Job Description

What You'll Do

The Senior Tax Analyst is a key contributor to Avalara’s Premium Managed Returns Service (PRS) offering, where you will provide a high level of service to customers enrolled in the Premium Managed Returns Service. You will be responsible for identifying areas of improvement as well as serving an elite group of customers with highly complex returns as their primary point of contact. The ideal candidate is highly driven, detail oriented and proficient at balancing multiple priorities. This position directly protects client revenue, mitigates tax exposure, and advances Avalara’s AI-first operational strategy by embedding automation and AI into daily compliance work.

How This Role Elevates Avalara

• Protects customer revenue through accurate, on-time state and local sales and use tax compliance support.
• Reduces compliance risk by applying deep jurisdictional expertise and robust variance, exception, and notice management.
• Increases operational scale by designing and refining Premium Managed Returns Service workflows, data ingestion patterns, and automation that reduce manual effort.
• Enhances customer trust as a knowledgeable, proactive, senior point of contact for complex portfolios on the PRS product.
• Raises team capability by mentoring junior analysts and sharing documentation, process improvements, and AI best practices.

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

Compliance and Filing Operations

• Prepare, review, and file multi-jurisdictional sales and use tax, business and occupation, and gross receipts tax returns for monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual filing cycles
• Manage a select portfolio of customer accounts as their dedicated primary point of contact for all returns-related questions and escalations
• Research and resolve jurisdictional tax notices on behalf of customers with clear, timely, and well-documented communication
• Perform quality assurance reviews related to sales and use tax content and jurisdiction form changes

Customer and Relationship Management

• Serve as the first point of contact for customers’ sales and use tax returns questions, setting clear expectations and relaying complex compliance information in an accessible, actionable manner
• Own the onboarding and validation of new sales and use tax returns customers, ensuring a smooth transition into Avalara’s platform
• Communicate regularly and effectively with customers, jurisdictions, and internal teams as part of research and resolution workflows
• Take full ownership of customer satisfaction, demonstrating empathy and proactive responsiveness to customer needs

Process Improvement and Team Enablement

• Identify, develop, and implement automation improvements to serve customers across a variety of market and tax verticals
• Identify process and technology gaps and recommend improvements that reduce risk, increase throughput, and improve customer outcomes
• Assist with implementation, training, and documentation initiatives in support of the broader team
• Coordinate and lead training for junior-level employees, serving as a knowledge resource for critical troubleshooting and in-cycle risk reduction
• Apply expert knowledge of jurisdiction websites and taxpayer-facing portals, including data input nuances and system limitations

AI Bar Raiser Expectation

This role is an opportunity to be at the leading edge of Avalara’s AI-first mission within one of our most complex and high-stakes compliance operations. We are looking for someone who goes beyond using AI — someone who brings deeper AI expertise than the current team and actively raises the capability of the people around them. The successful candidate will be a genuine AI Bar Raiser: a practitioner who can demonstrate, teach, and institutionalize AI-enabled ways of working that make the entire PRS team faster, more accurate, and more scalable.

• Leverage AI tools to accelerate data analysis, reconciliations, exception review, and return preparation while maintaining or improving quality.
• Use AI to draft clear, professional customer and jurisdiction communications, apply judgment and domain expertise before sending.
• Summarize complex issues, RCAs, and action plans with AI to improve clarity and reduce preparation time for internal and external stakeholders.
• Design and implement at least one AI-enabled workflow enhancement (e.g., standardized prompts, variance review patterns, notice response templates) within the first 12 months.
• Quantify measurable AI impact such as reduced review hours, faster cycle times, or lower notice/rework rates.
• Apply AI responsibly in alignment with Avalara security, privacy, and compliance standards.
• Share AI best practices, examples, and lessons learned to elevate team productivity and capability.

What You’ll Need To Be Successful

12-Month Success Signals

• Independently manage a portfolio of complex, multijurisdictional customers on PRS with minimal escalation.
• Achieve consistent 100% on-time filing performance (or agreed SLA targets) for assigned portfolios.
• Maintain high accuracy with visible reductions in rework, variances, and notices relative to baseline.
• Implement at least one documented AI-driven workflow or process improvement adopted by the broader team.
• Demonstrate strong working knowledge of AvaTax, Returns Console, PRS, including data flows and key configuration patterns.
• Contribute meaningfully to at least one cross-functional initiative (e.g., product feedback loop, automation pilot, training series) with clear, documented outcomes.
• Recognized by peers and leaders as a “go-to” SME for PRS based compliance in at least one or two critical domains (e.g., specific jurisdictions, firm segment, workflow type).

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, or a related field AND a minimum of 5 years of directly related experience in multi-jurisdictional sales and use tax compliance, returns preparation, or tax operations
• Master’s degree in a relevant field AND a minimum of 3 years of directly related experience may be substituted for the above
• Note: A degree is required for this role. Work experience alone, without an accompanying degree, does not satisfy the education requirement
• Strong analytical, research, and problem-solving skills with demonstrated ability to work through ambiguous compliance scenarios
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex tax concepts into clear guidance for accounting professionals and internal stakeholders
• Ability to work independently and manage competing priorities to meet strict filing deadlines
• Ability to learn and adapt quickly to new software applications, platforms, and tools
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office, with depth in Excel (including Power Pivot, VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and related functions)
• Must be available and working during US business hours

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree (Masters) in Accounting, Taxation, or Finance
• Experience with a Big 4 firm, a large corporate tax department of a multinational company, or a large ERP integration
• Expert understanding of an Avalara customer’s data flow from AvaTax portal to Returns Console
• Deep understanding of user platform features related to jurisdiction configuration, including nexus, exemptions, marketplace rules, filing calendars, reporting, and transaction data
• Working knowledge of transaction flow across the business and the downstream impact on returns preparation and filing
• Familiarity with returns content areas including transaction tax calculation, transaction data flow, returns mapping, and returns filing automation

Bar Raiser Expectations

Avalara’s strongest hires do not simply fill a role — they raise the level of the team they join. This is an opportunity to bring your expertise, your judgment, and your drive to a group of talented compliance professionals and make them measurably better. The right candidate will leave every process, workflow, customer relationship, and colleague stronger than they found them. We are looking for someone who joins Avalara, makes the team better than it is today, and raises the bar for everyone around them.

• Demonstrate strong ownership and accountability for customer outcomes, deadlines, and quality.
• Exercise sound judgment in decisions that impact customers, scalability, and risk, using data and AI insights where appropriate.
• Act as a “go-to” SME for critical PRS compliance functions or customers, leading through influence across teams.
• Leaves processes, workflows, and documentation stronger than found by identifying issues, proposing solutions, and driving them to completion.
• Elevate peer performance through mentoring, knowledge sharing, constructive feedback, and modeling Avalara’s AI-first, customer-obsessed culture.

Avalara is an AI-first Company

AI is embedded in our workflows, decision-making, and products. Success here requires embracing AI as an essential capability.

• You’ll bring experience using AI and AI-related technologies, ready to thrive here.
• You’ll apply AI every day to business challenges - improving efficiency, contributing solutions, and driving results for your team, our company, and our customers.
• You’ll grow with AI by staying curious about new trends and best practices, and by sharing what you learn so others can benefit too.

How We’ll Take Care Of You

Total Rewards

In addition to a great compensation package, paid time off, and paid parental leave, many Avalara employees are eligible for bonuses.

Health & Wellness

Benefits vary by location but generally include private medical, life, and disability insurance.

Inclusive culture and diversity

Avalara strongly supports diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is committed to integrating them into our business practices and our organizational culture. We also have a total of 8 employee-run resource groups, each with senior leadership and exec sponsorship.

What You Need To Know About Avalara

We’re defining the relationship between tax and tech.

We’ve already built an industry-leading cloud compliance platform, processing over 54 billion customer API calls and over 6.6 million tax returns a year. Our growth is real - we're a billion dollar business - and we’re not slowing down until we’ve achieved our mission - to be part of every transaction in the world.

We’re bright, innovative, and disruptive, like the orange we love to wear. It captures our quirky spirit and optimistic mindset. It shows off the culture we’ve designed, that empowers our people to win. We’ve been different from day one. Join us, and your career will be too.

We’re An Equal Opportunity Employer

Supporting diversity and inclusion is a cornerstone of our company — we don’t want people to fit into our culture, but to enrich it. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, age, gender, national orientation, disability, sexual orientation, US Veteran status, or any other factor protected by law. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know.