Principal Compensation Partner

What You'll Do

The Principal Compensation Partner, is a global, director-level individual contributor and a principal compensation subject matter expert for Avalara, supporting the Sales organization. This role sets the direction for global compensation strategy and designs the programs that bring it to life, with a particular focus on the compensation and incentive programs that drive GTM performance. The Principal Compensation Partner turns complex data into clear, compelling narratives that guide decisions, advising executives and senior leaders on the company’s most complex, sensitive, and high-impact compensation matters. This role ensures global compensation programs are competitive, equitable, compliant, and aligned with business strategy and talent objectives. This role operates with a high degree of independence, leads through influence rather than direct authority, and shapes compensation practices across the entire enterprise. #LI-Remote

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

Duties & Responsibilities

• Use analysis and storytelling to drive decisions: turn complex compensation, market, and business data into clear, compelling narratives and executive-ready recommendations that shape decisions by senior leaders
• Serve as the lead compensation partner and trusted advisor to the Sales organization, advising Sales, Customer Success, Marketing, and Sales Operations leaders on pay strategy, role structure, and talent attraction and retention for GTM roles.
• Partner with GTM, Finance, and Sales Operations on the design, governance, and annual refresh of sales incentive programs, including pay mix, on-target earnings, quota and commission structures, and plan performance, ensuring they motivate the right behaviors and align with business goals.
• Drive global compensation strategy and philosophy in partnership with People leadership, ensuring programs support business strategy, talent attraction and retention, and financial objectives, with a focus in the Sales organization.
• Own and evolve Avalara’s sales job architecture framework and leveling governance, setting standards for job evaluation, EEO and FLSA classification, and internal equity, and making final determinations on the most complex and precedent-setting leveling decisions.
• Partner with Finance on sales compensation budgeting, forecasting, and cost modeling, using advanced scenario analysis to evaluate the financial and talent impact of program decisions, including the cost and return of GTM incentive investments.
• Conduct advanced compensation analysis to identify trends, risks, and opportunities, and present findings with clear insight, a point of view, and a recommended course of action.
• Lead and influence cross-functional, enterprise-wide initiatives by building alignment among senior stakeholders, managing risk, and driving measurable business outcomes.
• Coach, mentor, and develop compensation team members and other senior individual contributors, setting standards for quality, analytical rigor, and storytelling, and sharing expertise across the People organization.
• Optimizes AI tools used across compensation, and apply them to improve insight generation, compensation modeling, and executive reporting.

What You'll Need to be Successful

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Finance, Economics, or a related field.

Experience

• 15+ years of progressive compensation experience, including within a technology company.
• Significant experience supporting a sales or go-to-market organization, including sales compensation or incentive plan design and administration.
• Extensive experience designing and leading global compensation programs in a complex, multi-region environment.
• Proven experience advising executives and senior leaders on complex, high-stakes compensation decisions.
• Demonstrated track record of using data analysis and storytelling to influence senior-level decisions.
• Experience leading large-scale, cross-functional initiatives with measurable business impact.
• Experience coaching and developing compensation professionals.
• Demonstrated experience using AI tools to enhance data analysis, reporting, modeling, or process efficiency.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Exceptional analytical and data storytelling skills, with the ability to distill complex data into clear narratives and visuals that drive decisions.
• Expert knowledge of compensation principles, job architecture, market pricing methodologies, and incentive and equity program design.
• Strong understanding of sales compensation principles, including pay mix, quota setting, commission and accelerator structures, and the link between incentives and sales performance.
• Deep experience conducting market benchmarking using survey providers such as Radford, Mercer, and WTW, including strong command of survey methodology and data strategy.
• Experience using Workday or similar Human Capital Management systems.
• Advanced Excel skills, including modeling, scenario analysis, and executive-level reporting.
• Strategic thinking and strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to anticipate business needs and frame recommendations in terms of business impact.
• Knowledge of global compensation regulations and emerging legislative trends, including pay transparency and pay equity requirements.
• Ability to exercise sound judgment and discretion in highly ambiguous, sensitive, and high-impact situations.
• Exceptional executive communication skills, with the ability to build credibility with senior leaders and influence without direct authority.

Preferred Qualifications

• Certified Compensation Professional (CCP) designation.
• Experience supporting compensation programs in a public company environment, including exposure to executive compensation and Compensation Committee processes.
• Experience in a high-growth or technology company, particularly a SaaS or subscription-based business.
• Experience partnering with Sales Operations and Finance on sales incentive plan design and analytics.
• Experience leading global compensation program design and structure, including through M&A integration or organizational change.
• Experience conducting pay equity analysis and regulatory reporting.
• Advanced degree in Human Resources, Business, Finance, or a related field.

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 y
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.