Associate Director, Tax

At Aardvark Tax Advisors, the client comes first. We’re a full-service tax, accounting, and advisory firm serving small businesses and entrepreneurs. Our people are uniquely enabled to spend more of their time understanding clients, solving complex problems, and building lasting relationships.

Technology helps make that possible. As the accounting and client services practice of Cynch AI, we use proprietary AI to reduce routine tasks and free up time for higher-value client work. Our tools support the work. Our people remain accountable for the outcome.

We’re building an expanding practice with clear paths for career advancement. We're a fast-growing practice with clear paths for advancement. We grow organically and through strategic acquisitions, and as we grow so does our team's scope of responsibility. Each level has defined expectations and advancement criteria, with performance-based opportunities for greater responsibility and equity over time.

We’re looking for an Associate Director, Tax, to own our largest and most complex client relationships. You’ll handle the higher-fee, higher-complexity engagements, be the person other managers turn to when an issue is hard, and play a direct role in growing the revenue of the practice.

The role is hybrid, based out of our Pleasanton, Cupertino, or Santa Cruz offices, with additional potential work locations in the North Bay.

What You'll Do

Complex Clients & Tax Delivery

• Own the practice’s higher-fee, more complex client relationships across planning, compliance, and consulting.
• Lead the preparation and review of complex returns for corporations, partnerships, individuals, trusts, and estates across federal, state, and local jurisdictions.
• Deliver multi-year tax planning that goes beyond compliance, including entity structure, owner compensation, and the impact of legislative changes on the client’s business and personal picture.
• Bring a business owner’s perspective to the work: understand a client’s operations and finances well enough to advise on decisions, not just file what happened.
• Ensure every return that leaves the practice meets the standard you’d put your own name on.

Team Leadership & Senior Escalation Point

• Serve as the go-to resource for managers and staff on complex client, tax technical, and engagement issues.
• Step in on difficult client situations and see them through to resolution.
• Mentor managers and senior staff, sharing judgment and approach, not just answers.

Revenue & Engagement Management

• Grow existing client relationships where the added value is real.
• Plan engagements for your client base, including timing, staffing, and fees, ahead of peak season.
• Identify out-of-scope work early, scope it, and make sure it is priced and billed appropriately.
• Monitor and manage tax risk for the practice and for clients, ensuring positions are defensible.

Core qualifications

• Active CPA or EA required.
• 15+ years in public accounting or tax, with deep experience in compliance, planning, and advisory for individuals, partnerships, S corporations, and closely held businesses.
• A track record of managing a substantial book of higher-complexity, higher-fee clients.
• Proven experience managing and developing tax professionals—not just assigning work, but building people.
• Strong technical knowledge of federal, state, and local tax regulations, including complex returns and multi-entity planning.
• Experience scoping engagements, identifying out-of-scope work, and driving fee realization.
• Proficiency in professional tax software (UltraTax, CCH Axcess, Lacerte, or similar).

Helpful additions

• Experience in a CFO, controller, or other finance leadership role inside an operating business.
• Experience running your own practice or client book.
• Experience taking over and maintaining client relationships through practice transitions.

Work Environment

• Hybrid: 3 days/week in Cupertino, Santa Cruz, or Pleasanton, CA; North Bay locations possible.
• Extended hours during peak tax season and as needed to meet client deadlines.
• Occasional travel for client meetings or practice events

California salary range: $225 – $250k

• Health Care Plan (Medical, Dental & Vision)

• Retirement Plan (401k)
• Life Insurance (Basic)
• Paid Time Off (Unlimited Vacation, plus Sick & Public Holidays)
• Short Term & Long Term Disability
• Work From Home (Hybrid)
• Stock Option Plan