Director of Tax

PPLSI•Denver, CO

4d•Remote

About The Position

LegalShield (PPLSI) is a leading provider of subscription-based legal and identity theft protection plans. The company is seeking a Director of Tax to manage its comprehensive tax function, including federal, state, international, and indirect taxes. This role reports directly to the CFO and involves setting tax strategy, managing external advisors, leading audits, and ensuring accurate and timely filings. The Director will also evaluate and optimize the balance between internal execution and external advisory services to support the company's growth. This is a hands-on leadership position in a private equity-backed environment requiring precision, speed, and proactive planning.

Requirements

CPA required; MST or JD/LLM in Taxation strongly preferred.
10+ years of progressive tax experience, including a mix of public accounting (Big 4 or national firm) and industry roles.
Deep expertise in corporate income tax compliance, multi-state taxation, and ASC 740 tax provision.
Hands-on experience managing indirect taxes (sales/use, gross receipts, property tax) across multiple jurisdictions.
Proven track record of managing external tax advisors — scoping work, controlling spend, holding firms accountable on quality and deadlines, and knowing when to bring work in-house vs. keep it outsourced.
Experience leading tax audits and managing tax authority relationships.
Strong ERP fluency; ability to extract, manipulate, and reconcile tax data from complex general ledger environments (Workday preferred).
Comfort operating in a PE-backed environment with sponsor-level reporting expectations and a bias for precision and speed.

Nice To Haves

Cross-border tax experience (US/Canada).
Familiarity with tax technology platforms (OneSource, Vertex, Avalara, Corptax, or comparable).
Subscription or membership-based business model experience.
Experience with tax aspects of M&A transactions (due diligence, structuring, integration).
Exposure to equity compensation tax treatment (ISOs, NSOs, profits interests).
Experience managing and developing junior tax professionals.
Experience with insurance or premium tax compliance (regulated entity experience).

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end relationship with external tax compliance advisors, including scope of work, engagement terms, fee negotiation, timeline management, quality review, and performance evaluation.
Review all externally prepared returns and filings for accuracy, completeness, and optimization of filing positions.
Manage the annual tax advisory budget and track spend against scope.
Continuously evaluate the in-house vs. outsourced compliance model and identify opportunities for optimization.
Identify, engage, and manage specialized advisory firms for needs beyond the primary compliance advisor.
Maintain competitive awareness of alternative advisory firms.
Oversee preparation and review of the consolidated federal income tax return and related schedules.
Manage the Canadian federal tax return and ensure compliance with cross-border reporting requirements.
Oversee preparation and review of all state and local income/franchise tax returns.
Ensure all filing positions are defensible, well-documented, and aligned with the company’s risk tolerance.
Manage sales and use tax filings across all applicable states.
Oversee premium tax return preparation and filing for insurance-regulated entities.
Prepare or supervise gross receipts, B&O, and other transaction-based tax filings.
Manage property tax filings and assessments and evaluate and challenge valuations where appropriate.
Ensure timely completion of various local tax returns and specialty filings.
Calculate the monthly income tax provision (current and deferred) and prepare all related journal entries.
Manage federal and state estimated tax payment calculations and ensure timely remittance.
Maintain deferred tax asset/liability schedules and track and reconcile all significant book-to-tax differences.
Own the tax footnote disclosures for the annual audited financial statements and support the external audit on all tax-related matters.
Maintain book/tax difference tracking for intangible asset amortization in coordination with the Controller.
Coordinate with the Controller on deferred tax calculations related to equity compensation and goodwill/intangible amortization differences.
Review the annual reconciliation between quarterly 941 filings and W-2s.
Review and advise on the taxability of deductions, supplemental pay, and new compensation additions.
Advise on employment tax matters involving threshold-based withholding requirements.
Provide updated payroll tax rates and percentages to FP&A for planning and forecasting.
Monitor changes in federal and state payroll tax requirements and communicate implications.
Coordinate with Payroll on the tax treatment of stock option exercises, terminations, and W-2 inclusions.
Maintain tax-basis amortization schedules for intangible assets.
Lead all tax audits (federal, state, and local), manage information requests, and negotiate with authorities.
Monitor and track all outstanding tax matters and maintain a tax contingency inventory.
Identify tax planning opportunities and engage appropriate advisory resources.
Evaluate tax implications of new business initiatives, product structures, entity formations, and potential M&A transactions.
Provide tax structuring recommendations directly to the CFO.
Monitor legislative and regulatory developments and communicate implications and recommended actions.
Ensure compliance with casualty statutory basis reporting requirements and other state regulatory filings.
Contribute to sponsor-level reporting and Board presentations on tax matters.
Make Canadian subsidiary dividend recommendations to the CFO based on tax implications.
Evaluate the current tax compliance workflow for automation opportunities.
Identify and implement tax technology tools to improve accuracy and reduce cycle time.
Maintain and update the comprehensive tax compliance calendar.
Develop standardized workpapers and documentation practices.