What You'll Do
We, at Avalara, are building the next generation of automatic tax compliance products, leveraging cutting-edge machine learning techniques to drive innovation in document classification, extraction, and conversational systems.
As part of the AI/ML team, you will tackle exciting challenges, including:
- Designing classification systems capable of handling millions of potential labels.
- Developing advanced extraction solutions to retrieve compliance-critical information from scanned documents and images across various formats, sources, and languages.
- Creating intelligent conversational systems that enable seamless interaction with complex documents, transforming how compliance professionals access and interpret tax-related data.
If you are passionate about applying machine learning to large-scale, real-world applications and shaping the future of tax compliance technology, we’d love to speak with you!
What Your Responsibilities Will Be
- Take end-to-end ownership of the machine learning lifecycle, including model design, deployment, optimization, and maintenance in production.
- Develop and implement algorithms to analyze and leverage structured and unstructured data, applying techniques like Natural Language Processing (NLP), Generative AI, and computer vision.
- Build and refine conversational systems (e.g., chatbots) using state-of-the-art techniques such as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, and fine-tuned large language models (LLMs).
- Create and evaluate machine learning models using techniques like decision trees, deep learning, and Bayesian analysis to improve product performance and accuracy.
- Write and optimize production-ready code, perform testing, debugging, and ensure scalability using tools like Python and frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
- Apply advanced AI/ML techniques to areas like Generative AI, image processing, and interactive AI systems, enhancing user experiences.
- Collaborate on integrating ML pipelines into cloud-based environments and large-scale computing frameworks, ensuring efficient workflows.
- Document processes and insights, effectively communicating complex ML models and results to stakeholders for actionable decision-making.
What You'll Need to be Successful
- Bachelors or Masters degree with computer science exposure
- Savvy with machine learning and natural language processing
- Strong knowledge of software fundamentals, data structures and algorithms
- CI/CD skills
- Optimizing and scaling products
- Distributed systems
- Cloud-based software
- Outstanding problem solving and debugging skills
- Strong understanding of object-oriented design & development and common design patterns
We are looking for engineers who can think quickly and have a strong background in model deployment and maintaining models in production. This includes end-to-end ownership of the machine learning lifecycle, rather than solely focusing on building models.
Experience with one or more of these will be a bonus: Classification systems, Sentiment Analysis, NLP, and Entity Extraction Conversational systems, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Vector Stores, and related technologies Computer Vision, OCR, and content extraction from images, PDFs, and HTML
Experience with custom models and ensembles Experience with PyTorch or TensorFlow Experience with LLMs such as OpenAI GPT, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini etc and fine tuning them.
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.
Learn more about our benefits by region here: Avalara North America
What You Need To Know About Avalara
We’re Avalara. We’re defining the relationship between tax and tech. We’ve already built an industry-leading cloud compliance platform, processing nearly 40 billion customer API calls and over 5 million tax returns a year. Last year, we became a billion-dollar business
, and our tribe expanded by a cool thousand people - there’s nearly 5,000 of us now. Our growth is real, and we’re not slowing down - not 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. Ownership and achievement go hand in hand here. We instill passion in our people through the trust we place in them. 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.
