Director, Customer Excellence @ Avalara

What Youll Do

The Director of Customer Excellence, reporting to the VP of Customer Excellence, will act as the strategic partner to the department head, leading a globally distributed team. This role drives resolution of complex customer issues, manages escalations, and builds a feedback loop to reduce case volume and improve satisfaction.

You will lead transformation efforts across U.S. and India teams, promote continuous improvement, and apply data, automation, and AI to enhance customer experiences. In this foundational role, youll shape the future of the Customer Excellence function, empowering cross-functional teams with insights to deliver best-in-class service.

• Operational Excellence Feedback Systems: Design and manage feedback systems, implement proactive issue resolution mechanisms, drive data-informed decision-making with dashboards and KPIs, and foster cultural alignment across U.S. and Pune teams.
• Strategic Scalable Program Leadership: Anticipate operational challenges, build scalable growth structures, and help shape Customer Excellence strategy, customer journey insights, and CX measurement.
• Escalation Experience Leadership: Serve as a key escalation point, manage a global escalation framework, resolve complex issues collaboratively, and drive systemic improvements through root cause analysis.
• Team Leadership Development: Mentor a high-performing team, promote operational clarity, and champion a culture of continuous improvement with a solve once, solve forevermindset.

• 10+ years in customer-facing operations, support, or experience roles, with 5+ years in senior leadership.
• Led global, cross-cultural teams of 25+, with a preference for experience managing 100+ across geographies.
• Strong escalation management skills with executive-level and high-value customers.
• Expertise in root cause analysis, customer experience improvement, and feedback systems.
• Highly organized, calm under pressure, and skilled in planning and prioritization.
• Data-driven, with experience building reporting systems and working with platforms like Salesforce, Zendesk, Gainsight, and Intercom.
• Proficient with customer metrics frameworks (NPS, CSAT) and tools like Chattermill and Qualtrics.
• Process-driven, detail-oriented, and experienced in operational transformation and new ideas.
• Experience with turning customer insights into relevant improvements.
• SaaS industry experience, with exposure to automation, AI tools, and customer journey mapping.
• This is a hybrid work-from-home role.

#LI-Hybrid

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

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, and this year we became a billion-dollar business. Our growth is real, 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. 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.

• 10+ years in customer-facing operations, support, or experience roles, with 5+ years in senior leadership.
• Led global, cross-cultural teams of 25+, with a preference for experience managing 100+ across geographies.
• Strong escalation management skills with executive-level and high-value customers.
• Expertise in root cause analysis, customer experience improvement, and feedback systems.
• Highly organized, calm under pressure, and skilled in planning and prioritization.
• Data-driven, with experience building reporting systems and working with platforms like Salesforce, Zendesk, Gainsight, and Intercom.
• Proficient with customer metrics frameworks (NPS, CSAT) and tools like Chattermill and Qualtrics.
• Process-driven, detail-oriented, and experienced in operational transformation and new ideas.
• Experience with turning customer insights into relevant improvements.
• SaaS industry experience, with exposure to automation, AI tools, and customer journey mapping.
• This is a hybrid work-from-home role.

#LI-Hybrid

• Operational Excellence Feedback Systems: Design and manage feedback systems, implement proactive issue resolution mechanisms, drive data-informed decision-making with dashboards and KPIs, and foster cultural alignment across U.S. and Pune teams.
• Strategic Scalable Program Leadership: Anticipate operational challenges, build scalable growth structures, and help shape Customer Excellence strategy, customer journey insights, and CX measurement.
• Escalation Experience Leadership: Serve as a key escalation point, manage a global escalation framework, resolve complex issues collaboratively, and drive systemic improvements through root cause analysis.
• Team Leadership Development: Mentor a high-performing team, promote operational clarity, and champion a culture of continuous improvement with a solve once, solve forevermindset.