Sr. Director, People Partners

Avalara, Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonuses and performance incentives

Private medical, life, and disability"

Job summary

Avalara, Inc. is seeking a Senior Director, HR Business Partnering to lead a global team of HRBPs and partner with two C-suite executives.

You will align business vision with org design, workforce strategy, and leadership capability across North America, India, EMEA, and beyond, leveraging AI and data to drive measurable results. You will shape an AI-native organization, forecast headcount with Finance, and collaborate with Centers of Excellence to tailor enterprise people programs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in HR or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 15+ years HR experience including 6+ years leading HRBPs.
• 5+ years partnering with engineering, technology or product leaders.
• Proven track record advising C-suite and SVP leaders.
• Experience designing orgs for technology teams and scaling regions.
• Global HR experience across the U.S. and international markets.
• Fluency with people data and AI in decision making.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow a global team of HRBPs across organizations.
• Advise C-suite on org, talent, and strategy; tie people decisions to outcomes.
• Design AI-native org structures and headcount/workforce strategies.
• Define leadership needs and run executive talent calibration and succession.
• Set standards for sensitive people moments and responsible AI use.
• Collaborate with Centers of Excellence to tailor enterprise frameworks.
• Strengthen culture to enable performance and change across time zones.

Skills

HR leadership

C-suite advisory

Org design

AI & data literacy

Global HR management

People analytics

Change management

Education

Bachelor's degree in HR or related field

Tools

AI tools

Job description

What You’ll Do

Avalara is changing what it means to do tax and compliance. Software that once automated individual tasks is becoming AI agents that complete the work for customers, and that shift reaches into how every team is organized, which skills matter most, and where talent goes. Technology & Customer Operations (TCO) and Strategy & Product sit at the center of it: they build, run, and support the platform, and they set the strategy and product direction behind it.

As Senior Director, HR Business Partnering, you will be the primary people strategist and day-to-day partner to two C-suite executives, turning business vision into org designs that adapt fast, workforce strategies that deliver, and leadership capability that lasts.

You will lead a global team of HR Business Partners (HRBPs) embedded across both organizations and act as their bridge to our Centers of Excellence, connecting people programs, talent practices, and technology into one talent system that drives measurable business results. Along the way, you will help rebuild how our People & Culture Team works, using AI and data to advise more effectively.

Success looks like stronger talent in critical roles, a higher bar for leadership and performance, and better business results from the organizations you support, with leaders who can point to what changed because of your work.

#LI-Remote

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

• Lead and grow a global team of HRBPs across TCO and Strategy & Product (North America, India, EMEA, Brazil), setting a high bar for the quality of their advice, and build the next generation of HR leaders from within.
• Advise and challenge C-suite and senior executives on org, talent, and strategy. Share accountability for business results through the people decisions you shape, hold those decisions to a people scorecard tied to business outcomes, and give candid, evidence-based views, including what leaders may not want to hear.
• Design an AI-native organization: define how work is split between people and AI agents and how teams are structured and run, including roles, spans, layers, and decision rights. Plan headcount, workforce investment, and location strategy with Finance.
• Define the kind of leaders Avalara needs for what comes next and keep raising the performance bar. Run executive talent calibration and succession planning against a clear, evidence-based standard that includes effective use of AI, build a deep bench of future leaders, and shape leadership development with Learning & Development.
• Set the standard for how Avalara handles its most sensitive people moments, such as restructurings, leadership transitions, and acquisition integrations, and for responsible use of AI in people decisions.
• Partner with Centers of Excellence leaders in Total Rewards, Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, and People Analytics to tailor enterprise frameworks for technical teams and help set enterprise people priorities and the HR operating model, including how HR itself works with AI and data.
• Strengthen Avalara's culture and ensure it is an enabler of performance and change, building ownership, urgency, and customer obsession across teams in many time zones, and holding leaders to them

What You’ll Need to be Successful

• Bachelor's degree in HR, business, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 15+ years of HR experience, including 6+ years of people management experience leading a team of HRBPs, and 5+ years as a senior HR Business Partner to engineering, technology, or product leaders.
• A track record advising C-suite and SVP leaders, with the credibility to challenge them and the judgment to know when to push.
• Experience designing organizations for technology teams (software development, infrastructure, engineering, and cross-functional product groups), including restructurings and scaling across regions.
• Experience leading change at scale as AI and automation reshape roles, job architecture, and teams, and helping people grow into higher-value work.
• Global HR experience in employee relations, employment law, and compliance across the U.S. and international markets, and managing HRBPs across regions and time zones.
• Fluency with people data and AI: you build with AI tools in your own work, and use data to make the case for decisions and explain it simply.

Avalara is an AI-first Company

• 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.