Senior Tax Analyst II

What You'll Do

The Senior Tax Analyst II is a key contributor to Avalara Returns for Accountants (ARA), helping accounting firms deliver scalable, profitable, and low-risk sales and use tax compliance services across their client portfolios. As ARA adoption expands among firms of varying size and complexity, this role ensures accurate, timely, multi-jurisdictional filings, reduces compliance risk, and strengthens firm and end-customer confidence in Avalara's platform and services. This position directly protects client revenue, mitigates tax exposure, and advances Avalara's AI-first operational strategy by embedding automation and AI into daily compliance work.

What This Role Elevates

• Protects firm and end-customer revenue through accurate, on-time state and local sales and use tax filings.
• Reduces compliance risk by applying deep jurisdictional expertise and robust variance, exception, and notice management.
• Increases operational scale by designing and refining ARA workflows, data ingestion patterns, and automation that reduce manual effort.
• Enhances firm trust as a knowledgeable, proactive, senior point of contact for complex portfolios on ARA.
• Raises team capability by mentoring junior analysts and sharing documentation, process improvements, and AI best practices.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end preparation, review, and filing of complex, multi-jurisdiction sales and use tax returns for assigned firm portfolios, achieving on-time performance aligned to SLAs.
• Serve as primary compliance contact for assigned accounting firm clients using ARA (and, where applicable, Avalara Managed Returns for Accountants), handling advanced questions and escalations with minimal supervision.
• Analyze transactional and configuration data across AvaTax, ARA, and source systems to identify discrepancies, filing risks, and root causes before submission.
• Design and continuously improve ARA workflows (data ingestion, validation, approvals, filing, archiving) to reduce manual touches, rework, and notice volume.
• Perform and improve month-end reconciliations and variance analysis to align reported liability with firm and client expectations.
• Engage state and local jurisdictions on behalf of clients to resolve complex compliance issues, notices, and exceptions.
• Participate in QA/UAT for new forms, filing automation, and ARA/Returns Console features; provide clear, risk-based feedback from a compliance perspective.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, Onboarding, Professional Services, and CX to strengthen compliance execution and the ARA experience.
• Mentor and coach junior analysts on complex jurisdictions, ARA best practices, customer communication, and AI-enabled workflows.

Success Signals

• Independently manage a portfolio of complex, multi-jurisdiction firm clients on ARA with minimal escalation.
• Achieve consistent 100% on-time filing performance (or agreed SLA targets) for assigned portfolios.
• Maintain high accuracy with visible reductions in rework, variances, and notices relative to baseline.
• Implement at least one documented AI-driven workflow or process improvement adopted by the broader team.
• Demonstrate strong working knowledge of AvaTax, Returns Console, and ARA, including data flows and key configuration patterns.
• Contribute meaningfully to at least one cross-functional initiative (e.g., product feedback loop, automation pilot, training series) with clear, documented outcomes.
• Be recognized by peers and leaders as a "go-to" SME for ARA-based compliance in at least one or two critical domains (e.g., specific jurisdictions, firm segment, workflow type).

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science in Accounting, Finance, Tax, or related field from an accredited institution.
• 7+ years of multi-jurisdiction indirect tax experience with a strong focus on sales and use tax return preparation and filing for US state and local jurisdictions.
• Proven experience preparing and filing complex, multi-state portfolios, including exposure to high-complexity jurisdictions and schedules.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel (e.g., VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP, INDEX/MATCH, PivotTables, Power Pivot or similar) and demonstrated ability to analyze large, complex datasets.
• Experience working across multiple systems and tools (e.g., AvaTax, Returns Console/ARA, ERP or e-commerce platforms, CSV/API extractors) with the ability to troubleshoot data and configuration issues end-to-end.
• Strong analytical, research, and problem-solving skills; able to operate calmly and methodically under strict filing deadlines.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex tax and system topics in clear, simple language to non-experts.
• Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities and deadlines in a high-volume environment while maintaining quality.
• Proven application of AI tools in a professional context to improve efficiency, accuracy, or customer experience (e.g., analysis, summarization, drafting, documentation).