Tax Manager

Take Ownership of Complex Tax Work. Help Shape the Future of a Growing Firm.

Good Works Talent is partnering with an established CPA firm in Northern California to recruit a Tax Manager for its growing practice.

This is a tax leadership opportunity with a broader scope than preparing returns and managing deadlines. You’ll work closely with the firm’s partners, helping business owners and individuals navigate complex tax situations, plan ahead, and make informed decisions throughout the year.

You’ll take meaningful ownership of technical tax work and review, strengthen client relationships, and help develop less-experienced staff. Your contribution will create capacity for the firm to continue growing while providing the thoughtful, personal service its clients value.

For a CPA interested in ownership, there is also potential to grow toward partnership over time, based on performance, mutual fit, and an agreed path forward.

What You’ll Accomplish

Become a trusted technical resource. During your first 90 days, you’ll learn the firm’s clients, tax workflow, and review standards while taking increasing responsibility for complex returns and review assignments. You’ll develop an understanding of where your expertise can have the greatest impact and when a matter needs partner involvement.

Strengthen tax preparation and review. You’ll handle sophisticated income tax work, review returns prepared by other team members, and resolve technical questions. Your review feedback will help improve the current assignment while building the preparer’s ability to handle similar issues independently.

Build lasting client relationships. You’ll be introduced to an assigned group of clients alongside an established firm leader and gradually become a dependable contact for questions, planning, and follow-up. The firm intentionally connects clients with more than one team member, creating continuity as responsibilities grow.

Help clients plan ahead. You’ll contribute to year-round tax planning, including estimated payments, financial updates, and year-end decisions. Depending on the client’s needs, that work may involve business sales, real estate transactions, charitable giving, trusts, gifts, estates, and other complex tax matters.

The objective is to identify important issues early so clients can understand their options before a transaction or filing deadline limits their choices.

Develop the people around you. You’ll coach less-experienced staff through real client work, explain technical reasoning, and help them build confidence with increasingly challenging assignments. As the team’s capability grows, you’ll help more work move forward without requiring partner involvement at every step.

Support the firm’s next stage of growth. You’ll help improve handoffs, reduce review bottlenecks, and support new client onboarding. By the end of your first year, success should mean meaningful ownership of tax work, stronger client coverage, and greater capacity across the practice.

Why This Could Be a Significant Career Move

This role offers the opportunity to do sophisticated tax work while staying close to the clients and decisions behind it. You’ll see how your advice affects business owners, families, and individuals managing significant financial transitions.

You’ll also have direct access to firm leaders who provide tools, answer questions, and trust people to manage their responsibilities. In a practice of approximately 14 people, your contribution will be visible across client service, staff development, and the firm’s future.

For someone interested in partnership, the anticipated horizon is approximately four to five years, although timing and terms would depend on your contribution and mutual agreement. The opportunity begins with earning trust through technical judgment, client relationships, and collaborative leadership.

An existing book of business is not required. The firm is growing through referrals and needs someone who can help serve that demand well. Experience developing relationships or bringing in business would be a plus.

What Will Make You Successful

You’ll bring a strong foundation in public accounting tax, with experience handling complex returns, reviewing work, and communicating with clients.

You may have approximately five to ten or more years of progressive experience. More important is what you’ve accomplished, the complexity of the work you’ve owned, and how your responsibilities have developed.

A CPA is strongly preferred, particularly for someone interested in the potential partnership path. A highly experienced Enrolled Agent may also be considered for the technical tax opportunity, with career scope discussed separately.

Trust, estate, and gift tax experience would be particularly valuable. A master’s in taxation is helpful, but demonstrated technical depth and experience resolving sophisticated tax issues can also provide that foundation.

You should enjoy helping others develop, asking questions when needed, and contributing beyond your own assignments when the team faces a deadline. Sound judgment, clear communication, continued learning, and dependable follow-through will matter alongside your technical ability.

The Environment

This position is expected to be based in Roseville, California, with Grass Valley also available as an option. Hybrid flexibility exists, with meaningful time in the office important during onboarding and as you build relationships with colleagues and clients.

The firm values flexibility around personal and family commitments alongside reliable client service. Busy-season demands are part of the work, with a planning goal of approximately 150 overtime hours annually, concentrated largely during tax season.

Anticipated base compensation is $140,000–$160,000, depending on experience, with potential flexibility for an exceptional candidate.

The environment suits someone who values autonomy, works well with others, shares knowledge, and wants to make a long-term contribution to a growing practice.

Interested? Start With What You’ve Accomplished.

Instead of simply matching your résumé against a checklist, we’re interested in the work you’ve actually done.

If you’ve resolved a complex tax issue, helped a client plan through a significant transaction, improved the quality of a review process, developed another team member, or taken ownership of important client relationships, we’d like to hear the story.

Those accomplishments may tell us considerably more about your fit than whether every keyword on your résumé matches the job description.