Avalara is seeking a Staff Data Scientist who will thrive in a player-coach model—leading by example and delivering hands-on impact while mentoring a high-performing team. You will be at the intersection of data science, engineering, and product leadership, guiding the team through complex data challenges and directly building solutions that fuel customer-facing applications, high-scale data products, and actionable insights.
Understand the need for a strong data foundation for AI driven workflows. Have experience with shared semantic views on top of complex DBT data models that allow corporate wide shared metrics and curated data sets that are sources of truth for many downstream teams.
This role is ideal for someone who combines technical excellence with a strong product mindset and excels in building narratives that drive business impact.
What Your Responsibilities Will Be
Data Science Delivery & Execution
- Lead and execute complex analytical projects using SQL, Python, and advanced data visualization/storytelling tools.
- Design, build, and deploy AI and agentic workflows that enhance customer experiences and reduce operational friction.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to scope and deliver AI-powered applications that transform manual decisioning into data-driven automation.
- Apply modern statistical, machine learning, and large language model (LLM) approaches to solve business problems in fintech/eCommerce.
Product & Team Leadership
- Operate as a player-coach, leading from the front and fostering strong engineering and product collaboration.
- Drive end-to-end ownership of data products, from discovery through delivery to measurement of impact.
- Translate business needs into clear data requirements, shaping how data pipelines and services should be structured for scale and performance.
Infrastructure & Engineering Collaboration
- Collaborate with data engineers and platform teams to define and refine high-volume, production-grade pipelines using tools like Airflow, Monte Carlo, Snowflake, and AWS.
- Ensure that data systems meet SLAs, governance, and compliance standards.
- Understand and provide guidance on networking, security, and containerization/orchestration in modern cloud data ecosystems.
- Influence and understand legacy connections such as MCP Servers and their integration patterns.
What You'll Need to be Successful
- Expert-level SQL and Python for data wrangling, modeling, and automation
- Advanced experience with Hex or Power BI for creating dynamic, business-impactful visuals
- Deep experience using Snowflake, Airflow, and AWS services (S3, Lambda, Redshift, Glue, etc.)
- Proven knowledge of data pipeline orchestration, containerization (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes), and service-oriented architecture
Avalara is an AI-first Company
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 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.
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.