Head of Operations
Avalara
Head of Operations
Avalara
Cloud-based tax compliance and automation platform
For a small business owner, getting set up for sales or lodging tax can be the most stressful part of using our product — and the moment they decide whether to trust us. Avalara builds the software that makes tax compliance automatic. We've built a dedicated business to serve the smallest and fastest-growing of these customers, and we're looking for the leader who will make their experience effortless from the first day.
As Head of Operations, you'll own onboarding, go-live and customer support for a portfolio that includes DAVO (automated sales tax for small businesses, set up through their point-of-sale system) and MyLodgeTax (lodging tax registration and filing for short-term rental hosts), along with the registration operations that get customers compliant in the first place.
This isn't a role about growing a support team in line with customer growth. It's about building an operation where most customers never need to contact us — because onboarding just works, problems are caught early, and the manual work is automated away. You'll lead the teams that serve customers today and work directly with Product and Engineering to make each of those teams more scalable every quarter.
Own the customer's first 90 days. Lead onboarding and go-live for every customer, from signup to their first successful filing. Define what a great activation looks like, measure it, and remove the friction that slows customers down or sends them to support.
Run support that gets better, not just bigger. Lead the support teams for DAVO and MyLodgeTax, and build out MyLodgeTax support as the portfolio grows. Set service standards, staffing models and quality measures, and treat every recurring contact as a problem to eliminate rather than a ticket to close.
Automate registration operations. Lead the team that handles tax registrations for MyLodgeTax customers today, and partner with Product and Engineering to automate that work, so the team can focus on the exceptions that really need a person.
Turn customer friction into product fixes. Build the feedback loop between operations and the product team: which issues drive contacts, which onboarding steps lose customers, and which fixes would pay back fastest. Bring data, not anecdotes, to roadmap conversations.
Work across Avalara's shared services. Partner with Avalara's filing, payments and notices teams, which this business relies on rather than rebuilding, so the customer experience is seamless end to end.
Build the team and the operating rhythm. Hire, lead and develop managers and frontline teams. Set clear goals and decision rights, and run the cadence of operating reviews, dashboards and service metrics that keeps the operation sharp.
What you'll bring
10+ years in customer operations, support, onboarding or implementation, ideally in SaaS, fintech, payments, compliance or SMB technology
5+ years leading teams, including managers of frontline teams
A track record of reducing support contacts per customer and improving activation through automation, self-service and product changes, not just headcount
Experience scaling onboarding and support for high-volume, self-serve or SMB customers
Strong operational analytics: contact drivers, time to activate, first-contact resolution, CSAT, cost to serve and capacity planning
Experience working closely with Product and Engineering to prioritize and ship fixes for customer friction
Clear, direct communication with executives and the ability to lead across a matrixed company
Bonus points
You know tax, accounting, payments, POS, hospitality or short-term rentals
You've run registration, filing or other regulated, deadline-driven operations
You've used AI to scale operations: support deflection, triage, agent assist or workflow automation
You've worked with partner-led or embedded products where onboarding runs through a third-party platform
You're fluent in tools like Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Gainsight, Snowflake or Tableau
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.
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.
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.
Avalara provides cloud-based tax compliance services for businesses of all sizes. Its main product, AvaTax, automatically calculates sales tax at the point of purchase and can be connected to many business apps to make tax determinations as orders move through a company’s systems. Beyond calculation, Avalara offers returns filing and ongoing compliance management, helping customers stay up to date with changing tax laws. The company earns money through subscriptions tied to how many transactions you process and how complex your tax needs are, and it also offers consulting and training services to support customers. Compared with others, Avalara covers many industries (like e-commerce, retail, manufacturing, and software) and integrates with a wide range of platforms, aiming to provide an end-to-end, automated tax workflow. Its goal is to reduce the risk of penalties and streamline tax compliance so businesses can focus on their core operations.
Explore more opportunities at Avalara