Principal Enterprise Architect - Digital & Experience Remote, United States - Engineering - Arc[...]

What You'll Do

Role Summary (The Why Now)

Avalara’s growth and customer experience depend on a unified, scalable digital ecosystem that connects Marketing, Sales, and Customer Experience. As digital channels, web platforms, content systems, and customer data capabilities expand—and AI becomes embedded in how customers discover, evaluate, and engage—we must ensure these capabilities operate as a cohesive enterprise system rather than disconnected tools.

The Principal Enterprise Architect – Digital & Experience defines the domain strategy, capability architecture, and architecture runway for Avalara’s digital and customer engagement ecosystem, including web platforms (Avalara.com), marketing and analytics systems, content platforms, consent and privacy systems, and customer data capabilities.

This role ensures that Avalara’s digital experience—from initial discovery through ongoing engagement—is architected for scale, consistency, and AI-enabled execution, and that investments in digital platforms produce measurable improvements in pipeline quality, customer experience, and retention.

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

How This Role Elevates Avalara

For the Business

• Enables a scalable digital and demand architecture supporting pipeline growth and conversion
• Aligns digital and MarTech investments to measurable business outcomes
• Reduces platform fragmentation and integration complexity

For the Customer

• Enables a consistent, high-quality digital experience across Avalara.com and related properties
• Improves discoverability, engagement, and ease of interaction
• Supports CX360 insight and personalized engagement

For the Enterprise

• Establishes architecture strategy across the digital experience stack
• Aligns web, marketing, analytics, and customer data platforms
• Ensures governance, scalability, and maintainability of digital systems

Key Responsibilities

Domain Architecture Strategy (Digital & Experience)

• Define and maintain the enterprise architecture strategy and roadmap for:
• Web and digital experience platforms (e.g., Avalara.com)
• Marketing automation and engagement systems
• Content platforms and digital asset systems
• Analytics and customer data capabilities
• Privacy and consent platforms
• Translate business strategy into capability models, architecture roadmaps, and guardrails
• Define the architecture runway guiding delivery teams

Digital Experience & Web Architecture

• Define architecture patterns for modern web platforms, including:
• scalable multi-site and global experiences
• component and template-based design
• localization and translation workflows
• analytics instrumentation and data capture
• Guide adoption of modern architecture patterns (e.g., headless or hybrid CMS approaches)
• Ensure digital platforms meet enterprise standards for performance, reliability, and scalability

Marketing, Analytics & Customer Data Alignment

• Define integration patterns across:
• marketing automation platforms (e.g., Marketo and similar tools)
• analytics platforms (e.g., Adobe Analytics and related tools)
• work management and campaign systems (e.g., Workfront or similar)
• customer data and identity platforms
• Ensure consistent data flow from digital engagement to CRM, CX, and downstream systems
• Align customer identity, engagement signals, and lifecycle data across domains

Content & Engagement Alignment (with Content Architect)

• Partner with the Content Architect to ensure content platforms align with enterprise architecture
• Define how content integrates into:
• digital experiences
• marketing workflows
• customer lifecycle engagement
• Ensure content architecture supports engagement, discoverability, and signal capture

AI-Enabled Digital & Engagement Architecture

• Define how AI capabilities are embedded into digital and marketing systems, including:
• content generation and optimization
• segmentation and targeting
• experimentation and decisioning
• agent-based workflows
• Ensure AI is implemented with appropriate governance, including:
• data quality
• privacy and consent
• explainability and control

Platform Governance & Decision Enablement

• Lead architectural decision-making across digital platforms, including:
• vendor evaluation and selection
• buy vs. build vs. integrate decisions
• rationalization of overlapping tools
• Define and enforce standards for:
• integration patterns
• data models
• platform interoperability
• Lead architecture reviews and ensure alignment across teams

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Align business, marketing, engineering, analytics, and customer experience teams
• Partner with:
• GTM Architect (Lead-to-Sale)
• Data & AI platform architects
• Enterprise and platform architects
• Establish shared standards, roadmaps, and integration boundaries across domains

What You’ll Need To Be Successful

12-Month Success Signals

• Clear, adopted architecture strategy for digital and customer experience platforms
• Reduced fragmentation across web, marketing, and analytics systems
• Standardized architecture patterns adopted across delivery teams
• Improved consistency and scalability of digital experiences
• Measurable improvement in pipeline quality, engagement, or customer experience
• Strong alignment across Marketing, Sales, and Customer Experience leadership

Bar Raiser Expectations

• Raise standards for enterprise digital and customer experience architecture
• Demonstrate strong judgment in balancing innovation, scalability, and governance
• Simplify complex digital ecosystems into clear architectural direction
• Improve alignment across business and technology teams
• Leave the domain architecture more scalable, coherent, and maintainable

AI Bar Raiser Expectations

• Demonstrate applied AI capability in digital and engagement platforms
• Identify AI use cases that improve measurable outcomes (conversion, engagement, efficiency)
• Ensure AI implementations are governed, explainable, and aligned with enterprise standards
• Elevate AI architectural thinking across teams

Qualifications (Required)

• B.S. in Computer Science or Engineering
• 10+ years of experience in enterprise or domain architecture
• Experience designing or governing digital experience and MarTech ecosystems, including web platforms, marketing automation, analytics, and customer data systems
• Experience with modern web architecture patterns (e.g., headless or hybrid CMS approaches)
• Experience with enterprise analytics, content, and engagement platforms
• Experience evaluating vendors and making platform investment decisions
• Strong understanding of customer lifecycle, engagement models, and digital experience design
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture frameworks (e.g., TOGAF or similar)
• Proven ability to influence cross-functional stakeholders and executive decision-making

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 diversit
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.