Director of External Communications

What You'll Do

The Director of External Communications will be a very strategic communications professional experienced in the world of technology, with a pulse on the latest trends including AI, and with success working at publicly traded software companies, or representing them on the PR agency side. Provide strategic counsel to senior executives, lean into the daily external communications tasks, and coach a team of direct reports. The Director will have deep experience in financial communications (pre-IPO and post), strategic public relations and can not only create communications plans from scratch but also program manage a comprehensive global PR calendar at a high-growth technology company. You will also mentor, manage, and grow a team in the United States and abroad including India and PR agencies in the US, UK, Brazil, India, Australia and partnerships with analyst relations firms. This strategic position will report to our Senior Director of Corporate Communications. You will work with every member of Avalara's extended executive team. You will also collaborate with Avalara's legal, government affairs, engineering, and product teams to address questions at the intersection of technology, business, law, and current trends. The Director and their team will draft, edit, and distribute public facing communications that promote Avalara's brand in the marketplace. Additionally, you will help deliver engaging communications for our executives by creating content for Avalara owned events like CRUSH, our customer conference, and FUSE, our partner conference, that create news, in addition to supporting the execution of our annual global company meeting, CONNECT, which will be held in-person and virtual in February 2025 for more than 4,700 employees. Open to remote #LI-remote

What You'll Need to be Successful

Responsibilities

Create and program manage a global external communications strategy, messaging and collateral (written and visual) to evaluate Avalara's brand in the marketplace.
Monitor new sources and alerts daily to stay abreast on topics in the news.
Manage an \"always-on\" news making approach that is balanced and positions Avalara as a leader in tax compliance and automation placing us and our spokespeople in relevant media articles and at industry speaking opportunities.
Support strategic and financial communications, including writing scripts and press releases, for the business, spanning internal and external media channels, to position Avalara and our executives as trusted partners and leaders
Be the trusted strategic communications counsel to executives and subject matter experts across Avalara, collaborating with Avalara's Corporate Communications team on a coordinated approach, annual communications plan, and related messaging and materials.
Review all communications materials created by the external communications team members.
Align to a global strategy, corporate messaging, and standards for all written and visual communications with Avalara's Corporate Communications, Brand, and Marketing teams.
Required Skills

15+ years of relevant strategic, pre-IPO and publicly traded communications experience at technology companies managing a team of direct reports and PR agency partners; Preference for those who specifically worked with teams in North America, Europe, and India
Must have sound media relations skills and broad experience with issues management in the United States and abroad
Must have deep analyst relations expertise with firms like Forrester, IDC, Gartner, and others and their software vendor assessment processes
Technical skills for material development programs
Natural collaborator with team first mentality
Executive presence and negotiation skills
Excellent planning, project management, and presentation skills

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.

Flexible hybrid working
We support hybrid work and flexible schedules for our employees.

Learn more about our benefits by region here: https://careers.avalara.com/

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.

EEO Statement

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.