Product Management Director - Property Tax
About the role
Avalara is seeking a Director, Customer Engineering to lead the customer-facing technical engineering function for Avalara Property Tax. Reporting directly to the General Manager of Property Tax, this leader will be the senior technical point of accountability for complex application integrations, strategic customer setup, implementation assurance, and partner technical excellence.
Responsibilities
Build and lead a Customer Engineering function that combines solution architecture, implementation engineering, product-engineering prototyping, partner enablement, and customer-facing technical communication.
Establish operating standards, review practices, documentation expectations, and governance that accelerate strategic setup without bypassing Product, Engineering, the Architecture Review Board, Security, or compliance controls.
Serve as the senior technical voice for strategic accounts, complex implementations, partner escalations, and customer executive assurance.
Lead technical discovery, solution design, and architecture review for complex Avalara Property Tax integrations, including APIs, MCP servers, Snowflake, Blackhole API, and major ERP connector ecosystems.
Guide customers through data flows, authentication and authorization, ERP connectivity, observability, testing, security, data-handling, and supportability considerations.
Create reusable reference architectures, implementation blueprints, integration test plans, and go-live readiness checklists.
Lead an AI-enabled prototyping discipline using tools such as Cursor, code-assist agents, automated test generation, API mocking, and documentation generation to accelerate validated learning.
Convert customer and partner implementation friction into quantified product insights and reusable accelerators that reduce time-to-value across the customer base.
Serve as the technical leader for the Center of Excellence supporting the certified implementation partner program.
Create technical certification standards, enablement materials, sandbox/lab exercises, reference builds, architecture guidelines, and quality review gates.
Train and certify partners on Avalara Property Tax integration patterns, APIs, data flows, ERP connector ecosystems, and implementation best practices.
Establish partner escalation paths, technical design reviews, implementation QA, and continuous-improvement mechanisms that measure partner readiness, quality, capacity, and customer satisfaction.
Partner with the GM to inform product direction through customer signals, market feedback, implementation learnings, partner feedback, and technical feasibility.
Partner with Product to prioritize validated prototypes, roadmap candidates, workflow gaps, and implementation friction.
Partner with Engineering and the Architecture Review Board to ensure production releases meet architectural standards, secure SDLC requirements, scalability, reliability, controls, and supportability expectations.
Partner with Customer Experience, Sales, Solutions Consulting, Support, and Managed Services to create a seamless journey from opportunity through renewal.
Requirements
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, Business, or a related field; equivalent practical experience considered.
10+ years of experience in enterprise SaaS, customer engineering, solution architecture, integration engineering, technical services, implementation, or professional services.
5+ years of people leadership experience, including hiring, coaching, and leading senior technical talent in a matrixed organization.
Proven experience leading complex customer-facing technical engagements, including executive-level architecture discussions and escalations.
Deep understanding of API-based integrations, enterprise application architecture, data flows, SaaS/cloud patterns, identity and access management, integration testing, observability, and secure implementation practices.
Experience with enterprise data platforms such as Snowflake and with major ERP systems or ERP connector ecosystems.
Ability to guide technical teams using modern AI development tools responsibly, including AI-assisted prototyping, test generation, documentation, and code review workflows.
Strong operating discipline around prototype governance, supportability, security review, and handoff to Product and Engineering.
Excellent executive communication, stakeholder management, and ability to influence across Product, Engineering, Customer Experience, Sales, and partner teams.
Preferred Qualifications
Property tax, tax compliance, finance, or regulated workflow domain expertise.
Experience with Avalara products or related compliance automation platforms.
Hands-on familiarity with MCP server architectures, Snowflake, Blackhole API, ERP connectors, data migration, and implementation automation.
Experience building a certified implementation partner program, technical Center of Excellence, partner academy, or partner quality framework.
Experience in high-growth enterprise SaaS environments with complex implementation, integration, and adoption motions.
Professional Services, Customer Success Engineering, Forward Deployed Engineering, or Managed Services leadership experience.
MBA or advanced technical degree a plus.
Success Measures
Faster time-to-value and strategic setup completion for new Avalara Property Tax customers.
Higher integration quality, fewer preventable implementation escalations, and reduced post-go-live defects.
Increased certified partner capacity, quality, independence, and customer satisfaction.
Stronger conversion of customer and partner insights into validated product roadmap inputs.
Higher customer confidence and implementation satisfaction through visible technical leadership.
How This Role Aligns Product and Engineering
The role accelerates discovery, validation, and technical learning; it does not bypass Product or Engineering ownership.
Customer Engineering owns prototypes, implementation patterns, technical enablement, and evidence gathering.
Product owns roadmap prioritization, market fit, packaging, user experience, and release decisioning.
Engineering owns production architecture, code quality, security, scalability, controls, and release readiness.
What You Need To Be Successful
Embrace AI as an essential capability and apply it every day to business challenges.
Stay curious about new trends and best practices in AI and share what you learn with others.
How We’ll Take Care Of You
Total Rewards: Great compensation package, paid time off, and paid parental leave.
Health & Wellness Benefits: Private medical, life, and disability insurance.
Inclusive culture and diversity: Support for diversity, equity, and inclusion, and commitment to integrating them into business practices and organizational culture.