Technical Communications & Storytelling Lead

avalara; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Health and wellness benefits

Bonuses for eligible employees

Job summary

Avalara is seeking a Technical Communications & Storytelling Lead to enhance communication of technical strategies and product evolution. This role will serve as an advisor to the CTO and improve clarity across engineering, product, and customer support teams.

Your responsibilities include crafting narratives that translate technical complexities into accessible communications. Applicants should have significant experience in technical communications, excellent storytelling abilities, and a background in software systems.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of experience in technical communications or related fields.
• Strong understanding of software systems including architecture and APIs.
• Exceptional writing and storytelling skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and own CTO-level narratives articulating technical strategy.
• Convert complex technical concepts into structured communications.
• Produce presentations and elevate executive-level messaging.

Skills

Technical communication

Storytelling

AI integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Communications, or a related field

Tools

PowerPoint

Job description

What You'll Do

Role Summary

Avalara is at an inflection point in how we evolve and scale our platform, products, and technical strategy. As the complexity of our architecture and the pace of innovation increase, the gap between what is being built and how it is understood—internally and externally—also grows.

This role exists to close that gap.

The Technical Communications & Storytelling Lead operates as an extension of the CTO, who leads global Engineering, IT, Content, Security, Onboarding, Managed Services, Professional Services, and Customer Support departments at Avalara. His teams design and operate the technology and services that power the Avalara agentic AI platform for global tax and compliance, focusing on product innovation, integration, reliability, and customer experience. They ensure that Avalara’s technical strategy, platform evolution, and product direction are translated into clear, consistent, and decision-enabling narratives. This is critical to driving alignment across Engineering, Product, Customer teams and leadership, and to effectively communicate our strategy in high‑stakes forums including board discussions, executive reviews, and customer engagements.

How This Role Elevates Avalara

• Drives clarity and alignment on technical strategy across Product, Engineering, Customer Support and executive leadership
• Strengthens how Avalara communicates platform evolution, innovation, and product capabilities to internal and external audiences
• Improves the effectiveness and impact of CTO-level communications in high-stakes moments
• Connects technical investments to business outcomes, enabling stronger prioritization and decision-making
• Establishes a higher standard and scalable approach to technical storytelling across the organization

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

• Create alignment through narrative: develop and own CTO-level narratives that clearly articulate technical strategy, platform direction, and product evolution, enabling faster and more effective decision-making
• Translate complexity into clarity: convert complex technical concepts, architectures, and product capabilities into structured, accessible, and high-impact communications
• Enable executive communication: produce presentations, written narratives, and talk tracks that elevate the quality and consistency of executive-level messaging
• Connect technology to impact: frame technical work in terms of business value, customer outcomes, and strategic priorities
• Identify and close clarity gaps: proactively surface inconsistencies, ambiguity, or misalignment in technical messaging and drive resolution
• Scale storytelling capability: establish frameworks, templates, and best practices that elevate technical communication across teams
• Bridge technical and business audiences: tailor messaging to engineers, executives, and external stakeholders without sacrificing accuracy or depth
• Increase velocity through tooling: leverage AI and modern tools to accelerate synthesis, iteration, and delivery of high-quality content
• Partner with internal communication leaders: ensure all messaging is consistent with communications developed and shared by other communications teams internally and externally

12-Month Success Signals

• CTO and senior leadership consistently rely on this role for high-stakes communications, including board materials, executive reviews, and external engagements
• Technical strategy and platform narratives are clearly understood and consistently articulated across Product, Engineering, Customer Support and leadership teams
• Noticeable reduction in rework and misalignment driven by unclear or inconsistent technical messaging
• Executive communications demonstrate a step-change in clarity, structure, and impact
• Repeatable storytelling frameworks are adopted across teams, improving quality and efficiency at scale
• Technical investments are more consistently linked to measurable business outcomes in leadership discussions
• Increased speed from concept to communication, without degradation in accuracy or quality

What You’ll Need To Be Successful

Bar Raiser Expectations

We are hiring a Bar Raiser—someone who elevates the clarity, quality, and effectiveness of how technical strategy is communicated and understood across the organization. This role is expected to strengthen how decisions are made by improving the way complex technical work is translated into clear, actionable narratives.

• Raise the standard for technical communication across Product, Engineering, and executive leadership
• Improve decision-making quality by ensuring technical concepts are clearly understood and consistently framed
• Reduce misalignment and rework by identifying and resolving ambiguity in technical messaging
• Elevate team capability by establishing repeatable storytelling frameworks and best practices
• Strengthen cross-functional alignment by bridging technical and business audiences effectively
• Leave communication systems, frameworks, and organizational clarity measurably stronger

AI Bar Raiser Expectations

We are hiring an AI Bar Raiser—someone who brings applied AI expertise and uses it to meaningfully improve how technical communication and storytelling are produced and scaled. This role is expected to elevate how AI is used across the organization to accelerate clarity, improve decision-making, and increase the speed and quality of communication.

• Use AI to significantly accelerate synthesis of complex technical inputs into clear narratives
• Deliver measurable improvements in communication speed, quality, and consistency
• Build and scale AI-driven workflows that reduce manual effort across storytelling processes
• Elevate how teams use AI for communication, not just individual output
• Establish repeatable patterns for AI-assisted content development
• Apply strong judgment to ensure accuracy, context, and integrity in AI-generated content

Qualifications

• Educational requirement: Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Communications, or a related field
• 8–12 years of experience in engineering, technical product development, technical communications, or a related field
• Strong understanding of how software systems and platforms are built, including architecture, APIs, and system design concepts
• Demonstrated ability to quickly build deep context and explain products and systems at both functional and technical levels
• Exceptional writing and storytelling skills, with a track record of simplifying complex topics without losing critical nuance
• Advanced PowerPoint and visual communication skills, with strong command of narrative structure and flow
• Experience supporting executive-level communications, including presentations and talk tracks for senior leaders
• Proven ability to operate in ambiguous, fast-paced environments and drive clarity across cross-functional stakeholders
• Strong collaboration and influence skills across Engineering, Product, and executive teams
• Demonstrated ability to leverage AI and modern tools to enhance productivity and output quality

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 executive 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.