• Nattier, Jan (1992), "The Heart Sūtra: a Chinese apocryphal text?", Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 15 (2): 153–223
• Nattier, Jan (2000), "The Realm of Akṣobhya: A Missing Piece in the History of Pure Land Buddhism", Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 23 (1): 71–102
• Nattier, Jan (2003), A Few Good Men : The Bodhisattva Path According to the Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā), University of Hawai'i Press, ISBN 978-0824830038
• Nattier, Jan (2006), A Greater Awakening, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, retrieved August 2, 2019
• Richter, Antje (2017), Professor Emerita Jan Nattier Explores Narratives of Gender and Transformation in Her April 27 Talk, University of Colorado Boulder, retrieved August 2, 2019

• Jan Nattier at Academia.edu