Strategic Finance Partner for Product & Engineering

Avalara, Inc.; United States; Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonuses

Paid time off

Paid parental leave

Job summary

Avalara, Inc. is seeking a Director of Finance & Strategy for Product & Engineering to act as the embedded finance leader within the largest org in the company.

You will partner with senior Product and Engineering leaders to connect strategy, roadmap decisions, headcount planning, and operating spend into a clear financial view of cost and return. The role emphasizes true business partnership, investment decision support, and credible, decision-ready financial narratives for Finance leadership.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of FP&A or strategic finance experience, ideally with tech/SaaS exposure.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics or related field; MBA/CFA/CPA preferred.
• Experience partnering with senior leaders and building credibility with SVP-level stakeholders.
• Proven ability to build driver-based forecasting models (headcount-to-cost, roadmap-to-cost).
• Strong financial modeling and analytical skills with structured assumptions.
• Comfort pushing for clarity on assumptions and decisions with business judgment.
• Experience leading planning, forecast, and business-review rhythms in matrixed orgs.
• Proficiency with planning tools (Anaplan, Adaptive, Pigment) and analytics (Tableau/Power BI); SQL a plus.
• Demonstrated ability to use AI tools to accelerate modeling while preserving judgment.

Responsibilities

• Serve as primary finance partner to senior Product & Engineering leaders for budget, forecast, roadmap, and investments.
• Translate product priorities into financial implications, tradeoffs, and recommendations.
• Own the financial plan, forecast, and long-range view; reflect roadmap changes in headcount and costs.
• Lead roadmap-to-P&L linkage with forecasts for headcount, cost, and resource allocation.
• Partner on investment prioritization and resource tradeoffs across the portfolio.
• Develop a clear view of product-development economics and ROI of major investments.
• Lead monthly/quarterly business reviews with driver-based narratives on performance and risks.
• Build KPI and assumption frameworks connecting roadmap, hiring, productivity, and spend insights.

Skills

FP&A

Strategic finance

Financial modeling

Driver-based forecasting

Executive partner

SQL

Anaplan

Adaptive

Pigment

Tableau/Power BI

AI in forecasting

Education

Bachelor's in Finance/Accounting/Economics

MBA/CFA/CPA preferred

Tools

Anaplan

Adaptive

Pigment

Tableau

Power BI

SQL

Job description

Avalara, Inc. is seeking a Director of Finance & Strategy for Product & Engineering to act as the embedded finance leader within the largest org in the company.

You will partner with senior Product and Engineering leaders to connect strategy, roadmap decisions, headcount planning, and operating spend into a clear financial view of cost and return. The role emphasizes true business partnership, investment decision support, and credible, decision-ready financial narratives for Finance leadership.