Sr. Director, Product Management, Returns

As Senior Director of Product Management, Returns, you will be a leader in our Product team responsible for Avalara’s global Returns business — one of our most critical and expansive product lines. This portfolio spans the full breadth of returns compliance: Managed Returns, Premium Returns, Property Tax, Excise Tax, DAVO, MyLodgeTax, VAT Reporting, and Managed VAT Reporting. You will partner with our Returns GM leadership to establish OKRs and a multi-year roadmap to provide clarity on product vision, and to challenge and inspire an ambitious team of Product Managers. You will help drive strategic cross-product and cross-functional initiatives to transform our business and customer experience, focused on efficiency to enable growth. 

• Partner with the general managers for Returns, Property Tax, and Excise and cross-functional leaders to align strategy, priorities, and execution across a global, multi-product portfolio. 

• Interact with customers and Avalara subject matter experts to understand market needs across U.S. and international returns compliance — from sales tax and excise to VAT and property tax. 

• Work closely with product managers to drive consolidated strategies and roadmaps to ensure cohesion across team members and multiple product lines. 

• Work with product managers on goal setting and plan execution. 

• Be an evangelist of the Avalara product strategy, particularly our shift from singular product tasks to agentic, cross-product workflows that replace manual, fragmented compliance processes. 

• Articulate a clear and compelling product vision for the Returns group that spans both domestic and global compliance obligations. 

• Define metrics that measure key business objectives, including customer satisfaction, compliance accuracy, operational efficiency, and revenue growth. 

• Partner with other Avalara leaders and stakeholders across Engineering, UX/Design, Compliance Operations, Marketing, and Sales to drive strong relationships that foster goal achievement and issue resolution. 

You will thrive in this role if your instincts are solution-oriented when presented with a wide range of complex problems that have a big impact on driving innovation across the broader organization. You like being seen as a partner across the many teams you will work with, and you foster an open and transparent communication style which is valued at all levels from Product Managers to Executives. Your demeanor and approach to product management allow you to take a step back and look at unique challenges holistically to define pervasive problems and articulate priorities to propose solutions across a diverse group of stakeholders with high expectations of you and your team. You are a demonstrated AI experimenter — someone who actively explores and applies agentic tooling and automation to accelerate product outcomes and customer value. 

• Lead high-ownership, high-accountability product teams across a broad global portfolio — setting the standard for what it means to deeply know your business and fully own the customer and product experience. 

• Motivate, inspire, and grow your people. Consistently hire A-players, earn their loyalty, and grow their careers. 

• Champion the transition from discrete, single-product tasks to agentic cross-product workflows — helping define the future of how Avalara’s compliance platform serves customers end-to-end. 

• Drive strong cross-functional partnerships with Engineering, Compliance Operations, and Sales to deliver products that are reliable, scalable, and market-leading. 

• Ensure accountability across the entire product lifecycle — from discovery and requirements through launch, adoption, and ongoing improvement. 

• Represent the voice of the customer at every stage; ensure product decisions are grounded in data, customer evidence, and market insight. 

• 10+ years of related product management experience and 5+ years of leadership and management experience. 

• Track record of leading a team of 5–10 directs or matrixed employees, and experience influencing product, design, and engineering teams of 40–200+. 

• Demonstrated success leading products and product teams from inception through launch for solutions that target small, mid, and enterprise-level businesses. 

• Deep domain expertise in tax compliance, specifically in one or more of the following: Managed Returns (U.S. or EMEA), Property Tax, Excise Tax, Lodging/Hospitality, DAVO, VAT Reporting. Expertise across more than one area is a strong differentiator. 

• Broad understanding of global tax compliance frameworks, financial technology, and SaaS environments. 

• A problem-solving mindset with a demonstrated appetite for AI experimentation — someone who actively applies emerging tools and agentic systems to reimagine how products get built and delivered. 

• Experience with agile development methodologies and commonly used tools such as Jira, Confluence, etc. 

• Experience with customer journey maps to define end-to-end customer experiences. 

• Demonstrated experience partnering cross-functionally and integrating diverse product portfolios. 

• Strategic thinking with the ability to go deep when necessary. 

• Hands-on experience analyzing data and deriving actionable outcomes. 

• Team player able to drive results through influence and enthusiasm. 

• Exceptional written and oral communication skills, with experience conducting briefings and demos both internally and with customers. 

• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field (accounting, business, or computer science); MBA desirable.