Sr. Sales Security Engineer

Avalara • UNAVAILABLE, UNAVAILABLE

23d

About The Position

Avalara is seeking a Senior Security Sales Engineer to join our Engineering Security team, supporting Avalara’s SaaS offerings throughout the customer engagement lifecycle. This role serves as a senior customer-facing security expert, partnering closely with Sales, Product, Engineering, and Legal to communicate Avalara’s security capabilities, address customer security and privacy requirements, and help accelerate enterprise sales opportunities. Working alongside the VP of Product Security and Sales leadership, this individual will help scale Avalara’s customer trust program by supporting complex customer engagements, influencing product security capabilities, and strengthening repeatable security assurance processes. This role reports to the VP of Product Security with a matrix relationship to Sales. This role will increase customer confidence in Avalara’s security, privacy, and AI governance capabilities throughout the sales process. It will improve enterprise deal velocity by reducing friction associated with customer security reviews and third-party risk assessments. It will influence product and engineering teams by identifying recurring customer security requirements and market opportunities. It will strengthen collaboration between Security, Sales, Legal, and Engineering to improve consistency and scalability. It will advance Avalara’s AI-first strategy by helping customers understand our AI security and governance approach. It will raise technical capability across Sales Engineering through mentorship, documentation, and repeatable best practices.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Security, or a related technical discipline and 8+ years of relevant experience in technical pre-sales, security consulting, systems engineering, or security architecture.
• Experience supporting enterprise SaaS sales cycles involving multiple technical and business stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of cybersecurity controls, including cloud security, identity and access management, data protection, encryption, and network security.
• Working knowledge of security and compliance frameworks including NIST CSF, ISO 27001, ISO 27701, GDPR, and ISO 42001.
• Experience communicating technical security concepts to both technical and executive audiences.
• Strong understanding of enterprise cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, or OCI.
• Demonstrated experience using AI technologies to improve business outcomes and customer engagement.
• Strong written, presentation, and stakeholder management skills.
• Demonstrate exceptional ownership and accountability for customer security engagements.
• Raise standards for technical communication, security assurance, and customer trust.
• Build trusted partnerships across Sales, Product, Engineering, Legal, and Customer Success.
• Exercise sound judgment when balancing customer needs, business priorities, and security requirements.
• Leave customer programs, documentation, and cross-functional relationships stronger than they found them.
• Embracing AI as an essential capability.
• Experience using AI and AI-related technologies, ready to thrive here.
• Apply AI every day to business challenges - improving efficiency, contributing solutions, and driving results for your team, our company, and our customers.
• Grow with AI by staying curious about new trends and best practices, and by sharing what you learn so others can benefit too.

Nice To Haves

• CISSP, CCSP, Google Cloud Architect, AWS Security Specialty, or similar certifications.
• Experience supporting enterprise SaaS organizations or cloud platforms.
• Experience developing scalable security assurance programs or customer trust initiatives.
• Experience working with AI governance, AI security, or emerging AI regulatory frameworks.
• Mentor peers and contribute reusable content, tools, and best practices that improve team effectiveness.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Sales teams to identify security considerations, technical risks, and potential objections throughout the sales cycle.
• Lead customer security reviews, trust discussions, and technical security presentations for enterprise customers.
• Provide consultative guidance on security architecture, integrations, privacy, and compliance requirements related to Avalara’s SaaS platform.
• Partner with Product Management and Engineering to communicate customer security requirements and influence future platform capabilities.
• Support Sales Engineering by developing responses to RFPs, RFIs, third-party risk assessments, and customer security questionnaires.
• Assist Legal during customer contract negotiations involving privacy, information security, and AI-related contractual terms.
• Develop scalable security assurance content, documentation, and customer-facing enablement materials.
• Mentor Sales Engineering teams on security positioning, customer engagement, and technical communication.
• Improve customer confidence through consistent, high-quality security engagements across enterprise opportunities.
• Establish scalable RFP and third-party risk response processes that improve response quality and reduce turnaround times.
• Increase reuse of security assurance content across Sales Engineering.
• Successfully support strategic enterprise opportunities requiring complex security and compliance discussions.
• Strengthen collaboration between Sales, Product, Engineering, and Legal to improve customer outcomes.
• Become a trusted internal resource for application security, cloud security, privacy, and AI security.
• Implement AI-enabled approaches that improve RFP responses, third-party risk assessments, and customer security engagements.
• Clearly communicate Avalara’s AI governance, AI security controls, and ISO 42001 alignment to customers and prospects.
• Demonstrate measurable improvements in efficiency, consistency, and quality through AI-enabled workflows.
• Promote responsible, secure, and governance-aware use of AI technologies.
• Share AI best practices and help improve AI capability across Sales Engineering and Security.

Benefits

• 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.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior