Head of Tax

Arca•New York, NY

1d•$175,000 - $250,000•Onsite

About The Position

Arca is hiring its first tax professional to build an AI-native tax practice from the ground up. The practice will make tax a proactive, year-round part of clients’ financial lives, beginning with individual returns (1040s), planning, projections, and notices, and potentially expanding to business returns for clients who own businesses. The Head of Tax will define the practice’s scope, service model, quality standards, and vendor choices, including core tax return software. This is a hands-on leadership role combining tax work with the design of the platform and processes that support it. The Head of Tax will prepare, review, and own complex client returns; work closely with engineers and product partners to design tax workflows and AI-agent responsibilities; and coordinate tax and investment advice with wealth advisors. The role also owns the tax service as a business, including pricing, revenue, capacity, and building the team. Arca is a wealth management firm rebuilding its services with AI. The team is based in Flatiron, New York City, and works fully in-office five days a week. The role offers the opportunity to establish the tax practice and help shape the approach for future service lines.

Requirements

Active CPA license.
8–15+ years of individual and high-net-worth tax experience at a top firm, family office, or planning-focused practice.
Experience preparing and reviewing complex Form 1040 returns and signing off on others’ work.
Familiarity with equity compensation, rental real estate, and multi-state tax matters.
Comfort with business returns for owner-clients, including S-corporations, partnerships, and C-corporations.
Experience standing up a practice, introducing a new service line, or materially improving operating processes.
Ability to take initiative, operate independently, and drive impact and results.
Existing use of AI in professional work and strong views on which parts of the tax process it should handle.
Ability to identify slow or error-prone tax processes and describe what an effective system should do; coding ability is not required.
Ability to explain complex situations clearly to clients and work in partnership with wealth advisors.
High standards for accuracy and quality in tax filings and client work.
Kind, direct, low-ego communication style and ability to give candid feedback constructively.
Willingness to work in a small, fully in-office team five days a week.

Nice To Haves

Experience working alongside a wealth management or registered investment adviser (RIA) practice.

Responsibilities

Build and define Arca’s tax practice, including its offerings, target clients, service model, and quality standards.
Establish the practice beginning with individual tax returns (1040s), year-round planning, projections, and notices, with potential expansion to business returns.
Select vendors, particularly core tax return software, to support the tax business.
Design end-to-end AI-native tax workflows for document collection, data normalization, preparation, review, filing, and post-filing activities.
Partner with engineering and product teams to build the tax platform and serve as the domain authority for tax workflows.
Prepare, review, and own complex client tax returns, including situations involving equity compensation, business income, S-corporations, rental real estate, and multi-state filings.
Explain tax matters to clients in plain English and help them feel confident that their tax needs are handled.
Coordinate tax and investment advice with wealth advisors, including tax-loss harvesting, Roth conversions, charitable strategy, equity compensation exercise timing, withholding, and estimated payments.
Develop playbooks that help wealth advisors identify when to involve tax expertise.
Own risk, compliance, and quality practices, including preparer standards, Circular 230 obligations, data security, engagement letters, review protocols, and audit trails for AI-assisted work.
Own the tax service as a business, including pricing, revenue, and capacity.
Hire and build the team of preparers, reviewers, and specialists, and decide which work to keep in-house versus partner on.
Help design a process that assembles most of a tax return before the client uploads documents and enables agents to follow up for missing information.
Determine where AI agents should perform tax work and where professional judgment and review are needed.
Develop ways to detect client financial events throughout the year, rerun tax projections, and surface recommendations to advisors in time to act.
Design how tax and wealth advice work together within one system.