Head of GAI & Business Operations, Avalara Micro and Emerging Business
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Key details
Why this role is notable
Avalara is betting that a product-led, partner-led, and direct-to-market motion for micro and emerging businesses needs a single senior operator who builds AI-enabled operating systems for the whole portfolio, signaling that the company sees AI as a tool for running the business itself, not just as a product feature.
Job Description
What You'll Do</h3>About the role</span> </span></strong></p></div>Avalara is looking for a </span>Principal</span>-level Head of Generative AI &; Business Operations to help scale Avalara’s Micro and Emerging Business portfolio, with a focus on DAVO, </span>MyLodge</span>, and future product-led growth opportunities for small and emerging businesses.</span></span> </span></p></div>This is a senior individual-contributor role for an operator, systems thinker, and AI-first builder who can turn fragmented data, manual processes, and disconnected workflows into a measurable growth and efficiency engine. The role will own the business operations architecture for the portfolio, including operating rhythms, performance instrumentation, data models, workflow automation, AI-enabled internal tools, and cross-functional execution systems.</span> </span></p></div>The right candidate will not simply report on the business. They will design how the business runs. They will build the mechanisms that help Product, Growth, Operations, Support, Engineering, Finance, and Go-to-Market teams make faster decisions, reduce manual work, improve customer outcomes, and scale without adding unnecessary organizational complexity.</span> </span></p></div>Why this role exists now</span> </span></strong></p></div>Avalara is expanding its product-led, partner-led, and direct-to-market motions for micro and emerging businesses. These customers need simple buying paths, fast onboarding, low-friction support, clear product journeys, and efficient fulfillment. That model only works if the business has a purpose-built operating layer: clean data, clear ownership, reliable instrumentation, automated workflows, and a single view of performance.</span> </span></p></div>This role exists to </span>establish</span> that operating layer. The Head of Generative AI &; Business Operations will build the systems, metrics, and AI-enabled workflows that allow the business to move with startup velocity while still </span>leveraging</span> Avalara’s trusted platform, compliance, finance, security, and customer-success capabilities.</span></span> </span></p></div>What Your Responsibilities Will Be</h3>Build the operating system for the business</span> </span></p></div>Define and run the business operating cadence across weekly performance reviews, roadmap reviews, experiment reviews, launch readiness, partner readiness, support health, and executive updates.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Establish a single operating model for goals, ownership, decision rights, intake, prioritization, escalation, and follow-through across Product, Growth, Operations, Engineering, Support, Finance, Legal, and Go-to-Market.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Create dashboards and decision surfaces that make the business visible: acquisition, conversion, activation, onboarding throughput, support demand, automation rate, churn, expansion, partner performance, revenue, margin, and customer effort.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Identify</span> operational bottlenecks and translate them into automation, process, data, tooling, or organizational recommendations.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Lead generative AI strategy and applied AI execution</span> </span></p></div>Define the generative AI roadmap for the business, focused on measurable business impact rather than generic AI experimentation.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Build and operationalize AI-enabled workflows that reduce manual work in onboarding, support, data intake, account setup, compliance handoffs, partner operations, reporting, and internal decision support.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Partner with Product, Engineering, Data Science, Security, Legal, Support, Tax Content, and Compliance to ensure AI-enabled workflows are </span>accurate</span>, governed, explainable, auditable, and scalable.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Develop reusable AI patterns, prompts, agents, evaluation methods, and operating controls that can be adopted across the portfolio.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div></div>Measure AI impact through time saved, cost avoided, quality improved, cycle time reduced, support deflection, faster onboarding, improved conversion, or increased operating leverage.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Own business performance instrumentation</span> </span></p></div>Define the metric architecture for the portfolio, including north-star metrics, scorecards, funnel analytics, operational health metrics, automation KPIs, partner-channel metrics, and financial performance views.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Partner with Finance, Data, Revenue Operations, Marketing Operations, Support Operations, and Product Analytics to ensure metrics are trusted, repeatable, and </span>decision-ready</span>.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Build business review materials for the VP, </span>GM</span> and senior stakeholders, translating data into decisions, tradeoffs, risks, and recommended actions.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Establish leading indicators that </span>identify</span> churn risk, onboarding friction, support spikes, partner underperformance, and low-value operational work before they become escalations.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Automate manual operational work</span> </span></p></div>Map high-volume manual workflows and prioritize automation opportunities based on business value, customer impact, risk, and implementation effort.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Convert repeatable manual processes into structured workflows, AI-assisted tools, self-serve dashboards, templates, playbooks, and operational controls.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Partner with shared services and platform teams to consume existing Avalara systems where </span>appropriate rather</span> than creating duplicate tooling.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Create clear operating handoffs between business teams and central teams for billing, provisioning, filing, support, tax content, customer communications, and partner operations.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Enable partner and direct-to-market execution</span> </span></p></div>Build operational visibility across partner-led, embedded, marketplace, and direct-to-market motions.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Instrument the full customer journey from acquisition and </span>purchase</span> through onboarding, activation, support, retention, and expansion.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Partner with Product, Growth, Business Development, Sales, Support, and Operations to </span>identify</span> friction in the funnel and translate it into measurable execution plans.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Create repeatable operating patterns that help the business scale across both partner ecosystems and direct digital channels.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Drive cross-functional execution without formal authority</span> </span></p></div>Influence senior leaders and functional owners across Avalara to </span>align on</span> priorities, data definitions, tooling decisions, operational standards, and customer-impacting tradeoffs.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Create formal networks with key decision makers across Product, Engineering, Go-to-Market, Finance, Support, Data, Security, and Compliance.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div>Lead complex, cross-functional initiatives from ambiguous problem statement to </span>shipped</span> operating capability.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div></div>
About the role</span> </span></strong></p></div> Avalara is looking for a </span>Principal</span>-level Head of Generative AI &; Business Operations to help scale Avalara’s Micro and Emerging Business portfolio, with a focus on DAVO, </span>MyLodge</span>, and future product-led growth opportunities for small and emerging businesses.</span></span> </span></p></div> This is a senior individual-contributor role for an operator, systems thinker, and AI-first builder who can turn fragmented data, manual processes, and disconnected workflows into a measurable growth and efficiency engine. The role will own the business operations architecture for the portfolio, including operating rhythms, performance instrumentation, data models, workflow automation, AI-enabled internal tools, and cross-functional execution systems.</span> </span></p></div> The right candidate will not simply report on the business. They will design how the business runs. They will build the mechanisms that help Product, Growth, Operations, Support, Engineering, Finance, and Go-to-Market teams make faster decisions, reduce manual work, improve customer outcomes, and scale without adding unnecessary organizational complexity.</span> </span></p></div> Why this role exists now</span> </span></strong></p></div> Avalara is expanding its product-led, partner-led, and direct-to-market motions for micro and emerging businesses. These customers need simple buying paths, fast onboarding, low-friction support, clear product journeys, and efficient fulfillment. That model only works if the business has a purpose-built operating layer: clean data, clear ownership, reliable instrumentation, automated workflows, and a single view of performance.</span> </span></p></div> This role exists to </span>establish</span> that operating layer. The Head of Generative AI &; Business Operations will build the systems, metrics, and AI-enabled workflows that allow the business to move with startup velocity while still </span>leveraging</span> Avalara’s trusted platform, compliance, finance, security, and customer-success capabilities.</span></span> </span></p></div> Build the operating system for the business</span> </span></p></div> Define and run the business operating cadence across weekly performance reviews, roadmap reviews, experiment reviews, launch readiness, partner readiness, support health, and executive updates.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Establish a single operating model for goals, ownership, decision rights, intake, prioritization, escalation, and follow-through across Product, Growth, Operations, Engineering, Support, Finance, Legal, and Go-to-Market.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Create dashboards and decision surfaces that make the business visible: acquisition, conversion, activation, onboarding throughput, support demand, automation rate, churn, expansion, partner performance, revenue, margin, and customer effort.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Identify</span> operational bottlenecks and translate them into automation, process, data, tooling, or organizational recommendations.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Lead generative AI strategy and applied AI execution</span> </span></p></div> Define the generative AI roadmap for the business, focused on measurable business impact rather than generic AI experimentation.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Build and operationalize AI-enabled workflows that reduce manual work in onboarding, support, data intake, account setup, compliance handoffs, partner operations, reporting, and internal decision support.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Partner with Product, Engineering, Data Science, Security, Legal, Support, Tax Content, and Compliance to ensure AI-enabled workflows are </span>accurate</span>, governed, explainable, auditable, and scalable.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Develop reusable AI patterns, prompts, agents, evaluation methods, and operating controls that can be adopted across the portfolio.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div></div> Measure AI impact through time saved, cost avoided, quality improved, cycle time reduced, support deflection, faster onboarding, improved conversion, or increased operating leverage.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Own business performance instrumentation</span> </span></p></div> Define the metric architecture for the portfolio, including north-star metrics, scorecards, funnel analytics, operational health metrics, automation KPIs, partner-channel metrics, and financial performance views.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Partner with Finance, Data, Revenue Operations, Marketing Operations, Support Operations, and Product Analytics to ensure metrics are trusted, repeatable, and </span>decision-ready</span>.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Build business review materials for the VP, </span>GM</span> and senior stakeholders, translating data into decisions, tradeoffs, risks, and recommended actions.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Establish leading indicators that </span>identify</span> churn risk, onboarding friction, support spikes, partner underperformance, and low-value operational work before they become escalations.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Automate manual operational work</span> </span></p></div> Map high-volume manual workflows and prioritize automation opportunities based on business value, customer impact, risk, and implementation effort.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Convert repeatable manual processes into structured workflows, AI-assisted tools, self-serve dashboards, templates, playbooks, and operational controls.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Partner with shared services and platform teams to consume existing Avalara systems where </span>appropriate rather</span> than creating duplicate tooling.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Create clear operating handoffs between business teams and central teams for billing, provisioning, filing, support, tax content, customer communications, and partner operations.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Enable partner and direct-to-market execution</span> </span></p></div> Build operational visibility across partner-led, embedded, marketplace, and direct-to-market motions.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Instrument the full customer journey from acquisition and </span>purchase</span> through onboarding, activation, support, retention, and expansion.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Partner with Product, Growth, Business Development, Sales, Support, and Operations to </span>identify</span> friction in the funnel and translate it into measurable execution plans.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Create repeatable operating patterns that help the business scale across both partner ecosystems and direct digital channels.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Drive cross-functional execution without formal authority</span> </span></p></div> Influence senior leaders and functional owners across Avalara to </span>align on</span> priorities, data definitions, tooling decisions, operational standards, and customer-impacting tradeoffs.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Create formal networks with key decision makers across Product, Engineering, Go-to-Market, Finance, Support, Data, Security, and Compliance.</span> </span></p></li></ul></div> Lead complex, cross-functional initiatives from ambiguous problem statement to </span>shipped</span> operating capability.</span></span> </span></p></li></ul></div></div>What Your Responsibilities Will Be</h3>