Think twice before accepting an offer - Anonymous employee Avalara Employee Review

1.0
May 22, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Competitive salary and exposure to modern cloud technologies and large-scale systems.

Cons

In over 10 years of working across multiple companies, this was one of the most unstable and politically driven engineering environments I have experienced. The company appears heavily influenced by stack-ranking and performance-based exits, with layoffs or forced resignations happening regularly across teams. Employees can deliver significant work, receive positive feedback, and still suddenly face rating downgrades or pressure to resign without clear transparency. I worked extensively on infrastructure, observability, deployment automation, migration efforts, and reliability improvements under high-pressure timelines. Despite putting in strong ownership and long working hours to deliver critical initiatives, the overall culture did not feel consistently merit-driven or supportive. There were also noticeable gaps in operational maturity and engineering standards. Concerns around observability, monitoring quality, release management, and long-term reliability practices were often deprioritized in favor of short-term delivery pressure. Another major concern was the lack of transparency from leadership. Employees had very little visibility into the actual state of the company, long-term direction, or business health. Communication in all-hands meetings often remained very high level without giving employees real confidence or clarity. Frequent reorganizations, shifting priorities, and internal politics created a stressful and uncertain work environment. Attrition appeared consistently high, and long-term job stability felt weak across multiple teams. Overall, I would strongly advise candidates to evaluate other opportunities carefully before joining and consider this company only if they are fully comfortable with a highly political and unstable environment. * Stack-ranking culture * Frequent layoffs and forced exits * High attrition * Lack of transparency in performance evaluation * Constant organizational instability * Engineering quality often compromised for short-term delivery

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Avalara Response
1mo
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. We strive to create a fair and supportive environment for all employees, and we’re sorry to hear you feel we missed the mark. We appreciate your feedback.

Explore other reviews about Avalara

5.0
Jul 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Cutting edge technologies Very Smart colleagues Great business model

Cons

High hiring and performance bar

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Avalara Response
5d
Thank you for sharing your experience at Avalara. We’re glad to hear the technology and your teammates have made a positive impact. We appreciate your feedback and your contributions.
4.0
Jul 17, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Is Avalara a great place to work? It depends on the team you are on. Pros: - I love my team. I have great co-workers. I feel like leadership to the VP level understands the value we bring and advocates for our work throughout the company - I like being able to go into the office and see people and bounce ideas around - My manager is always pushing me to learn new things and get out of my comfort zone - We just got a new CEO and I am super excited about him and his vision. Everyone who has actually been in meetings with him is excited too.

Cons

It depends on the team you are on. Cons: - Some teams are not as curious/helpful as others. I often have to check and recheck the work they do, after I have chased them multiple times to even complete the work - The layoff fear is real, the idea that at any point your position could be eliminated because they want to keep that revenue per headcount KPI down is everywhere

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Avalara Response
1d
Thank you for taking the time to share such thoughtful insight. We're glad to hear your team and manager have had a positive impact on your experience, and we're encouraged by your optimism about Avalara's future. We also recognize how important it is for that experience to feel consistent across the company, and we appreciate you sharing your perspective.
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