Machine Learning Engineer V

Key Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and delivery of production-grade AI and ML systems across classification, document intelligence, retrieval, and GenAI platform capabilities
• Design and scale GenAI platform components such as RAG systems, agent workflows, prompt systems, evaluation pipelines, document ingestion services, and developer-facing APIs
• Build and optimize ML and LLM-powered services with strong reliability, latency, observability, security, and cost controls
• Work across model providers and model families to optimize model selection, routing, latency, quality, and spend
• Develop reusable SDKs, APIs, workflows, and platform components that enable teams to ship AI features faster
• Lead evaluation and governance mechanisms for AI quality, grounding, safety, explainability, compliance, and production risk management
• Drive improvements to classification, extraction, retrieval, and decisioning systems using ML, SLMs, LLMs, embeddings, and agent/tool-use patterns
• Partner with product, application teams, infrastructure, security, and domain experts to onboard new use cases and data sources
• Mentor engineers, lead design reviews, improve engineering standards, and raise the team’s execution quality

12-Month Success Signals

AI Expectations

Bar Raiser Expectations

Qualifications

• B.S. in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field
• 8+ years of experience in machine learning engineering, applied ML, NLP, GenAI, information retrieval, or production AI systems
• Strong software engineering skills in Python and experience designing backend services, APIs, distributed systems, or cloud-native platforms
• Experience shipping production ML or LLM systems, not just experimentation or research prototypes
• Hands-on experience with modern AI techniques such as RAG, embeddings, prompt engineering, evaluation, classification, agent/tool-use patterns, SLMs, or LLM-powered workflows
• Experience with cloud-native systems, APIs, async or distributed workflows, observability, monitoring, and production operations
• Ability to design for security, access control, governance, compliance, reliability, and cost efficiency
• Strong system design skills and ability to lead technically complex initiatives across multiple stakeholders
• Ability to mentor engineers and raise technical standards across teams

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with multi-model gateways, model routing, model selection, or model cost optimization
• Experience with document AI, OCR, extraction, layout understanding, or validation workflows
• Experience with evaluation frameworks for LLMs, agents, classification systems, or retrieval systems
• Experience building internal AI platforms, developer tooling, SDKs, self-serve portals, or shared ML infrastructure
• Experience with Kubernetes, Docker, MLflow, Terraform, AWS, GitLab, Postgres, Prometheus, or Grafana
• Experience in domains with complex taxonomies, compliance requirements, long-tail data, or high reliability expectations
• AI is embedded in our workflows, decision-making, and products. Success here requires embracing AI as an essential capability.
• You’ll bring experience using AI and AI-related technologies, ready to thrive here.
• You’ll apply AI every day to business challenges - improving efficiency, contributing solutions, and driving results for your team, our company, and our customers.
• You’ll grow with AI by staying curious about new trends and best practices, and by sharing what you learn so others can benefit too.
• 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 diversit y 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.
• We’re defining the relationship between tax and tech.
• We’ve already built an industry-leading cloud compliance platform, processing over 54 billion customer API calls and over 6.6 million tax returns a year. Our growth is real - we're a billion dollar business - 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. We’ve been different from day one. Join us, and your career will be too.

We’re An Equal Opportunity Employer