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Salary: USD 185,000 - 225,000 / annual
Kickstarter, the leading crowdfunding platform for creative projects, is seeking an experienced Director of Tax to lead and strategically shape the company's tax function globally. This is a high-visibility role reporting to executive leadership, focused on indirect tax strategy (VAT, GST, sales tax) related to Kickstarter's marketplace sales products, with direct tax matters also under this purview.
You will serve as the company's primary internal tax authority, advising executive leadership and collaborating with Legal, Product, and Finance on tax implications of new markets, product offerings, and business structures. Key responsibilities include:
• Own global indirect tax strategy, setting priorities and risk tolerance in partnership with Finance and Legal leadership
• Build, manage, and develop a tax team, establishing standards, workflows, and career development paths as the function scales
• Set the roadmap for the company's tax technology stack (including Avalara), leading automation and process initiatives that reduce manual operations and support global expansion
• Design and implement indirect tax processes and controls purpose-built for a marketplace model
• Serve as primary relationship owner for external tax advisors across jurisdictions
• Act as primary resource for assessing tax impact and explaining Kickstarter's tax policy with strategic creators and high-value partners
• Own accuracy, timeliness, and integrity of VAT, sales tax, and corporate filings across all applicable jurisdictions
• Partner with Legal, Product, and executive leadership to evaluate and structure tax implications of new offerings, markets, and business models, including entity structuring and cross-border considerations
• Own transfer pricing policy and documentation across subsidiaries
• Lead the company's response to tax notices and audits
• Partner with the Insights team to establish reconciliation standards between internal data and filed returns
• Direct product testing standards for tax calculation accuracy as the company launches new features or expands into new jurisdictions
• Own tax input into the company's audited financial statements
• Act as executive-level point of contact for tax matters in board and audit committee materials
• Set strategy and standards for the company's tax help center and customer-facing indirect tax content
Requirements:
• Extensive experience in indirect tax leadership, ideally including time at a two-sided marketplace or platform business
• Hands-on technical proficiency with Avalara and comparable tax engines—ability to work inside the tooling to configure, troubleshoot, and improve it
• Big 4 accounting experience at Senior Manager level or above, or equivalent experience at a top law firm, with a track record in fast-paced, high-precision environments
• Experience working at companies both big and small, understanding how tax function needs change as a company scales
• Experience building training and enablement for internal, non-tax-expert audiences in partnership with Finance and Legal
• Deep technical grounding in how tax code works; pragmatic approach to tax with ability to discern real and actionable risk versus theoretical risk
• Strong instincts for audit preparedness, with experience building documentation and processes that make audits smoother
• Comfort operating with ambiguity and sound judgment where the "right answer" isn't written down yet
• Builder mentality: wanting to construct the tax function's team, technology, and processes from the ground up
• Collaborative approach, with experience partnering closely with Product, Legal, and other departments
Candidates based in the United States and United Kingdom are strongly preferred. The company currently supports employees in CA, CO, CT, GA, IL, MA, MD, NC, NJ, NY, OR, SC, VA, VT, WA, and the United Kingdom.
