Principal Software Engineer / Architect- AI

Avalara Technologies; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Avalara Technologies seeks a Principal Engineer to lead the architecture of cloud-native, compliance-focused platforms that power automation, decisioning, and reusable services. You will partner across product, engineering, operations, and design, reporting to the VP of Engineering.

The role emphasizes scalable data models, governance, and secure, observable systems while driving modernization and AI-enabled engineering practices to deliver measurable customer impact.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science Engineering or related field.
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including enterprise-scale platform architecture.
• Hands-on experience with AWS, CI/CD, infrastructure automation, and modern DevOps practices.
• Experience modernizing legacy platforms into scalable shared-service architectures.
• Experience building rules-based, policy-driven systems with auditability and privacy considerations.
• Applied AI experience, including responsible use of LLMs, agents, or workflow automation.

Responsibilities

• Shape architecture for a cloud-native platform supporting global registration, licensing, and compliance services.
• Lead modernization to consolidate capabilities and improve scalability.
• Architect rules engines and workflow orchestration for long-running operations.
• Design systems with responsible AI usage, explainability, auditability, and privacy.
• Establish scalable data models, governance, and integration patterns for regulatory data.
• Partner with product, engineering, operations, and design to deliver platform capabilities.
• Set standards for performance, reliability, security, observability, and resilience.
• Lead architectural reviews and design decisions across teams.
• Address scalability risks, technical debt, and performance bottlenecks before impacting customers.
• Mentor engineers and promote ownership and long-term platform sustainability.

Skills

Cloud architecture

Distributed systems

Leadership

AI in engineering

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related

Tools

AWS

CI/CD

Infrastructure automation

Job description

What You’ll Do

Avalara is modernizing its global registration, licensing, and compliance platforms to make complex tax and regulatory work faster, more scalable, and easier for customers to navigate. As Principal Engineer, you will lead the architecture for cloud-native, compliance‑critical platforms that support automation, workflow orchestration, intelligent decisioning, and reusable shared services. You will work across product, engineering, operations, and design to turn business strategy into reliable platform capabilities with measurable customer and operational impact. You will report to the VP of Engineering.

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

• Shape architecture for a cloud-native, jurisdiction-aware platform supporting global registration, licensing, and compliance services.
• Lead modernization work that consolidates shared capabilities, decouples user experiences, and improves platform scalability.
• Architect rules engines, decision systems, and workflow orchestration for long-running compliance operations.
• Design systems that use AI‑assisted automation responsibly, with human oversight, explainability, auditability, privacy, and operational control.
• Establish scalable data models, governance strategies, and integration patterns for complex regulatory and licensing data.
• Partner with product, engineering, operations, and design teams to deliver platform capabilities that improve customer outcomes.
• Set standards for performance, reliability, security, observability, resiliency, and operational excellence.
• Lead architectural reviews, technical strategy discussions, and design decisions across multiple engineering teams.
• Find and address scalability risks, technical debt, reliability concerns, and performance bottlenecks before they affect customers.
• Mentor engineers and promote high standards for ownership, simplification, AI‑enabled engineering practices, and long‑term platform sustainability.

What Youll Need To Be Successful

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science Engineering
• 15+ years of software engineering experience, including enterprise‑scale platform architecture, modernization, and distributed cloud‑native systems.
• Experience designing, scaling, and operating cloud‑native software‑as‑a‑service platforms, including hands‑on experience with Amazon Web Services, continuous integration and delivery, infrastructure automation, and modern DevOps practices.
• Experience modernizing legacy or fragmented platforms into scalable shared‑service architectures.
• Experience building rules‑based, policy‑driven, workflow, or compliance‑oriented systems that require auditability, traceability, security, privacy, and regulatory control.
• Demonstrated applied AI experience, including responsible use of large language models, agents, intelligent decisioning, or workflow automation to improve engineering, operational, or customer outcomes.