Lead, Customer Intelligence Governance & Activation

Avalara; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Health & Wellness benefits

Bonuses for eligible employees

Job summary

Avalara is seeking a Customer Intelligence Owner to lead the decision architecture for customer signals and improve financial accountability. Responsibilities include defining governance standards, managing executive prioritization, and partnering with Finance to validate impact. Candidates should have a B.S. in Computer Science or Engineering with at least 8 years of experience in program leadership or Customer Intelligence strategy. The role demands driving measurable improvements in Gross Revenue Retention (GRR) and Cost to Serve (CTS). The ideal candidate is a Bar Raiser elevating business impact and decision quality.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in enterprise program leadership, operating model design, or Customer Intelligence strategy.
• Experience driving accountability in complex environments.
• Demonstrated history of raising execution rigor and measurable performance.

Responsibilities

• Define and govern the end-to-end lifecycle of customer intelligence.
• Set decision criteria for executive forums reviewing customer friction themes.
• Partner with Finance to measure revenue risk tied to validated signals.

Skills

Program leadership

Customer Intelligence strategy

Governance frameworks

Financial accountability

AI governance

Education

B.S. in Computer Science or Engineering

Job description

Role Summary

Avalara is scaling an AI-First operating model designed to predict customer needs, reduce systemic friction, protect Gross Revenue Retention (GRR), and lower Cost to Serve (CTS).

Customer Signals Now Exist In Volume - Across Voice Of Customer Systems, CX360 Intelligence Outputs, Predictive Analytics, And Operational Data. What Does Not Exist Is a Single Enterprise Authority That Determines:

• Which signals are credible
• Which signals materially impact revenue or cost
• Which signals get funded
• How impact is verified
• Who is accountable when action stalls

Without a governed decision framework, signal volume increases but executive decisions degrades. Roadmaps fragment. Metrics drift. Friction themes compete without financial validation. Revenue risk remains unquantified.

The Customer Experience Owner, Customer Intelligence is the enterprise owner of Customer Intelligence activation.

You will define and govern the decision architecture that converts signal into funded, finance-validated action with verified impact. It establishes the standards that determine how Customer Intelligence influences executive prioritization, capital allocation, and accountability.

You will hold formal authority within the Customer Intelligence governance structure and be directly accountable for measurable movement in GRR and CTS attributable to Customer Intelligence activation.

You will prevent enterprise revenue leakage and operational inefficiency by enforcing disciplined, data-backed decision standards.

How You Will Elevate Avalara

Business Elevation

• Ensure validated friction themes are financially quantified before making executive tradeoffs to protect revenue.
• Improve capital allocation discipline by promoting standardized prioritization criteria.
• Reduce cost-to-serve by escalating systemic drivers instead of treating symptoms.
• Increase quality in executive forums through governed signal validation and exposure modeling.

Customer Elevation

• Ensure recurring customer friction is addressed at enterprise scale.
• Reduce avoidable churn drivers by accelerating signal-to-action velocity.
• Prevent fragmented ownership that allows friction to persist across journeys.

Organizational Elevation

• Eliminate conflicting KPI definitions and metric drift.
• Raise governance rigor across Product, Operations, and GTM.
• Embed AI-driven prioritization within defined confidence and audit standards.
• Increase talent density by holding the system — not just individuals — accountable to measurable outcomes.

A Bar Raiser in this role leaves the enterprise decision system stronger, clearer, and more financially disciplined than they found it.

Responsibilities

Lead the Enterprise Customer Intelligence Decision Framework

• Define and govern the end-to-end lifecycle: signal capture → validation → financial quantification → prioritization → funding → impact verification.
• Establish signal eligibility standards and confidence thresholds before signals enter executive forums.
• Embed standardized decision criteria into roadmap and capital allocation governance.
• Eliminate fragmentation across listening systems by enforcing a single enterprise framework.

Authority: Sole enterprise owner of the Customer Intelligence decision architecture.

Define Executive Prioritization & Funding Standards

• Set the decision criteria used in executive forums reviewing customer friction themes.
• Define mandatory business case components for Customer Intelligence-driven projects.
• Present prioritized signal portfolios with quantified revenue and cost exposure.
• Align validated themes to roadmap sequencing and funding tradeoffs.

Manage Financial Accountability & Impact Validation

• Partner with Finance to measure revenue risk, retention exposure, and cost drivers tied to validated signals.
• Establish required impact measurement standards before initiative approval.
• Validate pre- and post-intervention financial performance.
• Hold projects accountable to defined GRR and CTS movement.

Accountability: Directly accountable for measurable GRR and CTS movement attributable to Customer Intelligence activation.

Improve Accountability & Escalation

• Lead enterprise response when validated signals require action.
• Escalate stalled projects tied to approved friction themes.
• Arbitrate disputes in signal interpretation using defined governance standards.
• Enforce adherence to validation and influence measurement requirements.

Authority: Formal escalation and arbitration authority within Customer Intelligence governance.

Define Artificial Intelligence Governance Standards

• Establish governance standards for AI used in signal classification and prioritization.
• Define measurable confidence thresholds before automated escalation or prioritization impacts executive forums.
• Approve enterprise-level automation triggers affecting funding or sequencing decisions.
• Ensure AI is applied responsibly, securely, and auditable.

Authority: Sole owner of AI governance standards within the Customer Intelligence system.

Govern Enterprise Measurement Integrity

• Define and standardize Customer Intelligence measurement definitions across VoC, CX360, predictive analytics, and operational systems.
• Prevent metric drift and conflicting reporting throughout the company.
• Align Customer Intelligence metrics with financial reporting standards.

Authority: Sole owner of KPI governance tied to Customer Intelligence activation.

Required Qualifications

• B.S. in Computer Science or Engineering.
• 8+ years of experience in enterprise program leadership, operating model design, or Customer Intelligence strategy.
• Demonstrated experience building governance frameworks adopted across multiple departments.
• Direct experience partnering with Finance to measure revenue risk, retention exposure, or cost-to-serve impact.
• Experience defining prioritization standards used in executive decision forums.
• Demonstrated applied experience governing AI-enabled decision workflows tied to measurable outcomes.
• Experience driving accountability in complex matrixed environments.
• Demonstrated history of raising execution rigor, decision quality, and measurable performance.

Bar Raiser Expectations

We are hiring a Bar Raiser — someone who elevates the quality, rigor, and financial discipline of how enterprise decisions are made. This role is expected to strengthen how Customer Intelligence translates into action by improving prioritization, accountability, and measurable business impact.

A Successful Candidate Will

• Raise decision-making quality by enforcing structured, finance-aligned prioritization and clear trade-off frameworks.
• Improve enterprise execution rigor by ensuring validated signals translate into funded, accountable initiatives.
• Eliminate ambiguity and fragmentation in how customer friction is defined, measured, and acted upon.
• Increase organizational capability by establishing repeatable governance standards for signal validation, funding, and impact measurement.
• Strengthen cross-functional alignment across Product, Operations, Finance, and GTM through clear frameworks and decision ownership.
• Hold the system accountable, not just individuals, ensuring outcomes are tied to measurable GRR and CTS impact.
• Leave the enterprise decision system noticeably stronger, improving speed, clarity, and financial discipline.

AI Expectations (AI Bar Raiser Standard)

We are hiring an AI Bar Raiser — someone who brings deep, applied AI expertise and uses it to meaningfully improve how customer intelligence is translated into executive decision-making. This role is expected to elevate how AI is applied across the organization, driving measurable improvements in prioritization accuracy, financial modeling, and decision speed.

A Successful Candidate Will

• Apply AI-driven clustering, classification, and predictive indicators to grow signal validation.
• Measure AI impact in improved prioritization speed, financial modeling, or escalation accuracy.
• Define measurable confidence and audit thresholds before automation impacts funding decisions.
• Partner with analytics teams to improve model performance tied to GRR and CTS.
• Improve AI capability across governance forums by promoting AI-informed decision criteria.

AI usage must materially improve speed, rigor, financial precision, or scale. Casual or convenience-based AI usage does not meet the standard.

12-Month Success Signals

Within 12 Months

• Enterprise Customer Intelligence decision framework formally adopted across Product, Operations, and GTM.
• Executive prioritization forums operating with standardized financial validation criteria.
• Documented, Finance-validated improvement in GRR and/or measurable CTS reduction attributable to Customer Intelligence-driven action.
• At least 25% reduction in signal-to-action cycle time.
• Elimination of conflicting measurement definitions across Customer Intelligence systems.
• AI-enabled signal validation and prioritization operating within defined governance thresholds.

Beyond 12 Months

• Customer Intelligence becomes a mandatory input to roadmap and capital allocation decisions.
• Predictive signal modeling informs proactive retention and cost reduction strategies.
• The enterprise shows measurable improvement in decision speed and financial discipline tied to customer friction resolution.

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.

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.