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# Staff Software Development Engineer

- **Company:** Avalara Inc.
- **Location:** Seattle, WA, United States (Remote available)
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Java (Programming Language), Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), Artificial Intelligence, Amazon Web Services, Cloud Computing, Software Quality, Cursor, Python (Programming Language), Machine Learning, Microsoft Message Queuing, Queueing Systems, Cloud Services, Software Engineering, Data Streaming, User-Centered Design, GitHub Copilot, Large Language Models, Prompt Engineering, Spring-boot, Backend, Agentic-AI, Fastapi, Event Driven Architecture, Containerization, Kubernetes, Information Technology, Machine Learning Operations, Restful APIs, Model Context Protocol, Api Management, AWS EKS, Docker, Microservices
- **Published:** October 29, 2026
- **Apply:** https://arc.dev/remote-jobs/j/redirect/pvbo1j1tr9

## About the Role

* Bachelor's degree in Computer Science.
 * Minimum of 10 years of professional software engineering experience with a strong track record of senior-level technical ownership and impact.
 * Extensive hands-on experience designing and building distributed backend systems, including RESTful APIs, microservices, and event-driven architectures.
 * Proficiency in Java (Spring Boot) or Python (FastAPI / asyncio), with the ability to read and contribute across both stacks.
 * Hands-on experience integrating LLMs or ML models into production systems, managing prompt design, output validation, and responsible AI governance.
 * Proven experience deploying and operating services on cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred) using containerization and orchestration tools (Docker, Kubernetes).
 * Demonstrated, hands-on AI usage that has produced measurable improvements in engineering or product outcomes-casual use is not sufficient; we expect you to accelerate your workflow with AI.
 * Exceptional communication skills and a commitment to raising the bar for design, code quality, and engineering debate within a globally distributed team.

## Description

* Lead the end-to-end design of complex, distributed features and agentic AI workflows, from data flow and API contracts through to deployment and observability.
 * Build high-quality backend services and APIs in Java (Spring Boot) and Python (FastAPI), and design asynchronous processing pipelines using message queues (e.g., AWS SQS).
 * Deploy and operate cloud services on Kubernetes (AWS EKS), building in observability and embedding security best practices across all operations.
 * Develop multi-step AI pipelines utilizing retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and vector databases, implementing human-in-the-loop orchestration for intelligent escalation.
 * Build and extend Model Context Protocol (MCP) server capabilities to expose classification APIs that AI agents and partner platforms can invoke autonomously.
 * Elevate the engineering team by conducting high-quality code reviews, mentoring junior engineers, and driving measurable AI adoption through hands-on coaching and sharing agentic workflow patterns., This role carries explicit Agentic AI expectations. Casual or passive AI use is not sufficient-AI must materially change what you and the team can deliver. We expect you to:
 * Accelerate Your Engineering: Actively use AI-assisted tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor) daily to reduce cycle time, draft specifications, and improve code quality, while critically evaluating and owning the final result.
 * Build Agentic Capabilities: Design classification agents capable of full reasoning loops that autonomously plan, retrieve, and decide, ensuring transparent confidence signals and graceful human escalation.
 * Govern Production AI: Secure LLM behavior in production by mitigating prompt injection, monitoring for drift, and applying responsible AI practices.

Avalara is an AI-first Company

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.