Communications Strategy Manager

What You'll Do

The Communications Strategy Manager owns the strategy, planning, governance, and execution of internal communications for Avalara's customer-facing organization. You will translate executive strategy, product and service launches and updates, process changes, and new or updated training and resources into clear communications that inspire disciplined field execution. As an Individual Contributor with Team Lead responsibilities, you will set direction, establishes standards, and coordinate contributors to raise the quality and consistency of GTM communications. Reporting to the Manager, Enablement Operations, this role builds scalable systems across our intranet, Slack, and email newsletters to reduce noise, provide a single source of truth, and speed time-to-field. This is a US-based, #LI-Remote position.

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

• Oversee the end-to-end GTM internal communications strategy for customer-facing audiences, including Sales, Partner Sales, Support, Implementation and Professional Services, ensuring clear message hierarchy and disciplined execution.
• Design and run the communications operating model (intake, prioritization, drafting, approval, publish, reinforcement) by leveraging internal AI tools to reduce noise, eliminate duplicative or conflicting messages, and speed time-to-field.
• Establish and manage the GTM editorial calendar, sequencing weekly, monthly, and quarterly communications to align with priorities and prevent overlap or message fatigue.
• Define governance standards, including channel rules, writing standards, QA checklists, approval workflows, and publishing discipline across our intranet, Slack, and email newsletters.
• Oversee the publishing model, including structure, tagging standards, content lifecycle management, and homepage organization to ensure content remains current and relevant.
• Lead partner intake and understanding by running a standardized briefing process, clarifying goals and required actions, assessing requests against priorities, and translating complex inputs into field-ready messages.
• Ensure changing educational and instructional materials about the GTM communications strategy, process and tools stay up to date.
• Coordinate contributors and authors by assigning work, reviewing content, coaching for clarity and impact, and building repeatable frameworks that raise quality.
• Improve communication effectiveness by tracking engagement metrics, adoption signals, and feedback loops, and delivering regular insights and process improvements to GTM leadership.

What You\u2019ll Need To Be Successful

Required Qualifications

Education

Bachelor's degree in Communications, Marketing, Business, Journalism, or related field

or equivalent practical experience in internal or GTM communications.

Experience

4\u20136 or more years of experience in internal communications, GTM enablement communications, Revenue or GTM operations with a communications focus, corporate communications with field-facing responsibility, or sales communications and field change management.

Demonstrated ownership of communication strategy for projects, including intake, prioritization, partner agreement, and governance \u2014 not only execution-level drafting.

Knowledge

Working knowledge of GTM operating models, including Sales, Partner, Product, and Marketing.

Experience with field change management and adoption dynamics.

Knowledge of internal communications governance, including message hierarchy, editorial rhythm, approval models, and channel discipline.

Understanding of B2B SaaS sales motions, including SMB and upmarket segments.

Knowledge of intranet and internal publishing strategy.

Working knowledge of AI-enabled workflow tools to improve communication quality and productivity.

Skills and Abilities

• Summarize and write complex executive strategy, pricing updates, product launches, and process changes into clear field-ready messages.
• Influence and align senior partners without formal authority.
• Prioritize and sequence communications to reduce overload and prevent conflicting messages.
• Design and operate communication systems, including intake models, approval workflows, and reinforcement plans.
• Provide structured editorial feedback and coach contributors to improve clarity and impact.
• Manage internal publishing platforms as governed systems, not ad hoc tools.
• Analyze engagement and adoption signals to improve communication effectiveness.

Tools

1+ years of experience with intranet or internal publishing platforms such as Simpplr.

Experience with Slack or similar collaboration tools.

Experience with email distribution tools.

Experience with project management platforms such as Asana, Jira, Monday, or Smartsheet.

Experience using analytics tools such as Excel, Google Sheets, or business intelligence dashboards.

Experience using AI writing or productivity tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting GTM communications in a high-growth B2B SaaS environment.
• Experience supporting global or multi-regional sales teams, including navigating segmentation and regional nuance while maintaining message consistency.
• Manage communications for pricing changes, product launches, or major sales process transformations.
• Change management certification (e.g., Prosci, ADKAR, Kotter) with experience applying structured frameworks to increase adoption of sales-facing programs such as pricing, product, or process changes.
• Background in executive communications or journalism, demonstrating advanced message synthesis and storytelling capability.
• Experience improving engagement or adoption metrics through structured communication strategy and channel optimization.

Avalara Success Traits

Ownership

Take accountability for the clarity, accuracy, and effectiveness of GTM communications. Owns the end-to-end communications system, from intake through reinforcement, and ensures messages drive action without creating confusion or noise.

Urgency

Acts with speed and discipline in a fast-moving sales environment. Prioritizes what matters most, accelerates time-to-field, and ensures critical updates reach sellers when they need them.

Adaptability

Thrives in a dynamic GTM environment where priorities shift. Adjusts plans, sequencing, and messaging quickly while maintaining structure, governance, and communication quality.

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AI Use in Role

Avalara is an AI-first company.

We expect every Avalarian to actively leverage AI to enhance productivity, quality, innovation, and customer value. AI is embedded in our workflows, decision-making, and products \u2014 and success at Avalara requires embracing AI as an essential capability, not an optional tool.

In this role, AI is expected to support:

• Drafting and refining communications, including message synthesis, clarity improvements, and structured formatting.
• Summarizing complex inputs from product, pricing, and operations into field-ready messaging.
• Analyzing engagement data and feedback trends to improve communication effectiveness.
• Accelerating workflow efficiency across intake, approvals, and reinforcement planning.

The Communications Strategy Manager is expected to continuously experiment with AI-enabled tools to improve speed, precision, and communication quality while applying responsible AI practices, including data privacy and content accuracy.

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\u2019ll bring experience using AI and AI-related technologies, ready to thrive here.

• You\u2019ll apply AI every day to business challenges - improving efficiency, contributing solutions, and driving results for your team, our company, and our customers.

• You\u2019ll 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\u2019ll 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\u2019re defining the relationship between tax and tech.

We\u2019ve 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\u2019re not slowing down until we\u2019ve achieved our mission - to be part of every transaction in the world.

We\u2019re 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\u2019ve designed, that empowers our people to win. We\u2019ve been different from day one. Join us, and your career will be too.

We\u2019re An Equal Opportunity Employer

Supporting diversity and inclusion is a cornerstone of our company \u2014 we don\u2019t 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.