Senior Director of Data Analytics & Business Systems

Job Description

Job Description

About Instead

Instead is where tax work gets done. Our AI agent orchestrates the entirety of how work gets done in tax, from preparation and compliance to filing and advisory. It's a fundamentally new way of doing tax work, and it's why top 500 firms, Big Four teams, and enterprise corporate tax departments are choosing Instead.

What makes us unique: we hold full government approvals with the IRS, 48 states, and all cities to e-file 1040, 1041, 1120, 1120S, and 1065, with 706, 709, 990, 5500, 2290, and PPT coming for tax year 2026. Instead is a full replacement for CCH Axcess, GoSystem, UltraTax, OneSource, CorpTax, Lacerte, ProConnect, Drake, and more. No other tax startup will be able to offer these capabilities for years as we are two to three years ahead of everyone else in government approvals. This lets us build product experiences that are simply unmatched in the market.

Instead is backed by Conviction, IRIS (the largest tax software provider in the UK), Skylark, Aprio, and many of our partners and customers. Our team includes leaders from Intuit, Gusto, Zenefits, Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer, PwC, BDO, RSM, and KPMG.

The Role

We're looking for a Senior Director of Data Analytics and Business Systems to own the data infrastructure and business systems that power Instead's operations. You'll be responsible for everything from Salesforce and Okta to Metabase and Tableau, building the analytics and reporting layer that helps leadership make decisions and the IT systems that keep the company running.

This is a high-ownership role that spans product analytics, go-to-market analytics, finance reporting, and IT operations. You'll build ARR roll-forwards, renewal schedules, and pipeline dashboards while also managing identity and access management, data pipelines, and system integrations. You'll oversee an IT administration team responsible for device management, employee onboarding and offboarding across four offices in the US and internationally.

What You'll Do

• Own and optimize Salesforce as the system of record for sales, customer success, and onboarding workflows
• Build and maintain analytics and reporting across Metabase, Tableau, and custom dashboards covering product usage, GTM performance, and customer health
• Own finance reporting including ARR roll-forwards, renewal schedules, cohort analysis, and board-level metrics
• Manage data pipelines and integrations using Hevo Data, Fivetran, or similar ETL tools to connect systems and maintain a clean, reliable data layer
• Administer Okta and all identity/access management, including SSO configuration and security policies
• Oversee the IT administration team responsible for device management, employee onboarding and offboarding, and day-to-day IT operations across US and international offices
• Build integrations between business systems (Salesforce, billing, product) that automate manual workflows and reduce errors
• Deliver product analytics that help product and engineering teams understand usage patterns, feature adoption, and customer behavior
• Evaluate and implement new tools and systems as the company scales

What You Bring

• 4+ years of experience in business systems, data analytics, IT operations, or a similar role spanning multiple functions
• Deep expertise in Salesforce administration and architecture (custom objects, workflows, reporting, integrations)
• Strong experience building dashboards and reports in Metabase, Tableau, Looker, or similar BI tools
• Experience with data pipeline tools (Fivetran, Hevo Data, Stitch, or similar ETL platforms)
• Hands-on experience with Okta or similar identity management platforms
• Ability to build financial models and reporting (ARR, retention, cohort analysis) that leadership and investors rely on
• Comfortable managing a team across multiple offices and time zones

What Makes Someone Exceptional

• You've been the "one person who runs everything" at a fast-growing startup before and you know how to prioritize when every system needs attention
• You can build a board-ready ARR dashboard in the morning and debug an Okta SSO integration in the afternoon
• You think about data as a product. Clean data, reliable pipelines, and dashboards people actually use matter more to you than fancy tools
• You automate yourself out of repetitive work. If you're doing something manually more than twice, you build a system for it
• You can translate business questions into SQL queries and SQL results into executive-level narratives

Location

San Francisco (on-site)

Instead is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate candidates based on capability, judgment, ownership, and fit for the role's responsibilities. We welcome candidates who can help us build a category-defining company in tax technology.