Principal Architect Engineer: E-Invoicing & Live Reporting (ELR)

Avalara is hiring a Principal Engineer to serve as the technical authority and chief platform builder for its E-Invoicing & Live Reporting (ELR) ecosystem. The role architects and builds global-scale ELR services, customer onboarding and integration tools, and AI-powered capabilities while providing technical leadership and mentorship.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the architecture, technical vision, and platform evolution for distributed, multi-tenant ELR cloud services supporting millions of real-time transactions across diverse global jurisdictions
• Design ultra-low-latency, fault-tolerant ingestion pipelines, format transformation engines (XML, JSON, UBL, CII), digital signature services, and automated tax authority dispatch gateways
• Architect systems optimized for strict auditability, high availability (99.99%+), multi-region active-active deployments, and data residency/compliance isolation
• Pioneer self-service integration frameworks, developer toolkits, and onboarding accelerators that reduce customer time-to-value from weeks to hours
• Architect automated data mapping, format translation, and schema validation engines that streamline integration with major ERPs, billing systems, and custom customer architectures (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, NetSuite)
• Build interactive testing, simulation, and validation sandboxes allowing enterprise customers to simulate country-specific mandate flows and tax authority responses prior to going live
• Standardize modern API designs, webhooks, SDKs, and event-driven integration patterns across the entire ELR product suite
• Write production-grade foundational code, reference implementations, SDKs, and architectural spikes that engineering teams build upon
• Drive rigorous design and code reviews, championing architectural consistency, modularity, and operational resilience
• Proactively identify performance bottlenecks, systemic risks, and technical debt across distributed services, driving architectural remediations
• Design and embed intelligent, AI-powered capabilities into ELR workflows—such as automated schema mapping, predictive error remediation, anomaly detection in high-volume invoice streams, and conversational onboarding assistants
• Establish architectural patterns and security standards for responsible, high-leverage AI integration across backend pipelines and developer tools
• Drive measurable efficiency gains by automating complex regulatory data extraction and customer integration testing with AI
• Mentor and grow senior engineers across global teams through technical coaching, architectural guidance, and hands-on pairing
• Establish engineering standards for API design, system observability, automated testing, documentation, and operational excellence
• Cultivate a culture of innovation, simplicity, and rapid iteration across global engineering layers

Requirements:

• 15+ years of hands-on software engineering experience, with extensive experience designing and operating large-scale distributed cloud systems
• Proven track record designing and delivering developer tools, integration platforms, self-service customer onboarding engines, or enterprise integration middleware
• Strong proficiency in modern backend languages and runtimes (such as Java, C#/.NET Core, Go, or Python)
• Deep mastery of API design (REST, GraphQL, gRPC), event-driven architectures (Kafka, EventBridge, RabbitMQ), and microservices design patterns
• Experience with complex schema definitions, validation, and payload transformations (e.g., XML/XSD, JSON Schema, UBL, EDI)
• Extensive experience with AWS (or other major cloud providers) and modern DevOps practices (Terraform, Docker, Kubernetes/ECS, CI/CD)
• Demonstrated ability to navigate complex domain logic and regulatory requirements with clarity and robust software abstraction
• You'll bring experience using AI and AI-related technologies, ready to thrive here
• Direct experience in E-Invoicing, Live Reporting, Peppol, EDI/B2B data exchange, or adjacent fintech/compliance/tax domains
• Hands-on experience building ERP connectors or middleware integration tooling for enterprise platforms (SAP, NetSuite, Workday, Dynamics 365, Oracle)
• Experience architecting systems with strict data sovereignty, digital signing (PKI, HSM, X.509 certificates), and cryptographic verification requirements
• Experience designing or integrating generative AI and ML models into production data pipelines or developer tooling
• Clear builder mindset—passionate about code, architecture, and solving hard technical challenges as an individual contributor