A technology firm with offices in Durham is growing its space and headcount.
Avalara, a tax software company based in Seattle, plans to add 100 positions locally in the next year. It's the start of an aggressive expansion strategy that comes two years after its buyout by Vista Equity Partners.
Kimberly Deobald, Avalara chief revenue officer, said the plan is to make the local office, which currently houses about 480 people, a key U.S. hub for the company.
“We have a horizon, a plan for five years, and we anticipate double digit growth here every year through 2027,” she said while visiting the Durham office this week.
An office expansion is also part of the plan. The company recently leased most of the fourth floor of the 88,000-square-foot building that fronts South Mangum Street adjacent to Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Right now, the company has three of the building’s four floors, and hopes to eventually take over the entire structure.
The top floor will house an “Avalara University” for customers, partners and employees, which is key to the plan. Deals with local vendors, including architects, are in-process.
“Obviously the location … with all the colleges and universities, provides us a tremendous talent pool in order to recruit from,” Deobald said.
She said the company's bet on office space comes down to its training program. Avalara recently set up a program meant to empower new employees.
“We think having that in a location like this will be fantastic for university hires,” she said.
Entry-level workers can enter into an 18-month training program based on-site, where they can eventually explore opportunities in multiple departments.
“If you build a career ladder for people, and you give them the controls to manage their way through it, you have a much higher retention, much higher engagement and much higher employment satisfaction,” Deobald said.
The state-of-the-art learning space planned for the fourth floor will allow for both live-learning and remote lectures.
“We’re expanding globally and we need to be able to train people in person, but also to be able to record these sessions and be able to simulcast them around the globe,” Deobald said.
Last year the leadership team went through what she describes as a “purposeful exercise,” asking candid questions about how the future Avalara should operate. The decision was to move toward primarily being a hybrid office. Early-career technologists come in more often than tenured talent, eventually “earn[ing] their way to a hybrid schedule.”
That’s as some positions will stay fully remote.
At Avalara, teams typically come to the office at least once a quarter for meetings, coaching and training.
Avalara is also bringing its annual convention to Raleigh next year, the first time the event, which attracted about 1,000 people last year, has been held outside of its home base in Seattle. The event will be held at the Raleigh Convention Center. Already six hotels have been tapped, and Deobald says to expect the company's signature orange color to be all over Downtown Raleigh in February 2025.
