Vice President, People Technology

Role Description

Avalara is transforming how we power our global workforce—and we’re looking for a visionary leader to help shape the future of our people systems. As Vice President, People Technology, you’ll define and deliver the global strategy, performance, and innovation behind the tools that enable our People & Culture teams and every Avalarian around the world.

Reporting to the CIO and partnering closely with senior HR and business leaders, this role bridges business strategy and technology execution. You’ll design scalable, reliable, and human-centered solutions that elevate the employee experience, unlock efficiency, and drive measurable business outcomes.

This is a high-impact leadership role for a strategic builder who thrives at the intersection of technology, process, people, and advanced artificial intelligence.

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Responsibilities

• Oversee the global People Technology organization (20+ team members across the U.S. and India), driving strategy, delivery, and operational excellence across Avalara’s HRIS ecosystem.
• Shape and execute the roadmap for Workday and Avalara’s expanding suite of talent technologies ensuring platforms evolve with the business and deliver exceptional employee and stakeholder experiences.
• Develop and execute a comprehensive AI roadmap for People Technology, ensuring the ethical, unbiased, and compliant use of AI and predictive analytics in critical HR processes like talent acquisition, performance management, and retention.
• Collaborate with People & Culture, Engineering, and business leaders to translate people strategies into scalable technology solutions that drive measurable results.
• Establish clear governance forums like HR–IT steering committees and joint planning sessions to align priorities, manage risk, and ensure disciplined execution.
• Build structure and reliability into every stage of the systems lifecycle, from planning and testing through deployment and support, balancing speed with quality.
• Advance automation, AI integration, and process optimization to elevate scalability, data integrity, and decision-making across the employee lifecycle. Drive the adoption of Generative AI copilots to augment HR productivity and enhance employee self-service.
• Build and empower a high-performing global team rooted in ownership, accountability, and continuous improvement, specifically fostering a culture of AI-first thinking and upskilling.
• Manage vendor relationships, evaluate emerging technologies, and position Avalara as a forward-leaning, early adopter in the people technology landscape.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business, or related field.
• 12+ years of progressive experience in HR technology leadership, including 5+ years leading global teams.
• Deep expertise in Workday and its ecosystem of third-party integrations.
• Demonstrated experience deploying AI or ML-driven solutions within HR tech stacks (e.g., AI-powered talent acquisition platforms, predictive analytics, AI chatbots for HR service delivery).
• Proven track record leading large-scale HRIS transformations that deliver measurable business outcomes.
• Strong grasp of HR processes, data governance, system architecture, and compliance.
• Demonstrated success driving operational rigor and process excellence in complex, global environments.
• Exceptional stakeholder management and communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
• A mindset rooted in ownership, urgency, and innovation with a passion for creating systems that empower people to do their best work.

Benefits

• In addition to a great compensation package, paid time off, and paid parental leave, many Avalara employees are eligible for bonuses.
• Benefits vary by location but generally include private medical, life, and disability insurance.
• Avalara strongly supports diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is committed to integrating them into our business practices and our organizational culture.
• Avalara has a total of 8 employee-run resource groups, each with senior leadership and exec sponsorship.

Company Description

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.

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.