Sales Development Performance Lead

What You'll Do

As part of a new Center of Excellence we are creating a new role of Sales Development Performance Lead (Performance Lead).  The Performance Lead is a manager level individual contributor within Avalara's global Sales Development organization. This is a newly created, upleveled role born from a deliberate decision to separate production accountability from quality accountability - freeing Managers to own attainment and daily execution while the Performance Lead owns the quality, consistency, and enablement infrastructure that makes attainment sustainable over time.

This is not a training coordinator role. It is a practitioner role. The Performance Lead carries a small monthly personal quota - approximately 10-20% of the individual XDR’s quota they will support - because being on the phone keeps the Performance Lead current on what prospects are saying, what objections are landing, and what the market looks and sounds like today. XDRs will observe the Performance Lead make live calls. That is part of the job design. Credibility in this role comes from doing, not from being designated.

The Performance Lead's primary success metric is not personal production. It is the percentage of XDRs they support who achieve quota – currently targeting: 75–80%+ of the team hitting quota. The Performance Lead achieves this through structured call listening (Gong), live side-by-sides, Hyperbound scoring and AI coaching, certification administration and scoring, and individual development planning grounded in data. I would add some responsibility in here around promoting AI use and workflow automation.

The Performance Lead is structured regionally but connected globally. Each region - US, EMEA, and India - has at least one dedicated Performance Lead. All Performance Leads operate against the same QA scorecard, the same certification framework, and the same Performance Lead charter. A weekly global Performance Lead sync ensures top-performer insights flow from each region to all regions, and that coaching standards remain consistent regardless of geography.

The Performance Lead partners daily with regional Managers. The division of responsibility is explicit: the Performance Lead owns quality and enablement; the Manager owns production and performance management. The two functions are designed to reinforce each other, not duplicate.

What Your Responsibilities Will Be

• Drive regional team quota attainment, with a primary KPI of 75–80%+ of XDRs in the region hitting quota consistently. Monitor individual and team performance data daily, surface early warning signals before they become pipeline problems, and translate data patterns into targeted coaching actions.
• Own call quality through active listening and live coaching. Review 5+ Gong-recorded calls per month per XDR, score against the global QA scorecard, and deliver structured individual debriefs. Conduct weekly live side-by-sides during XDR call blocks - observing, coaching in real time, and modeling correct behavior on the phone.
• Carry and work a small personal quota of approximately 10-20% of the individual XDR’s quota. Make calls alongside the XDR team, invite observation, and use your own live calls as teaching moments. Being active on the phone is the mechanism by which the Performance Lead remains credible and current.
• Administer and score XDR certifications across the full regional XDR population: Product Knowledge Test, Prospecting & Process Assessment, and Cold Call Certification. Use certification results to build individual, rep-specific development plans - not generic training programs. Track progression and re-assess on a defined cadence.
• Drive Hyperbound scoring and AI-assisted coaching. Assign targeted scenarios, track score progression quarter-over-quarter, and use Hyperbound and Gong data to identify the specific skill gaps (opening, discovery, objection handling, closing) that separate high performers from developing ones in your region.
• Maintain and evolve the regional playbook library on Highspot: partner-specific talk tracks, objection handling guides, competitive battle cards, and sequence templates. Ensure playbooks reflect current market conditions - what prospects are actually saying - not what worked six months ago.
• Represent your region in the weekly global Performance Lead sync. Contribute insights on what is working in your region, bring back best practices from other regions, and help maintain a single global standard of quality across US, EMEA, and India XDR teams.
• Contribute to new hire onboarding and ramp programs (NEO and ramp curriculum). The Performance Lead is the voice of the floor in enablement design - translating what works in live call activity into structured onboarding content that accelerates new XDR time-to-productivity.
• Partner with regional Managers on at-risk XDR identification. Share coaching data, call scoring trends, and certification results with Managers to inform performance management decisions. The Performance Lead surfaces the signal; the Manager owns the action.
• There needs to be some accountability built here around assessing and driving proper tool usage and workflow optimization with the XDRs.
• Reporting directly into the SR Manager (or Director) of Sales Dev Operations/Strategic Initiatives (DevOps) and responsible for surfacing tool, process, workflow issues from the field to DevOps.

#li-hybrid

What You’ll Need To Be Successful

• 2+ years of XDR (SDR, ADR, or BDR) experience, including experience both as an SDR and ADR (Inbound and Outbound). You have done this job at a high level and can demonstrate it.
• Consistent quota attainment history. You know what it takes to hit and you have done it repeatedly. You have a proven track record of success that you can draw upon to teach and coach others.
• Experience coaching or mentoring peers - formal or informal. You have made the people around you measurably better and can describe how.
• Strong working knowledge of the full XDR technology stack: Salesforce, Outreach, ZoomInfo, 6sense, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Gong, and Glean.  You use these tools fluently.
• Data fluency. You can read a performance dashboard, identify a pattern, and translate it into a specific coaching action - not a general observation.
• Sandler, Challenger and/or LAER objection handling proficiency. You have a familiarity with these frameworks on live calls. You can teach them because you practice them.
• Certification eligibility. You must pass all three XDR certification assessments at the Strong threshold (90%+, 85%+, and full cold call score).
• Experience with Hyperbound or equivalent AI call coaching tools (strongly preferred). Comfort using AI scoring and scenario tools to identify and close skill gaps.
• Cross-regional awareness (preferred). Exposure to how XDR motions work in markets outside your own - US, EMEA, or India.
• Experience building or contributing to enablement content (preferred). Talk tracks, objection guides, playbooks, or onboarding curricula.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Excellent strategic, conceptual, and leadership skills
• Ability to collaborate effectively and engage both up and down in the organization

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.