Financial Instruments Accounting Lead

What You'll Do

Avalara is seeking a detail-oriented Financial Instruments Accounting Lead with deep expertise across debt, investment, trust, treasury, and derivative accounting — and a genuine drive to leverage AI and automation to transform accounting processes and enhance insights. This role owns the accuracy, integrity, and completeness of all financial instruments-related balances, journal entries, and public-company-style disclosures within Avalara's consolidated financial statements.

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

Debt Accounting

• Prepare, post, and self-review journal entries for term loans, revolving credit, and borrowings (ASC 470) with audit-ready documentation.
• Maintain and reconcile debt schedules (principal, issuance costs, discount/premium); apply the effective interest method and ensure accuracy of interest expense and accruals at each period-end.
• Support debt disclosures for mock 10-Q/10-K filings
• Monitor debt covenant requirements — including lender EBITDA definitions and compliance calculations

Investment Accounting

• Account for the investment portfolio (Cash Equivalent, Short Term & Long-term Investments) under ASC 320, 321, 323 and 325— ensuring proper classification, recognition, and measurement across trading, available-for-sale, held-to-maturity and other investment categories; support disclosures for mock 10-Q/10-K filings.
• Perform mark-to-market or amortized cost calculations as applicable and ensure proper balance sheet classification and financial statement presentation at each reporting date. 
• Reconcile investments capturing purchases, maturities, disposals, gains/losses, accrued interest, and impairment (ASC 326); apply mark-to-market or amortized cost as applicable.
• Support investment-related disclosure requirements in quarterly and annual mock SEC filings (10-Q and 10-K), working closely with the Financial Reporting team.

Derivative Instruments

• Run the quarterly mark-to-market valuation model (ASC 815, ASC 820) — refreshing scenario-based assumptions and market inputs (third-party fair value quotes and interest rates) each quarter and recording the quarter-over-quarter change in fair value; reconcile derivative balances, document valuations, and support audit and disclosure requirements.
• Monitor embedded features for bifurcation assessment (ASC 815); maintain a documented trigger-assessment process ahead of each close.
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Treasury Accounting Review & Analytics

• Review accounting activities — including bank account reconciliations, cash journal entries, and other financial instrument-related balance sheet accounts — for accuracy, completeness, and proper US GAAP treatment
• Proactively monitor and assess accounting impact of new and evolving accounting standards and any new, modified, or newly settled financial instruments or transactions; ensuring a documented plan and conclusion is in place before the reporting date.
• Read and interpret the underlying contractual terms of debt, investment, trust, and cash arrangements, and partner cross-functionally with Treasury, Legal and the business to reach and document well-supported accounting conclusions.
• Prepare monthly and quarterly treasury accounting analytics — including variance analyses, trend reporting, and clear management summaries — to support internal reporting and management review.
• Ensure full coverage of all financial instruments and related cash matters — including bank and trust / GCP (customer funds held in trust) account activity unusual or aged reconciling items.
• Account for and reconcile customer trust / GCP balances in accordance with the applicable US GAAP presentation and any contractual or regulatory safeguarding requirements.
• Own SOX controls across all financial-instrument processes — performing and evidencing key controls, keeping process and control documentation current, and partnering with internal and external audit on walkthroughs and testing.

AI & Automation

• Build & scale — applying AI platforms including Glean and Claude to automate financial instrument workflows, documenting/sharing via the use-case library, and driving the roadmap with peers/leadership.
• Agent governance — designing and orchestrating AI agents with guardrails and human-in-the-loop review, staying fully accountable for output.
• Product rigor & controls — treating automations as documented, version-controlled, SOX-compliant products with measurable outcomes tracked.
• Continuous improvement & change management — optimizing/redesigning processes, leading adoption and training, and staying current on industry-leading AI practices.

What You’ll Need To Be Successful

Must Have

• CA, CPA, or MBA (Finance) — US CPA strongly preferred
• 5+ years in financial instruments, treasury, or technical accounting
• Deep, hands-on US GAAP expertise across financial instruments and public-company-style disclosures
• Proven track record of automating manual accounting work
• Proficiency with AI platforms (Glean, ChatGPT, Claude), SQL/Python, and ERP/EPM systems (NetSuite, Oracle, Workday, SAP)
• Highly detail-oriented with meticulous ownership of quality; genuinely AI-curious; a collaborative team player who steps up when needed and helps upskill teammates

Good to Have

• Big 4 or equivalent public accounting experience (strongly preferred)
• Background in SaaS or technology industry
• Experience with treasury / reconciliation tools such as Kyriba
• Experience building a team-wide AI use-case library and scaling automation roadmaps

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.

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. 

What You Need To Know About Avalara

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

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.