Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Avalara is building the Agentic Content Studio Platform (ACSP), a next-generation platform designed to improve how global tax and compliance content is sourced, maintained, validated, and consumed across the business. The Director of Engineering, Agentic Content Engineering, will lead the strategy, architecture, and execution of the platform, focusing on expanding into new content domains and improving existing operations through automation and AI-assisted workflows.
Responsibilities
- Define and execute the engineering vision, architecture, and delivery roadmap for the Agentic Content Studio Platform
- Build scalable platform capabilities that support onboarding and maintenance of global compliance content across multiple domains
- Lead development of AI-assisted workflows that automate sourcing, extraction, transformation, validation, and maintenance of content
- Establish reliable human-in-the-loop operating models that combine AI-driven automation with researcher review and oversight
- Design secure, observable, and resilient platform services spanning orchestration, APIs, workflow automation, integrations, and content systems
- Enable downstream products and services such as AvaTax, ATC, and ATR to interact with platform capabilities through modern integration interfaces, including MCP where appropriate
- Define measurable engineering and operational metrics tied to platform reliability, quality, productivity, adoption, and business impact
- Partner closely with Product, Content Research, Applied AI, Architecture, and business stakeholders to align platform investments with company priorities
- Build and develop a high-performing engineering organization with strong technical depth, accountability, and execution discipline
- Drive pragmatic adoption of AI across engineering workflows, planning, delivery operations, observability, and decision-making processes
- Ensure governance, security, and responsible AI practices are incorporated into platform design and operational processes
- Deliver and operationalize a clear ACSP platform roadmap aligned to Avalara’s content expansion and productivity objectives
- Launch foundational platform capabilities supporting the first wave of new content domains and workflow automation initiatives
- Deliver production-ready AI-assisted workflows for sourcing and extracting international lodging content in targeted countries
- Deliver scalable workflows supporting generation and maintenance of VAT advanced section content across multiple countries
- Improve operational efficiency by reducing manual content research and maintenance effort through automation and reviewer-assisted workflows
- Establish reliable production integrations enabling downstream systems to consume platform capabilities through standardized interfaces
- Implement measurable operational metrics for reliability, automation coverage, quality, cycle time, and platform adoption
- Build a strong engineering leadership team with clear ownership, high accountability, and strong execution standards
- Apply AI to improve automation, scalability, quality, and operational efficiency
- Design agent-based workflows capable of coordinating multi-step content tasks with appropriate escalation and human review mechanisms
- Leverage AI to improve engineering execution, planning, observability, and operational workflows
- Drive adoption of AI capabilities as part of core platform functionality and engineering operations rather than isolated experimentation
- Ensure responsible use of AI through governance, transparency, monitoring, and risk controls
- Raise engineering team capability through coaching, standards, and practical implementation guidance
Skills
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field
- 12+ years of software engineering experience, including large-scale platforms or distributed systems
- 5+ years of experience leading engineering managers and senior engineers in complex cross-functional organizations
- Proven experience leading platform strategy, architecture, and execution with measurable business outcomes
- Experience applying AI and automation to improve operational scale, quality, productivity, or customer impact
- Strong experience with distributed systems, APIs, workflow orchestration, integrations, and event-driven architectures
- Experience building platforms that support automation, operational observability, and human-in-the-loop workflows
- Strong cross-functional leadership skills with the ability to align engineering investments to business priorities
- Excellent execution rigor, technical judgment, communication skills, and organizational leadership
- Experience with LLMs, agent-based systems, RAG architectures, or equivalent AI platforms
- Strong engineering background in Python and modern AI application frameworks
- Experience building cloud-native systems on AWS, Azure, or GCP
- Familiarity with MLOps practices including CI/CD, evaluation pipelines, monitoring, and model lifecycle management
- Strong platform and systems design experience focused on reliability, scalability, and operational excellence
- Demonstrated ability to build and mentor high-performing engineering organizations
- Strong product and platform mindset with a focus on customer and business outcomes
- Ability to communicate effectively with senior technical and executive stakeholders
- Pragmatic, execution-oriented leader capable of operating strategically while remaining technically engaged
Benefits
- Paid time off
- Paid parental leave
- Bonuses (for eligible employees)
- Private medical insurance (benefits vary by location)
- Life insurance (benefits vary by location)
- Disability insurance (benefits vary by location)
- Inclusive culture and diversity support
- 8 employee-run resource groups, each with senior leadership and exec sponsorship
Company Overview