[Hiring] Senior People Partner @Avalara

Role Description

The Senior People Partner is a strategic advisor, trusted coach, and operational co-pilot to Directors and Vice Presidents across Avalara’s global business units. In this role, you will align people and organizational strategies directly with business priorities, operational scaling, and global growth.

Operating at the intersection of business partnering, organizational architecture, and high-trust coaching, you will champion agility and guide leaders through transformational change. You will leverage modern AI-native operating frameworks to streamline workflows, optimize team structures, and elevate talent density. This role blends forward-looking strategy with autonomous, hands-on execution across:

• Workforce planning
• Organizational design
• Talent management
• Complex employee relations
• Cross-functional People Center of Excellence (COE) partnerships

Responsibilities

• Executive Advisory & Coaching: Partner with Directors and VPs to translate business strategy into high-impact talent strategies, coaching leaders to hold high performance standards, navigate ambiguity, and own critical team decisions.
• Autonomous BU Partnering: Serve as the primary People Partner for assigned business unit pods, exercising independent judgment to align cross-functional teams, navigate complex organizational dynamics, and resolve business challenges.
• Org Design & Span Optimization: Lead business unit restructures, team consolidations, and structural flattening to support expanding business portfolios and evolving operating models.
• Transformational Change Management: Guide leaders and global teams through major organizational shifts, operating model evolutions, and agile workflow transitions with clear communication.
• Workforce Architecture & Capacity: Partner with Talent Acquisition and Finance to evaluate hiring needs—evaluating backfills for redesign or automation opportunities—and model capacity so output scales faster than headcount.
• Talent Calibration & Density: Facilitate business unit talent reviews and calibrations with the Talent Management COE, establishing disciplined performance distributions and mitigating talent drag.
• Complex Investigations & Adjudication: Autonomously lead formal employee relations investigations and grievance processes, delivering objective findings and risk assessments in partnership with Legal.
• Performance Management & Separations: Oversee formal Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) quality and milestone tracking, structuring and managing involuntary separations, severance packages, and mutual exits in compliance with employment regulations.
• Succession & Retention: Build succession pipelines for business-critical roles, identify flight risks, and design targeted development and retention plans for high-performing talent.
• Reward Governance & Pay Parity: Partner with the Compensation COE to review out-of-band comp requests, evaluate retention dive-and-save cases, and ensure equitable compensation across geographic bands and cross-border transfers.
• Team Health & Culture: Partner with Talent Development and Culture teams to analyze engagement diagnostics, lead action planning, and champion inclusion.
• Leadership Enablement: Coach managers on delivering continuous, evidence-based feedback, managing team dynamics, and developing high-performing teams.
• AI Tool Fluency: Leverage modern AI platforms and HR technology to synthesize coaching frameworks, analyze workforce trends, draft complex case dossiers, and automate administrative overhead.
• AI Governance & Operating Model Transformation: Act as the human-in-the-loop owner for AI agent workflows (auditing recommendations for fairness and compliance) and guide leaders on redesigning manager roles around high-judgment decision-making rather than routine status coordination.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of progressive HR experience, with demonstrated success as a dedicated HRBP/People Partner advising Directors and VPs.
• Strong coaching skills with proven expertise in organizational design, talent management, and employee relations.
• Proven ability to advise senior leaders and partner with P&C COEs in a fast-paced, highly matrixed, global B2B SaaS organization.
• Deep expertise independently managing complex employee relations investigations, formal performance turnarounds, and separation workflows under US employment law.
• High adaptability to pivot quickly in a fast-evolving SaaS environment, with proven experience leading large-scale organizational transformations and change management initiatives.
• Strong capability to establish baseline measures, analyze workforce data, model turnover/retention dynamics, and present data-backed recommendations to executive leaders.
• High comfort using AI tools and HRIS ecosystems (e.g., Workday) to accelerate insights, eliminate manual administrative drag, and streamline HR processes.
• Strong executive presence with the confidence to coach and challenge senior leaders, push back constructively, and hold managers accountable for team health and talent outcomes.
• Exceptional communication, facilitation, and relationship-building skills across distributed global teams, regional stakeholders, and People COEs.

Benefits

• In addition to a great compensation package, paid time off, and 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.