Senior Manager State Tax

About the role

IES Holdings is seeking a State Tax Senior Manager to own state and local tax (SALT) compliance and financial reporting across a multi-state footprint spanning all 50 states. Our continued growth through acquisition has built a complex, fast-evolving SALT footprint, with roughly 400 state and local income, franchise, and composite returns filed each year across a wide range of jurisdictions.

Responsibilities

• Own state and local income tax compliance across a multi-state (all 50 states) footprint, including unitary and combined filings, working closely with a third-party compliance provider on approximately 400 state tax returns.
• Maintain a comprehensive compliance calendar; track filing deadlines, extension requests, and payment obligations across all jurisdictions.
• Research and resolve complex state tax issues arising from multi-state operations, including nexus determinations, apportionment methodologies, and state conformity to federal tax law.
• Respond to state and local tax notices, audits, and inquiries; coordinate with external counsel and advisors as needed.
• Build relationships across business segments to improve data flow and visibility for the tax function.
• Lead the quarterly and annual state income tax provision (ASC 740), including deferred taxes, valuation allowances, and uncertain tax positions, and serve as the primary contact for state tax matters during the external audit.
• Manage estimated tax payments, projections, and reconciliations.
• Serve as the primary liaison for the company's outsourced state tax compliance engagement — scope, quality, deliverables, and budget.
• Review completed returns and deliverables from the service provider for accuracy, jurisdictional completeness, and alignment with the company's tax positions.
• Continuously evaluate the effectiveness of the outsourcing relationship and recommend process improvements or scope adjustments.
• Lead state tax planning, nexus analysis, and entity restructuring projects, and support state income tax due diligence and integration for mergers and acquisitions.
• Monitor state and local legislative developments and communicate impacts to leadership.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with accounting, legal, treasury, and operations teams on state tax matters.
• Identify opportunities to modernize the state tax function through technology and AI tools, and build repeatable, well-documented processes.
• Supervise, coach, and develop tax staff, with the opportunity to help shape and grow the team over time.
• Serve as the company's subject matter expert on state and local income tax, and as a resource to the broader tax, accounting, and operations organizations.
• Present state tax results, exposures, audit status, and planning opportunities to management in a clear, decision-ready format.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field; CPA strongly preferred; MST or JD a plus.
• 10-15+ years of progressive state and local income tax experience, including significant multi-state compliance and ASC 740 provision work.
• Experience in a large public accounting firm and/or a publicly traded corporate tax department.
• Prior experience managing a third-party tax compliance outsourcing relationship (scope, budget, and quality accountability).
• Experience directly supervising and developing tax professionals.
• Strong knowledge of state apportionment methodologies, nexus rules, and state conformity to federal tax law.
• Proficiency with tax compliance/provision software such as CorpTax or OneSource.
• Comfort working with data and a genuine interest in using automation and AI tools (Power BI, Power Query, Alteryx, or similar) to improve efficiency.
• Experience supporting M&A due diligence and post-close integration is a plus; exposure to international tax is a plus but not required.
• Strong communicator who can translate technical tax concepts for non-tax stakeholders, and who is comfortable presenting to senior finance leadership.
• Willingness to travel occasionally (roughly one to two trips per year) to meet with business segment leaders.