Tax & Payroll Operations Lead

About the role

As a Tax & Payroll Operations Lead, you will be a key operator in the tax lifecycle, ensuring payments are accurate and timely, resolving complex agency notices, and applying strong judgment to ambiguous tax scenarios.

You will own filing payment operations end-to-end within your scope (e.g., assigned jurisdictions): payment setup, verification, troubleshooting, and remediation when something goes wrong.

You will diagnose and resolve complex tax notices, determine root cause across filings, payments, agency systems, and internal workflows.

You will drive complex corrections and reconciliations (e.g., payment misapplies, reversals/reissues, under/overpayments), escalating thoughtfully when tradeoffs or risk are involved.

You will partner with R&D / Product and cross-functional ops teams to inform system behavior and prevent repeat issues (better tooling, validations, automation, and documentation).

You will identify patterns across payments + notices and propose improvements that reduce risk, shorten resolution times, and improve partner experience.

Responsibilities

• Owning filing payment operations end-to-end within your scope (e.g., assigned jurisdictions): payment setup, verification, troubleshooting, and remediation when something goes wrong.
• Diagnosing and resolving complex tax notices, determining root cause across filings, payments, agency systems, and internal workflows.
• Driving complex corrections and reconciliations (e.g., payment misapplies, reversals/reissues, under/overpayments), escalating thoughtfully when tradeoffs or risk are involved.
• Partnering with R&D / Product and cross-functional ops teams to inform system behavior and prevent repeat issues (better tooling, validations, automation, and documentation).
• Identifying patterns across payments + notices and proposing improvements that reduce risk, shorten resolution times, and improve partner experience.

Requirements

• 4-6+ years in payroll/tax operations.
• Demonstrated expertise in payroll tax operations/compliance (e.g., filings/remittances, notice resolution, corrections/amendments, reconciliations), and comfort owning tax decisions/tradeoffs.
• Startup or high-growth company background.
• Strong judgment and escalation instincts: knows when to self-serve vs. when to pull in the Tax & Compliance Manager / cross-functional partners.
• Track record of process improvement: can spot patterns and help drive changes that reduce recurrence (tooling, documentation, controls).
• Startup instincts in practice: writes the runbook before one exists, creates lightweight controls/visibility, and turns recurring issues into a scalable fix (not just a workaround).
• AI-forward mindset: uses AI tools to move faster (analysis, drafting, pattern recognition) while validating for correctness in regulated work.
• Strong communication skills. You can translate between team-level detail and leadership-level framing, and you know which audience needs which version.
• A genuine learner. You'll be getting fluent in a niche domain on the job, and you find that interesting rather than uncomfortable.

Qualifications

• The ideal candidate will have a bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, economics, or a related field.
• Experience with tax software and compliance tools is a plus.
• Familiarity with financial regulations and tax laws is beneficial.
• Ability to work independently and manage multiple tasks simultaneously.

Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
• Effective communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Benefits

• Competitive salary and benefits package.
• Flexible work arrangements including remote, hybrid, or office-based options.
• Regular team offsites, events, and hackathons.
• Annual company retreat.
• Equal opportunity employer.

Pay

Salary range: $80,000 - $120,000 annually.

Schedule

Full-time position.