CPA Director Of Tax & Practice Operations (California Tax)

Location: Primarily remote in Southern California; must reside within reasonable traveling distance of West Los Angeles and West Hollywood and attend in-person client and firm meetings when required. Work Location: Hybrid remote in West Los Angeles, CA 90025.

Company

Established Southern California CPA firm developing an established accounting practice and serving Russian-speaking clients.

What you will do

• Prepare and review complex federal, California, and multistate tax returns, workpapers, calculations, extensions, estimates, projections, notices, and related compliance matters.
• Lead tax engagements from planning through final review and delivery, managing scope, deadlines, budgets, billing, realization, profitability, and resource utilization.
• Serve as a senior client contact, explain complex tax and accounting matters, provide tax planning advice, and manage sensitive or escalated matters in Russian and English.
• Supervise, mentor, train, and technically guide tax and accounting professionals while establishing quality, review, documentation, and accountability standards.
• Manage scheduling, workload planning, workflow, staffing, deadline priorities, collections, and operational decisions for the tax practice.
• Develop standardized workflows, review procedures, quality controls, and technology or automation improvements in collaboration with firm leadership.

Requirements

• Active CPA license.
• 8–10 years of recent public accounting experience.
• Significant experience preparing and reviewing federal and state tax returns, with strong knowledge of federal and California taxation and extensive experience in individual and business taxation.
• Strong experience with Forms 1040, 1065, 1120, and 1120S; experience with trust and estate taxation is strongly preferred.
• Experience reviewing complex tax returns prepared by other professionals and independently identifying and resolving complex tax issues.
• Experience managing tax engagements from planning through completion, supervising and developing professional staff, and managing multiple engagements and competing deadlines.
• Strong tax research and analytical capabilities, excellent written and verbal communication, strong organization and time management, and independent professional judgment.
• Ability to remain accountable in a primarily remote environment and coordinate with US-based and remote professionals.
• Professional fluency in Russian and English.
• Must reside in Southern California within reasonable traveling distance of West Los Angeles and West Hollywood. Ability and willingness to attend in-person client and firm meetings when required.

Nice to have

• Experience with California-based public accounting practices, high-net-worth individuals, closely held or family-owned businesses, partnerships, S corporations, trusts, estates, and multistate taxation.
• Experience with tax planning and projections, IRS and California tax notices, engagement budgeting and realization, billing and collections, practice management, and distributed or remote professional teams.
• Experience with process improvement, workflow development, tax technology, and automation.

Culture & Benefits

• Primarily remote work arrangement with no regular daily office attendance.
• Local travel for client meetings, firm leadership meetings, tax planning and advisory meetings, and other business activities requiring in-person presence.
• Opportunity to participate in a profit-sharing bonus program after six months of employment and successful performance.
• Long-term opportunity to assume increasing responsibility for client relationships, tax operations, staff, workflow, engagement profitability, and practice performance.
• Confidential application and interview process.