[Remote] Director, Engineering - Avalara Developer Experience Platform
Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Avalara is an AI-first company that focuses on tax compliance technology. They are seeking a Director of Engineering to lead the Agentic Developer Experience Platform, responsible for enhancing the external developer experience, managing documentation, and driving integration acceleration with AI-powered tools.
Responsibilities
- Build and evolve the external MCP-based interface and tool catalog for building integrations
- Standardize how APIs and capabilities are exposed to AI agents
- Define best practices for agent-tool interactions (schemas, patterns, guardrails)
- Own the developer documentation platform, IA, and UX
- Ensure documentation freshness and accuracy via automation (spec ↔ docs sync, drift detection)
- Deliver task-oriented, cross-product integration guides
- Provide API exploration, testing, and simulation environments
- Enable safe experimentation for developers and agents (mock + sandbox)
- Build and maintain reference implementations and starter kits
- Deliver agent-ready examples, prompts, and integration patterns
- Define and promote 'golden paths' for common integrations
- Develop AI-powered tools and workflows that reduce time-to-integration
- Create reusable 'skills' for common use cases (e.g., tax calculation flows)
- Enable partners to build faster using AI-assisted approaches
- Define and drive adoption of API, MCP, and documentation standards
- Partner with product teams to ensure consistent external experience
- Establish versioning, deprecation, and usability guidelines
- Lead developer onboarding and partner integration journeys
- Support strategic partners with co-build and acceleration frameworks
- Improve integration success rates across the ecosystem
- Define and track DX metrics (time-to-first-success, integration success rate, agent task completion)
- Build feedback loops from usage, errors, and developer input
- Continuously improve experience based on real-world signals
Skills
- B.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field AND 12+ years of relevant experience in developer platforms, APIs, or DX leadership roles
- Experience leading developer platforms or DX initiatives at scale
- Experience building external platforms or partner ecosystems
- Proven ability to influence across teams
- Experience defining and driving platform standards
- Deep understanding of API design and developer workflows
- Demonstrated experience with AI/LLM or agent-based systems
- Strong data-driven mindset
- Strong product and platform thinking
- Proven ability to influence across teams without direct ownership
- Curiosity that uncovers opportunities where none seemingly exist
- Customer obsession that inspires product engineering teams to reduce debt and backlog and improve overall consistency
- Hands-on leadership mindset
- Roll-up-your-sleeves mindset with willingness to leverage the latest tools, demonstrate how things should be done, and raise the bar for your team and peers
Benefits
- Paid time off
- Paid parental leave
- Many Avalara employees are eligible for bonuses
- Benefits vary by location but generally include private medical, life, and disability insurance
- Avalara strongly supports diversity, equity, and inclusion, and is committed to integrating them into our business practices and our organizational culture
- A total of 8 employee-run resource groups, each with senior leadership and exec sponsorship
Company Overview
Company H1B Sponsorship