Avalara

What You'll Do

As a Sr. Product Manager for Platforms at Avalara, you will be responsible for the strategy, roadmap, and delivery of key platform features and capabilities that power Avalara's suite of tax compliance products. This role requires a strong focus on scalability, extensibility, and user experience across multiple product lines. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including engineering, UX, operations, and customer-facing teams, to drive platform enhancements that improve performance and customer satisfaction.

Key Responsibilities:

• Define and execute the platform product strategy and roadmap that aligns with Avalara's long-term business goals.
• Own the product lifecycle from ideation, technical development, to launch and optimization of platform components.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to ensure the platform is scalable, reliable, and integrates seamlessly with Avalara's product ecosystem.
• Work closely with internal stakeholders, including product managers, business units, and customer success teams, to understand needs and define product requirements.
• Drive cross-functional efforts to build platform enhancements, focusing on scalability, extensibility, and improved developer experiences.
• Identify market trends, customer pain points, and opportunities for innovation within platform technologies.
• Ensure platform features are well-documented, easy to integrate for developers, and user-friendly.
• Track and report on platform performance metrics, continuously seeking to improve and optimize.
• Advocate for a "platform-first" mindset across the product organization, ensuring platform investments support Avalara’s growth.

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of product management experience, with at least 3 years focused on platforms, infrastructure, or developer-facing products.
• Experience working in SaaS or cloud-based environments, preferably with platform-as-a-service (PaaS) experience.
• Strong understanding of APIs, microservices, and scalable cloud architectures.
• Proven track record of delivering successful platform products from concept to launch.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with detailed execution.
• Excellent communication skills, capable of working with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Analytical mindset, with the ability to prioritize features based on data and customer feedback.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies and working in cross-functional teams.
• Experience in tax compliance or fintech industries.
• Familiarity with ERP, CRM, or accounting software integrations.
• Experience working with global teams across multiple geographies.

Job Duties

• Product Strategy and Roadmap Development:
• Define the long-term vision for platform products in alignment with Avalara's overall business strategy.
• Create and maintain a detailed platform product roadmap that addresses customer needs, business goals, and technical scalability.
• Platform Feature Prioritization and Execution:
• Work closely with engineering teams to prioritize and deliver high-impact platform features and enhancements.
• Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of platform features, from ideation, development, testing, and deployment to post-launch analysis.
• Cross-functional Collaboration:
• Collaborate with UX, engineering, marketing, operations, and other product teams to ensure seamless integration of platform services across Avalara's product suite.
• Act as the key liaison between platform users (internal teams, external developers, customers) and the technical teams, gathering and translating feedback into actionable product improvements.
• Platform Performance Monitoring and Optimization:
• Continuously monitor platform performance, reliability, and scalability, ensuring it meets internal KPIs and industry standards.
• Proactively identify areas for improvement, troubleshooting issues, and implementing fixes or enhancements in collaboration with engineering.
• Customer & Developer Advocacy:
• Advocate for an excellent developer and customer experience on the platform, ensuring ease of use, robust documentation, and consistent functionality.
• Gather feedback directly from internal and external stakeholders (e.g., developers, partners, customers) to ensure the platform evolves to meet market needs.
• API and Integration Management:
• Oversee the development and optimization of platform APIs and microservices, ensuring they are well-documented, scalable, and easy to integrate for external partners and internal product teams.
• Define clear API standards and guidelines to ensure consistency and performance across integrations.
• Market and Competitive Analysis:
• Stay updated on industry trends, competitors, and emerging technologies in cloud platforms and developer ecosystems.
• Use market research and competitive analysis to inform product decisions and create a competitive advantage for Avalara's platform.
• Risk Management and Compliance:
• Ensure that platform products adhere to security, privacy, and compliance regulations, particularly those relevant to tax compliance and financial software.
• Anticipate potential risks or challenges to platform reliability or scalability and proactively plan mitigation strategies.
• Data-Driven Decision Making:
• Leverage analytics and data to inform product decisions, improve platform performance, and guide prioritization efforts.
• Regularly report on key platform metrics, providing insights into usage, adoption, and performance to key stakeholders.
• Agile Product Development:
• Lead Agile product development processes, including sprint planning, backlog grooming, and coordination of releases.
• Ensure that development teams have clear, actionable requirements and are aligned with platform goals.
• Stakeholder Communication:
• Communicate product updates, releases, and roadmap progress to stakeholders, including senior leadership and cross-functional teams.
• Provide regular status reports and presentations on platform initiatives, ensuring all stakeholders are aligned on goals and timelines.
• Training and Support Enablement:
• Collaborate with internal teams to ensure proper training and support materials are available for both internal users and external partners.
• Conduct knowledge-sharing sessions or product demos to help teams better understand and leverage platform capabilities.

What You'll Need to be Successful

To excel as a Product Manager for Platforms at Avalara, you’ll need a strong background in product management with a focus on platform products, SaaS, or cloud technologies. A deep understanding of APIs, microservices, and scalable architectures is crucial. You must have excellent communication skills to work effectively across technical and non-technical teams, along with the ability to translate complex technical concepts into actionable business insights. Success in this role requires strong analytical and problem-solving abilities, a data-driven mindset, and a customer-first approach to continuously improve the platform's performance and user experience. You should also be comfortable working in a fast-paced, cross-functional environment and managing competing priorities. A passion for building reliable, scalable products that deliver long-term value will set you apart.

About the Team

The Product Management team at Avalara plays a pivotal role in driving the company’s success by leading the development of innovative tax compliance solutions. This team operates at the intersection of customer needs, business strategy, and technical execution, working closely with cross-functional groups like engineering, UX, marketing, and sales. The product managers are responsible for defining product roadmaps, prioritizing features, and ensuring that Avalara’s products deliver value across a wide range of industries and geographies. With a strong emphasis on data-driven decision-making, customer feedback, and market trends, the team fosters a collaborative, agile environment to solve complex challenges. The Avalara product management team is instrumental in ensuring that the company stays ahead in a dynamic and evolving landscape, continuously improving its suite of tax compliance solutions while meeting the demands of a global customer base.