Director of Tax, Kickstarter
$185-225k
Salary applicable to U.S. - may vary in other locations
More information about location
Crowdfunding platform for creative projects
Open for applications
Crowdfunding platform for creative projects
201-500 employees
Open for applications
$185-225k
Salary applicable to U.S. - may vary in other locations
More information about location
201-500 employees
Company mission
To help bring creative projects to life.
Role
Who you are
- You have extensive experience in indirect tax leadership, ideally including time at a two-sided marketplace or platform business, with an understanding of how those models complicate tax treatment
- You have hands-on technical proficiency with Avalara and comparable tax engines, not just oversight, but the ability to work inside the tooling to configure, troubleshoot, and improve it
- You have Big 4 accounting experience at the Senior Manager level or above, or equivalent experience at a top law firm, with a track record built in fast-paced, high-precision environments
- You have experience working at companies both big and small, and understand how tax function needs change as a company scales
- You have experience building training and enablement for internal, non-tax-expert audiences in partnership with Finance and Legal, helping teams outside of tax make sound day-to-day decisions
- You have deep technical grounding in how tax code actually works, and you’re pragmatic in your approach to tax. You’re able to quickly discern what's real and actionable risk versus theoretical risk
- You have strong instincts for audit preparedness, with experience building the documentation and processes that make audits smoother rather than scrambling when one arrives
- You are comfortable operating with ambiguity and determined to find the right path forward. This role requires sound judgment where the "right answer" isn't written down anywhere yet
- You are a builder: someone who wants to construct the tax function's team, technology, and processes from the ground up, not just maintain what exists
- You are collaborative, with experience partnering closely with Product, Legal, and other departments to build solutions together rather than issuing top-down rulings
What the job involves
- Kickstarter is seeking an experienced Director, Tax to lead our tax function and set the strategic direction for tax across the company and its subsidiaries globally
- This role is focused on indirect tax (e.g., VAT, GST, and sales tax) strategy related to Kickstarter’s marketplace sales products. Direct tax matters will also sit under this role
- You'll be the company's primary internal tax authority, advising executive leadership and collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders including legal, product, and finance on the tax implications of new markets, product offerings, and structures, while modernizing and scaling Kickstarter's tax technology and processes for our global user base
- This is a high-visibility role for a strategic tax leader who is highly curious, stays ahead of evolving tax guidance across jurisdictions, and wants to build a function, not just run one
- Own the company's global indirect tax strategy globally, 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 and adjacent tools), 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, drawing on prior experience standing up this kind of process at another marketplace or online platform
- Serve as the primary relationship owner for the Company's external tax advisors across jurisdictions, directing engagement priorities and ensuring advice and assumed risk are clearly communicated to executive stakeholders
- Act as the primary resource when assessing tax impact and explaining Kickstarter’s tax policy with strategic new and existing creators and high value partners
- Ultimately own the accuracy, timeliness, and integrity of VAT, sales tax, and corporate filings across all applicable jurisdictions, overseeing the team and advisors who execute them
- Partner directly with Legal, Product, and executive leadership to evaluate and structure the tax implications of new offerings, markets, and business models, including entity structuring and cross-border considerations
- Own transfer pricing policy and documentation across subsidiaries, in partnership with external advisors
- Lead the Company's response to tax notices and audits, including managing outside counsel and advisors on higher-stakes or multi-jurisdiction matters
- Partner with the Insights team to establish reconciliation standards between internal data and filed returns, and resolve discrepancies at a structural level
- Direct product testing standards for tax calculation accuracy as the Company launches new features or expands into new jurisdictions
- Own the tax input into the Company's audited financial statements, partnering with Accounting leadership on technical positions, disclosures, and month-end close for all tax-related entries
- Act as the executive-level point of contact for tax matters in board and audit committee materials, as needed
- Set the strategy and standards for the Company's tax help center and customer-facing indirect tax content, ensuring accuracy and consistency as the product evolves
Our take
Kickstarter is a crowdfunding platform that is dedicated to the creative ecosystem, providing its community of painters, musicians, filmmakers, gamers, and all other creatives with a space to raise money for specific projects.
Kickstarter Campaigns operate on an “all-or-nothing” basis, meaning that if a campaign misses a deadline, they don’t get any of the money pledged to their project, however, creators are able to set deadlines and funding goals themselves in order to make the success of their campaign more manageable.
The company also launched a new feature in early 2023, called Drip, which enables creators to receive continued support from backers through subscription-based payments, ensuring sustainable funding for their projects.
By ensuring creatives retain 100% ownership of their work, the company simplifies the fundraising process by eliminating the need for long and complicated grant application processes, donors asking creators to make modifications, or last-minute edit requests from investors. Since its launch in 2009, 22M people around the globe have pledged over $7.2B to help fund projects such as the early version of Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag.
Freddie
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
16% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Mar 2024
$100m
LATE VC
Mar 2011
$10m
EARLY VC
Total funding: $120m
Company benefits
- Continuous Learning: Curiosity is our compass. We welcome experimentation, failure, and the courage to try again. We invest in many kinds of trainings and workshops to make sure our team is always building new skills.
- Community: Join an Affinity Group like Black At Kickstarter, Parents, Azns, Queerstarter, or Gender Justice. Attend the many exciting social and cultural events available to Kickstarter employees. These include speaker series, product demos, concerts from teammates, pre-release film screenings, industry meetups, and more.
- Social Contribution: Every year Kickstarter donates five percent of our after-tax profit to organizations that fight systemic inequality and promote arts education. All full-time employees can nominate recipient organizations and apply to join the committee that ultimately directs our contributions.
- Stipends: We offer a yearly reimbursable stipend for Remote Working and Wellness.
- Fully Remote Work: Work flexibly. All full-time employees can live and work anywhere we are registered as an employer. See below for a list of current locations. We anticipate this list will continue to expand as we grow our distributed workforce.
- Benefits: Among other benefits, we offer a three percent safe harbor 401K contribution, world-class healthcare coverage, 16 annual paid vacation days, paid holidays, and 25 annual paid volunteer hours to all full-time employees.
Leadership
Everette Taylor
(CEO)Founder of ET Enterprises. Former CMO of Artsy and Skurt. They also previously worked as Head of Growth (Interim) at Microsoft China.
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