Visual Graphic Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Visual Graphic Designer

Company: Avalara

Location: United States

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Marketing Operations / Creative Operations

Date Posted: 2026-08-24T14:09:00

Experience Level: 2-5 years

Remote Status: Remote OK

🚀 Role Summary

• Design and produce high-impact digital campaign creative and optimized assets for programmatic display ads, paid social media, email campaigns, and long-form content.

• Leverage generative AI platforms to accelerate conceptual brainstorming, generate asset variations, scale the design pipeline, and streamline edits for increased efficiency.

• Support the concepting and production of large-format graphics for event and trade show seasons, including event signage and environmental graphics.

• Ensure all creative deliverables are high-quality, on-brand, and perfectly align with project briefs and Avalara’s broader brand strategy.

• Collaborate with global visual design teams to execute the Avalara brand across marketing, corporate communications, and product.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role sits within a Marketing Operations or Creative Operations function, focusing on the scalable and efficient production of visual assets. The emphasis on AI and brand consistency suggests a need for operational excellence in design execution.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Develop digital campaign creative assets tailored for programmatic display, paid social, and email marketing channels, ensuring optimal performance and brand adherence.

• Produce long-form content visuals, including infographics, e-books, and whitepaper layouts, to support marketing and sales enablement efforts.

• Utilize generative AI tools (e.g., Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, DALL-E) to enhance design workflows, rapidly prototype concepts, and deliver scaled creative solutions.

• Execute large-format graphic production for trade shows and events, including banners, booth graphics, and directional signage, maintaining brand integrity in physical spaces.

• Manage multiple design projects simultaneously, prioritizing tasks and meeting deadlines within a fast-paced, AI-first environment.

• Maintain and evolve brand guidelines by ensuring all visual communications are consistent with Avalara's established brand strategy and visual identity.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including marketing, product, and corporate communications, to understand project requirements and deliver effective visual solutions.

• Contribute to the optimization of design processes by identifying opportunities for automation, efficiency gains, and improved workflow management.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of traditional graphic design execution and innovative AI integration, emphasizing efficiency and scalability within a corporate marketing context.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree in Design, Graphic Design, Visual Communications, or a related field.

Experience: 4+ years of professional experience in graphic design, with a proven track record of producing impactful visual assets.

Required Skills:

• Core Design Expertise: Mastery of Adobe InDesign (multi-page layouts, typography, print-ready production), Adobe Illustrator (vector asset creation, logo design, illustration), and Figma (digital design systems, UI components, collaborative layout design).

• AI-Powered Design Proficiency: Demonstrated experience using generative AI platforms such as Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, DALL-E, or AI features embedded within Adobe/Figma software to enhance, scale, or optimize the design pipeline.

• Digital Asset Production: Expertise in creating and optimizing digital assets for various platforms including programmatic display ads, paid social media, email marketing, and web content.

• Brand Management: Strong understanding of brand strategy and the ability to consistently apply brand guidelines across all creative outputs.

• Operational Acumen: Proficiency in Microsoft Suite (Excel for data organization, Word for documentation, PowerPoint for presentations) and experience with project management tools like Workfront, Jira, or Monday.com.

• Visual Communication: Ability to translate complex ideas into clear, compelling visual narratives.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with Adobe Express for rapid templating and asset versioning.

• Familiarity with UI/UX principles for digital design applications.

• Understanding of print production processes and specifications for large-format graphics.

• Experience working in a global, distributed team environment.

• Familiarity with the tax or compliance technology industry.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on specific design software (Adobe Suite, Figma) and AI tools is critical. The inclusion of project management tools points towards a need for operational efficiency and process adherence in the role.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase a diverse range of digital design projects, including examples of programmatic display ads, social media campaigns, and email marketing visuals.

• Include examples of long-form content design, such as e-books, whitepapers, or reports, demonstrating layout, typography, and information hierarchy skills.

• Present case studies of projects where generative AI tools were utilized to accelerate design, generate variations, or improve workflow efficiency.

• Demonstrate experience with large-format design for events or trade shows, including signage and environmental graphics.

• Highlight projects that clearly demonstrate adherence to brand guidelines and strategic brand alignment. Process Documentation:

• Be prepared to discuss your personal design process, from brief interpretation and conceptualization to final asset delivery and optimization.

• Provide examples of how you manage project workflows, prioritize tasks, and collaborate with stakeholders to ensure timely and effective project completion.

• Be ready to articulate how you integrate AI tools into your design workflow to improve efficiency, scalability, and creative output.

• Demonstrate how you measure the success or impact of your design work, referencing metrics where possible.

📝 Enhancement Note: A strong portfolio is paramount for visual design roles. For this position, it must explicitly demonstrate proficiency in AI-assisted design workflows and a capacity for scalable, on-brand production, aligning with operational efficiency demands.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Colorado: $77,300 - $123,700 annually

• Washington: $77,300 - $136,600 annually

• California: $77,300 - $149,600 annually

• New York City: $85,400 - $149,600 annually

Explanation of Range: The provided salary ranges are based on Avalara's compensation structure for this role in specific US states, taking into account geographic location, candidate experience, qualifications, and market conditions. These figures represent the base pay and do not include potential bonuses.

Benefits:

• Eligible for an annual bonus based on individual and company performance.

• Paid time off.

• Paid parental leave.

• Health & Wellness: Generally includes private medical insurance, life insurance, and disability insurance (benefits vary by location).

• Inclusive culture and diversity initiatives, with access to employee-run resource groups.

Working Hours: 40 hours per week (standard full-time).

The remote nature of the role may offer some flexibility in daily scheduling, but core business hours for collaboration are expected.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary ranges provided are specific to certain high-cost-of-living areas and reflect a mid-level to senior designer position. The inclusion of a bonus indicates performance-based incentives common in marketing and operations roles.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Tax Compliance Technology (FinTech/SaaS)

Company Size: Avalara is a significant player in the tax compliance industry, processing billions of API calls and millions of tax returns annually, indicating a large, established, and growing enterprise. This size suggests robust operational processes and a structured approach to creative production.

Founded: Avalara was founded with the mission to be part of every transaction in the world, aiming to simplify complex tax compliance through technology.

Team Structure:

• This role reports to the Director of Brand and Design, indicating a clear hierarchy within the design function.

• The designer will be part of a global team of visual designers, implying opportunities for cross-cultural collaboration and diverse perspectives.

• Close collaboration with marketing, corporate communications, and product teams is expected, requiring strong cross-functional partnership skills. Methodology:

• AI-First Approach: Avalara emphasizes being an AI-first company, integrating AI into workflows, decision-making, and products. This means embracing AI as a core capability for efficiency and innovation.

• Data-Driven Creativity: While not explicitly stated for design, the company's foundation in technology and tax compliance suggests a data-informed approach to marketing and creative strategies.

• Scalable Production: The focus on "delivering high-impact, brand-focused creative at scale" and leveraging AI points to a need for efficient, repeatable processes in design execution.

Company Website: https://careers.avalara.com

📝 Enhancement Note: Avalara's AI-first strategy is a defining characteristic. For a Visual Graphic Designer, this translates to a requirement for AI tool proficiency and an adaptable mindset, crucial for operational efficiency in creative production.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned as a Visual Graphic Designer with 4+ years of experience, indicating a mid-level position. It requires both creative execution and a degree of operational understanding in managing design workflows and utilizing technology for efficiency. The scope includes supporting various marketing and corporate functions, suggesting a broad impact.

Reporting Structure: The Visual Graphic Designer reports to the Director of Brand and Design. This structure suggests opportunities for mentorship from senior leadership and exposure to higher-level brand strategy discussions.

Operations Impact: The Visual Graphic Designer's work directly impacts Avalara's brand perception, marketing campaign effectiveness, and sales enablement materials. By producing high-quality, on-brand creative at scale, they contribute to lead generation, customer engagement, and overall brand consistency, which are critical operational outcomes for marketing and sales.

Growth Opportunities:

• Skill Advancement: Opportunities to deepen expertise in generative AI tools and advanced design techniques, becoming a subject matter expert in AI-assisted creative production.

• Specialization: Potential to specialize in specific areas such as digital campaign creative, large-format event design, or brand system development.

• Leadership Potential: With continued strong performance and contributions to process improvement, there could be pathways into Senior Designer roles or team lead positions within the design function, overseeing specific creative initiatives or junior designers.

• Cross-Functional Exposure: Gaining deeper understanding of marketing, sales, and product strategies through close collaboration, potentially leading to roles with broader strategic input.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role offers growth by deepening specialized skills in AI-driven design and brand execution, with potential leadership pathways within a growing enterprise.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: This is a remote role, allowing employees to work from their home office.

Office Location(s): The role is US-based and remote, with salary ranges provided for Colorado, Washington, California, and New York City. This indicates that while the work is remote, there are specific geographic considerations for compensation and potentially for team alignment.

Workspace Context:

• Remote Collaboration: The work environment will be primarily digital, relying on collaboration tools for communication and project management.

• AI Integration: The workspace will be equipped with AI tools and technologies, requiring the designer to be comfortable and adept at using them for daily tasks.

• Team Interaction: While remote, the role involves collaboration with a global team of visual designers and cross-functional partners, emphasizing the importance of virtual team engagement and communication.

Work Schedule: A standard 40-hour work week is expected. As a remote role, there may be flexibility in daily scheduling, but adherence to core collaboration hours and project deadlines is essential.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote nature combined with an AI-first approach defines the work environment, necessitating strong self-management, digital collaboration skills, and comfort with evolving technology.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Likely a review of your resume and portfolio to assess foundational skills, experience, and alignment with the role's requirements, particularly AI proficiency.

• Portfolio Review & Technical Interview: A deeper dive into your portfolio, discussing specific projects, your design process, and how you leveraged tools like Adobe Creative Suite, Figma, and generative AI. Expect questions about your approach to brand consistency and operational efficiency.

• Hiring Manager Interview: Discussion with the Director of Brand and Design to assess cultural fit, strategic thinking, understanding of brand, and how you'd integrate into the team.

• Cross-Functional Interview (Potential): An interview with a stakeholder from marketing or product to gauge collaboration skills and understanding of business objectives.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Highlight AI Impact: Clearly articulate the role of AI in your projects—how it accelerated your workflow, enabled new creative possibilities, or improved efficiency and scale. Use quantifiable results if possible (e.g., "reduced asset creation time by X%").

• Showcase Brand Consistency: Include projects that demonstrate a strong understanding and application of brand guidelines, showcasing your ability to maintain visual integrity across diverse mediums.

• Process Over Product: Be prepared to walk through your design process for key projects, explaining your decision-making, problem-solving, and collaboration methods.

• Tailor to Avalara: Research Avalara's brand identity, recent campaigns, and AI initiatives. Showcase work that aligns with their aesthetic and strategic direction.

Challenge Preparation:

• AI Design Challenge: You might be asked to demonstrate your ability to use an AI tool to generate variations of a concept or to quickly produce assets based on a brief.

• Brand Application Task: A short assignment to create an asset (e.g., social media graphic, ad banner) for a hypothetical Avalara campaign, testing your ability to apply brand guidelines and deliver on-brand creative under a time constraint.

• Process Optimization Scenario: Be ready to discuss how you would streamline a design workflow or improve the efficiency of asset production using technology and AI.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process will heavily scrutinize your portfolio for AI integration and operational efficiency in design. Be prepared to articulate your processes and demonstrate tangible results.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Design Software:

• Adobe Creative Cloud: Expertise required in Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop.

• Figma: Essential for digital design systems, UI components, and collaborative layouts.

• Adobe Express: Preferred for rapid templating, asset versioning, and social media exports.

AI & Generative Tools:

• Generative AI Platforms: Demonstrated experience with Adobe Firefly, Midjourney, DALL-E, or similar AI tools for concept generation, asset variation, and workflow optimization.

• AI Integration: Comfort and ability to integrate AI tools directly into the design pipeline.

Productivity & Project Management:

• Microsoft Suite: Proficiency in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

• Project Management Tools: Experience with Workfront, Jira, or Monday.com for task management, workflow tracking, and team collaboration.

Collaboration & Communication:

• Standard Communication Platforms: Likely Slack, Microsoft Teams, or similar for daily communication.

• Video Conferencing: Tools like Zoom or Google Meet for meetings and remote collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in the specified Adobe Suite and Figma is non-negotiable. The explicit mention of generative AI platforms highlights this as a core technical requirement, integral to the role's operational efficiency.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• AI-Driven Efficiency: A core value is embracing AI as an essential capability to improve efficiency, contribute solutions, and drive results across all business functions.

• Innovation & Curiosity: Staying curious about new trends, particularly in AI and design, and sharing knowledge to foster continuous learning and improvement.

• Brand Integrity: A commitment to delivering high-quality, on-brand creative that consistently aligns with Avalara's broader brand strategy.

• Collaboration & Inclusivity: Working effectively within a global team, valuing diverse perspectives, and contributing to an inclusive culture.

Collaboration Style:

• Global Teamwork: Expect to collaborate with designers and stakeholders across different time zones and geographies, requiring strong asynchronous communication skills.

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Actively partnering with marketing, product, and corporate communications to translate business needs into effective visual solutions.

• Feedback Integration: A culture that values constructive feedback to refine designs and improve processes, fostering a continuous improvement mindset.

• AI as a Partner: Collaborating not just with human colleagues but also leveraging AI tools as integral components of the creative workflow.

📝 Enhancement Note: Avalara's culture is heavily influenced by its AI-first ethos and a commitment to innovation. For operations roles, this translates to a need for adaptability, a proactive approach to learning new technologies, and a focus on driving measurable efficiency.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Rapid AI Evolution: Keeping pace with the fast-evolving landscape of generative AI tools and techniques, and continuously learning to apply them effectively.

• Balancing AI and Human Creativity: Integrating AI outputs seamlessly with human creative direction to maintain quality, originality, and brand consistency.

• Scalable Creative Production: Meeting the demands for high-volume, diverse creative assets across multiple channels while maintaining brand integrity and quality standards.

• Remote Collaboration Dynamics: Effectively collaborating and building relationships within a distributed global team, ensuring clear communication and alignment.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• AI Specialization: Opportunities to become an expert in AI-driven design tools and workflows, potentially leading to internal training or advanced certifications.

• Brand Strategy Exposure: Deepen understanding of corporate brand strategy and its application across different marketing and communication initiatives.

• Cross-Functional Acumen: Develop a broader understanding of marketing, sales enablement, and product design by working closely with these teams.

• Process Optimization: Contribute to refining and optimizing the creative production pipeline, gaining experience in operational efficiency within a creative context.

📝 Enhancement Note: The primary challenge and growth opportunity lie in mastering and integrating AI into design operations, transforming creative output and efficiency.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How do you see generative AI evolving the role of a graphic designer in the next 2-3 years, and how are you preparing for that evolution?" (Focus on AI integration, continuous learning, and operational impact).

• "Describe a time you had to balance rapid creative production demands with maintaining strict brand guidelines. What was your approach?" (Highlight process, efficiency, and brand adherence).

• "Walk us through your process for creating digital campaign assets, from brief to final delivery, emphasizing any tools or technologies you use to optimize efficiency." (Detail your workflow, tools, and operational considerations). Company & Culture Questions:

• "What excites you about Avalara's AI-first approach, and how do you envision applying it in a graphic design role?" (Demonstrate research and alignment with company values).

• "How do you approach collaboration within a global, remote team, and what strategies do you use to ensure clear communication and alignment on projects?" (Showcase teamwork and communication skills).

• "Describe a project where your design work directly contributed to a business objective (e.g., lead generation, brand awareness). How did you measure its impact?" (Focus on results and operational outcomes). Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• AI Showcase: Dedicate a section or specific examples to illustrate your use of AI tools. Explain the problem solved, the AI solution implemented, and the resulting efficiency or creative enhancement.

• Process Walkthrough: For 2-3 key projects, walk the interviewer through your entire design process, from brief interpretation to final execution. Explain your rationale behind design choices and how you managed the project.

• Metrics & ROI: Whenever possible, quantify the impact of your work. If you designed an ad campaign, mention engagement rates. If you optimized a workflow, mention time saved.

• Brand Alignment Examples: Clearly show how your designs adhere to specific brand guidelines, demonstrating your ability to be a brand steward.

📝 Enhancement Note: Prepare to discuss your design process through an operational lens, emphasizing efficiency, AI integration, and measurable business impact, not just aesthetic outcomes.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Visual Graphic Designer position:

• Visit the Avalara careers page and submit your application through the provided link.

• Resume Optimization: Tailor your resume to highlight specific keywords from the job description, such as "generative AI," "Adobe InDesign," "Figma," "digital campaign creative," "brand strategy," and "workflow optimization." Quantify achievements wherever possible (e.g., "Increased asset production efficiency by X% using AI tools").

• Portfolio Curation: Ensure your portfolio prominently features examples of your work with generative AI, digital campaign assets, and projects demonstrating strong brand adherence. Organize it logically and be prepared to present it effectively.

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your design process, your experience with AI tools, and how you contribute to operational efficiency. Prepare specific examples for behavioral and technical questions.

• Company Research: Familiarize yourself with Avalara's brand, their AI-first strategy, and their position in the tax compliance industry. Understand their values and how your skills align with their mission.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

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