Compliance Lead

About Sphere

Every breakthrough in trade infrastructure has followed the same pattern: reduce a transaction cost, expand the market. Containerization for goods. SWIFT for money. Stripe for payments. Compliance is one of the last and largest — and the hardest, because trade rules aren't data to be looked up. They're a complex adaptive system with 190+ sovereign jurisdictions, in different languages, changing constantly, reacting to each other.

Sphere built the system that solves it. Our AI (TRAM) ingests global trade law, interprets it, resolves conflicts across jurisdictions, and produces compliance determinations more reliable than human experts. We handle the entire lifecycle — calculation, registration, filing, remittance — at millisecond latency with zero downtime.

• Backed by a16z and YC. $21M Series A, 30%+ month-over-month growth, customers include ElevenLabs, Replit, Deel, Runway, and Lovable.

• Small team, global surface area. Everyone owns a domain that would be a full team at a larger company. San Francisco, five days in office.

• The problem keeps compounding. Expanding into input tax, withholding, e-invoicing, tariffs — each multiplies the complexity. Tens of millions of transactions today, billions ahead.

The Role

We are seeking a Compliance Lead to own the end-to-end indirect tax filing and compliance process across multiple jurisdictions. This role will be responsible for ensuring timely, accurate, and scalable return preparation and review, while building processes that reduce risk and increase efficiency.

You will act as the operational backbone of the tax function, taking ownership of compliance so that the broader team can scale.

What You'll Do

Within days:

• Work directly with our head of tax on the below:

• Own the monthly/periodic tax filing cycle across thousands of returns

• Manage timelines, deliverables, and coordination across teams

• Ensure filings are completed accurately and on time

Within months:

• Design and implement scalable compliance processes

• Partner with engineering to improve automation

• Reduce manual effort and increase reliability of filings

Requirements

• High attention to detail - one of our key values is 'Sweating the details' and it is essential in our business

• Strong communication skills - we work at an extremely fast pace and so clear, concise communication is essential

• Multi tasking capabilities - a lot will be thrown at you and you'll need to manage your time wisely

• Deep understanding of compliance processes, reconciliations, and controls

Who You Are

You'll thrive here if:

• You're a Dog. You've been underestimated, gone through struggle, and never stopped running. You have a chip on your shoulder and enormous drive. You look at Stripe, Deel, and Flexport all punting on compliance and think: good, that means the opportunity is ours. Hunger beats pedigree.

• Early stage is in your bones. You've built things where there's no playbook and nobody handing you the answer. You define the problem instead of waiting for instructions.

• You own it end to end. Give you a goal and you figure out your own path. Small team, global surface area — everyone owns a domain that would be a full team at a larger company. No one tells you how.

• You believe speed and accuracy are both possible. We're building a complex product that requires robustness and 100% uptime, and we have to build at our customers' pace. Move fast. Don't break things. Both.

This won't be a fit if:

• You need structure handed to you or ambiguity feels draining rather than motivating

• You want to manage people more than own hard problems (we're a flat, experienced team — everyone builds)

• You're used to "good enough" shipping (small errors have outsized impact here)