What You'll DoAvalara is an AI-first company. We expect every engineer, manager, and to leverage AI to enhance productivity, quality, innovation, and customer value. AI is embedded in our workflows, and products — and success at Avalara requires embracing AI as an essential capability, not an optional tool. We aspire to be the global cloud compliance platform.As a Principal Software Engineer at Avalara, you will be a senior member of the AvaTax architecture team, responsible for leading the architecture and development of our high-performance, reliable, and secure global tax calculation engine and its supporting services. You will contribute to the Global Architecture Review Board, Solution Architecture team, and the broader Global Architecture Team.The AvaTax Calculation Engine is mission-critical, executing highly accurate tax computations at sub-second latencies and massive scale—processing thousands of requests per second. You will help evolve this architecture to simplify onboarding of new tax types and support global expansion. Your work will ensure the platform remains cloud-agnostic, scalable, and service-oriented.Our core systems are built using modern stack, with a strong emphasis on asynchronous programming, microservices, and multi-cloud deployment. This role is ideal for engineers with experience building scalable platforms at leading technology companies and a passion for domain-driven design and platform architecture.As part of Avalara's AI-first approach, you will also identify and implement AI-powered solutions that enhance our system performance and capabilities.
Responsibilities
What Your Responsibilities Will Be
- Architect, design, and evolve the AvaTax core calculation engine and services for high availability, resiliency, and global scale.
- Identify and implement AI-driven enhancements across the platform.
- Influence the roadmap for global expansion and compliance-readiness.
- Collaborate with engineering teams, product managers, and stakeholders to deliver high-impact results.
- Mentor senior engineers and promote a culture of technical excellence.
- Establish and enforce best practices in coding, architecture, and design.
- Contribute to Avalara's enterprise-wide architecture forums and standards.
What You’ll Need To Be Successful
What You’ll Need To Be Successful
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field
- 15+ years of experience developing large-scale, distributed systems
- Deep expertise in .NET Core or Java and asynchronous programming
- Deep expertise in SaaS architecture and design patterns (e.g., microservices, event-driven, DDD)
- Deep expertise in non-functional requirements (scalability, availability, latency, security, resiliency)
- Proven success in deploying high-throughput services in production environments
- Experience with data modeling, performance tuning, and large-scale database design
- Familiarity with CI/CD tools and DevOps culture (GitLab, Jenkins, etc.)
- Strong communication and leadership skills across technical and non-technical audiences
Nice to Have
- Experience at enterprise product companies known for engineering excellence
- Exposure to the tax, compliance, or financial systems domain (preferred but not required)
This is a remote role.How We’ll Take Care Of YouTotal RewardsIn addition to a great compensation package, paid time off, and paid parental leave, many Avalara employees are eligible for bonuses.Health & WellnessBenefits vary by location but generally include private medical, life, and disability insurance.Inclusive culture and diversityAvalara 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.
