Global Custody Senior Tax Strategist

U.S. Bank•Boston, MA

1d•$194,225 - $228,500

About The Position

The Global Custody Senior Tax Specialist is a senior leadership and subject-matter expert role responsible for establishing and advancing the global custody tax strategy for U.S. Bank’s Custody Asset Managers business. The role owns the business-line strategy and multi-year roadmap for global custody tax services, including withholding tax, relief at source, quick refund, tax reclaims, and related investor documentation across global markets. It requires authoritative knowledge of market-specific tax regimes, treaty eligibility, beneficial-owner rules, documentation requirements, reclaim statutes, and recovery practices, as well as the ability to assess tax servicing across complex investment vehicles and translate global developments into implications for clients, products, operations, controls, technology, and market strategy. The position serves as a senior custody tax adviser to clients, prospects, consultants, and internal partners. It leads complex client discussions, develops executive-level materials and market updates, represents U.S. Bank in industry forums, and supports strategic custody opportunities alongside Sales and Relationship Management. It also partners with WCIB Operations, Product, Technology, Network Management, Client Service, Legal, Compliance, and Risk to improve service models, define governance and performance measures, address service failures, and advance scalable tax technology and data capabilities. The role assesses operational, regulatory, financial, and reputational risks; supports audits and regulatory inquiries; promotes effective controls and defensible tax positions; and builds tax expertise through training, playbooks, mentoring, and knowledge sharing. It operates as a senior member of the Custody Asset Managers leadership team, leads material global initiatives, and influences enterprise decisions across organizational boundaries. As the capability develops, the role may recommend a specialist team structure and provide leadership to assigned employees, consultants, or cross-functional workstreams. Final organizational grade, title, compensation range, reporting line, and people-management scope remain subject to HR and Compensation review.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Tax, Finance, Business, Economics, Law, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
Typically 12+ years of progressively responsible experience in global custody tax, asset servicing tax, international withholding tax, securities tax operations, tax product management, or a closely related field.
Extensive direct responsibility for custody clients and global markets.
Demonstrable expertise in relief at source, quick refund, tax reclaims, withholding tax, treaty eligibility, beneficial-owner documentation, and market-specific tax requirements across multiple regions.
Deep knowledge of tax servicing requirements for U.S. registered fund complexes, public funds, ETFs, UCITS, alternative investments, and offshore structures, including Cayman and similar domiciles.
Experience designing or materially improving global custody tax products, operating models, controls, technology workflows, reporting, or market coverage.
Experience working directly with asset managers, asset owners, fund boards, or other institutional clients and explaining complex tax topics to senior non-tax audiences.
Experience managing relationships with third-party tax firms, accounting or law firms, sub-custodians, withholding agents, industry associations, and tax technology providers.
Demonstrated success leading complex cross-functional initiatives across Product, Operations, Technology, Network Management, Risk, Legal, Compliance, Sales, and Client Service.
Exceptional executive communication, client presentation, negotiation, public-speaking, and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

Own and maintain the global custody tax business-line strategy and multi-year roadmap, including withholding tax, relief at source, quick refund, tax reclaims, and investor documentation.
Maintain expertise in global market tax regimes, treaties, beneficial-owner and investor eligibility, documentation, reclaim statutes, and recovery practices.
Assess tax treatment and servicing requirements for registered investment companies, public funds, ETFs, UCITS, alternative investments, private-market structures, Cayman and other offshore funds, omnibus structures, and other complex vehicles.
Monitor global tax and regulatory developments and translate changes into implications for clients, products, operations, controls, technology, and market strategy.
Set priorities for market expansion, service enhancement, automation, and differentiated custody tax capabilities based on client needs, competitive position, risk, and commercial value.
Serve as senior custody tax adviser in client, prospect, consultant, due-diligence, RFP, and strategic relationship discussions.
Lead complex client conversations about relief-at-source eligibility, reclaim strategy, documentation, market practices, service gaps, tax leakage, and recovery opportunities.
Develop executive-level client materials, market updates, thought leadership, and service-positioning content; represent U.S. Bank at conferences, panels, webinars, and industry forums.
Build relationships with industry associations, tax authorities where appropriate, sub-custodians, ICSDs, withholding agents, third-party tax firms, accounting firms, legal advisers, and technology providers.
Partner with Sales and Relationship Management on complex custody opportunities, tax expertise, proposals, and scalable tax solutions.
Partner with WCIB Operations to design and improve the end-to-end operating model for tax documentation, withholding, relief at source, quick refund, reclaims, exception management, reconciliation, reporting, and client communication.
Define accountabilities, escalation paths, and governance for business, Product, Operations, Network Management, Client Service, and Technology.
Establish service requirements, SLAs, KPIs, KRIs, and client scorecard measures for eligibility, documentation, filing timeliness, aged claims, exceptions, recoveries, tax leakage, market coverage, and service responsiveness.
Lead root-cause analysis and remediation for material client issues, recurring service failures, and control gaps, ensuring accountable owners, milestones, and measurable outcomes.
Provide senior technical guidance on complex or non-standard client requests while considering operational feasibility, risk, and required approvals.
Define the target-state technology and data strategy for scalable global tax servicing, client transparency, workflow control, and market intelligence.
Partner with Product, Technology, and Operations to prioritize enhancements to tax workflows, documentation, rules engines, reporting, dashboards, client portals, and data quality.
Evaluate and manage strategic relationships with tax technology providers and external service partners, including solution design, business requirements, implementation oversight, and performance review.
Use client and operational data to identify gaps, quantify tax leakage and recovery opportunities, prioritize markets, and monitor service outcomes.
Ensure tax capabilities are incorporated into the broader custody platform roadmap, investment agenda, and client experience strategy.
Partner with Legal, Compliance, Risk, Operations, and Network Management to interpret tax rules and align service design with U.S. Bank policies, risk appetite, contractual obligations, and control standards.
Assess operational, regulatory, financial, and reputational risks associated with tax service models, non-standard requests, documentation practices, and market changes.
Support risk reviews, audits, regulatory inquiries, and remediation plans involving global custody tax services.
Promote clear procedures, defensible tax positions, effective controls, complete records, and timely escalation of material risks or uncertainties.
Provide concise, decision-oriented updates to senior business leadership as a senior member of the Custody Asset Managers leadership team.
Build enterprise tax expertise through training, playbooks, market guidance, client-service tools, and structured knowledge transfer.
Mentor Tax, Operations, Product, and Client Service colleagues and establish a community of practice across regions and functions.
Influence outcomes across a complex matrix while balancing client needs, risk, operational readiness, commercial priorities, and scalability.
As the capability develops, recommend an appropriate specialist team structure and provide leadership to assigned employees, consultants, or cross-functional workstreams.

Benefits

Healthcare coverage, including medical, dental, and vision.
Basic term and optional term life insurance.
Short-term and long-term disability coverage.
Pregnancy disability and parental leave.
401(k) and employer-funded retirement plan.
Paid vacation of two to five weeks depending on salary grade and tenure.
Up to 11 paid holiday opportunities.
Adoption assistance.
Sick and Safe Leave accruals of one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 80 hours per calendar year unless otherwise provided by law.
Incentive and recognition programs.
Equity stock purchase.
Pension, subject to eligibility requirements.