Software Development Engineer

What You'll Do

Avalara is an AI-first company. We expect every engineer and manager to use AI to enhance productivity, quality, innovation, and customer value. AI is embedded in our workflows, and products — and success at Avalara requires embracing AI as an essential capability, not an optional tool.

As a Software Development Engineer, Backend on the Returns team, you will design and deploy microservices to power next-generation tax compliance products. You will report to the Director of Engineering, Returns-as-a-Service Framework.

This is a remote opportunity.

This role is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

• You will Develop microservices in a modern stack.
• You will manage the cloud infrastructure: provision, secure, and tune workloads on AWS (EKS, ECS, Lambda, RDS, DynamoDB, SQS, EventBridge, IAM) and evaluate or integrate other cloud vendors when needed (e.g., Azure OpenAI, GCP Vertex).
• Integrate generative-AI APIs and tooling: prototype, productionize, and monitor features using providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, or Bedrock; orchestrate prompts/agents by LangChain or custom frameworks; enforce data-privacy guardrails.
• Champion engineering best practices: CI/CD with GitLab Actions, infrastructure-as-code (Terraform/CDK), automated testing, SLO/Service level agreement ownership, and cost optimization.
• Mentor and collaborate: pair on tricky problems, review PRs with empathy, and partner with product, design, and ML teams to ship valuable experiences.

What You’ll Need To Be Successful

• 4 years work experience building and operating production backend systems
• 4 years knowledge of AWS primitives (VPC networking, IAM, security, observability, billing) and experience migrating or operating workloads across multiple cloud providers
• Proficiency in one or more backend languages (TypeScript/Node.js, Go, Python, Java) and comfort working full-stack when needed
• Hands-on experience calling or hosting generative-AI models (OpenAI, Bedrock, Vertex, Hugging Face) with understanding of prompt design, token costs, rate limits, and basic RAG patterns

Pay Range Details

The base pay range(s) below are provided in compliance with state specific laws. Pay ranges may be different in other locations.

Colorado $132,400-$218,400 (annually)

Washington $132,400-$241,400 (annually)

California $132,400-$264,500 (annually)

NYC $146,400-$264,500 (annually)

The pay range above is the general base pay range for you in the state listed. Your actual salary/wage may be based on several factors, such as geographic location, candidate experience and qualifications, market and business considerations. This role is eligible for an annual bonus based on company performance, depending on the terms of the applicable plan and your role.

Avalara is an AI-first Company

AI is embedded in our workflows, decision-making, and products. Success here requires embracing AI as an essential capability.

• You’ll bring experience using AI and AI-related technologies, ready to thrive here.
• You’ll apply AI every day to business challenges - improving efficiency, contributing solutions, and driving results for your team, our company, and our customers.
• You’ll grow with AI by staying curious about new trends and best practices, and by sharing what you learn so others can benefit too.

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 exec sponsorship.

What You Need To Know About Avalara We’re defining the relationship between tax and tech.

We’ve already built an industry-leading cloud compliance platform, processing over 54 billion customer API calls and over 6.6 million tax returns a year. Our growth is real - we're a billion dollar business - and we’re not slowing down until we’ve achieved our mission - to be part of every transaction in the world.

We’re bright, innovative, and disruptive, like the orange we love to wear. It captures our quirky spirit and optimistic mindset. It shows off the culture we’ve designed, that empowers our people to win. We’ve been different from day one. Join us, and your career will be too.

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.