State and Local Tax Director- HNW/Private Wealth (Residency)

Baker Tilly•San Francisco, CA

5d•Onsite

About The Position

Baker Tilly is seeking a State & Local Tax Director focused on High Net Worth Individual, Estate, and Trust tax consulting to join and help expand our State & Local Tax (SALT) Residency practice. This role is for a senior leader in Baker Tilly's delivery of residency, domicile, controversy, and related state income tax services to high net worth individuals and families. You will work closely with leaders in our Private Wealth practice to build a differentiated national capability serving high net worth individuals, families, business owners, executives, and family offices. You will lead complex residency matters, strengthen client and referral relationships, drive business development, oversee technical quality and risk, and develop future leaders within the practice. The role requires you to be recognized as a senior advisor and subject matter leader in high-net-worth residency and state income taxation, advising sophisticated clients on significant decisions and complex state tax controversies. You will have the judgment to lead high-stakes matters involving significant tax exposure, sensitive client circumstances, and challenging state tax authorities. The role also involves building a business by originating opportunities, expanding client relationships, and developing strong referral networks across the Private Wealth ecosystem, as well as developing senior professionals and building high-performing teams.

Requirements

4- year degree
12 years of professional experience
CPA, CMI or Law License/JD, LLM required
Eligibility to work in the U.S. without sponsorship required.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field required; Master's, JD, LLM, or other advanced degree preferred.
Extensive state and local tax experience, including deep technical expertise in individual income taxation, residency and domicile, statutory residency, income sourcing, and significant state tax audits and controversies; professional services experience strongly preferred.
Demonstrated success generating new business, expanding client relationships, developing referral sources, and building a strong marketplace presence and sustainable pipeline.
Proven ability to lead through others, including developing senior professionals, delegating effectively, building accountability, and attracting and retaining high-performing talent.
Executive-level communication, presentation, negotiation, and relationship-management skills.
Demonstrated thought leadership through writing, speaking, training, or other market-facing activities.
Ability to balance growth, client service, technical quality, talent development, engagement economics, and risk management across a significant portfolio of relationships and engagements.
Strong entrepreneurial mindset and demonstrated interest in building and expanding a specialized professional services practice.

Responsibilities

Serve as a senior strategic advisor to high net worth individuals, families, business owners, executives, and family offices on their most significant state income tax matters.
Lead the firm's most complex residency, domicile, and multistate individual income tax matters, including significant planning engagements, audits, appeals, and controversies.
Serve as the senior escalation point for difficult technical and judgmental issues and guide clients through significant risk and resolution decisions.
Provide executive-level quality and risk oversight for significant engagements, including review of higher-risk positions, technical analyses, controversy strategies, documentation, and client communications.
Partner with leaders in Baker Tilly's Private Wealth practice to establish and execute a coordinated strategy for delivering residency and state income tax services to high net worth clients nationally.
Develop strong relationships with Private Wealth partners and senior professionals and proactively identify opportunities within the firm's existing client base where residency and state income tax expertise can provide additional value.
Take a leadership role in business development and revenue growth, including originating new opportunities, developing new client relationships, expanding existing relationships, and maintaining a strong pipeline of prospective engagements.
Build and maintain a network of external referral sources, including attorneys, wealth advisors, family offices, investment professionals, bankers, and other trusted advisors to high net worth individuals.
Lead significant prospective client meetings and proposals, articulate Baker Tilly's value proposition, develop engagement strategies and pricing, and help convert opportunities into long-term client relationships.
Establish a visible market presence through thought leadership, including articles, technical alerts, external speaking engagements, webinars, conferences, and relationships with organizations serving high net worth individuals and their advisors.
Monitor important legislative, regulatory, administrative, and judicial developments and help establish the firm's technical positions, client messaging, and market response to significant developments.
Help define and continuously improve the practice's methodologies, technical resources, engagement approaches, documentation standards, and quality control processes.
Maintain executive oversight of a portfolio of significant client relationships and engagements, focusing on client satisfaction, technical quality, risk management, engagement economics, and long-term relationship development rather than day-to-day project administration.
Provide strategic direction and appropriate oversight to Senior Managers and Managers while holding engagement leaders accountable for independent execution and delivery.
Develop Senior Managers, Managers, and emerging leaders, providing coaching on technical judgment, executive presence, client relationship management, business development, delegation, and team leadership.
Create opportunities for team members to develop client relationships and market visibility, intentionally transitioning appropriate responsibilities and relationships to build depth and succession within the practice.
Participate actively in recruiting, retention, performance management, promotion, succession planning, and other talent initiatives important to building a sustainable and high-performing team.
Collaborate with SALT and Private Wealth leadership on strategic planning, resource needs, investments, market opportunities, revenue goals, and other initiatives supporting the continued growth of the High Net Worth Residency practice.
Represent Baker Tilly in the marketplace and contribute to the firm's reputation as a leading advisor to high net worth individuals and families on complex residency and state income tax matters.