Shield AI is seeking an experienced Indirect Tax Manager to join our growing Tax team. As Shield AI continues to expand its domestic and international operations, this role will be responsible for building and managing scalable indirect tax processes across the organization.
The Indirect Tax Manager will serve as the company’s primary subject-matter expert for U.S. sales and use tax, property tax, and international VAT/GST matters. This individual will provide practical technical guidance to business partners, oversee compliance and audits, and lead process improvement and tax automation initiatives.
This is an individual-contributor role with significant functional ownership. The position will report to the Tax Director and partner closely with Accounting, Finance, Legal, Contracts, Procurement, Supply Chain, Accounts Payable, Billing, IT, and other business teams.
What you'll do:
- Own the company’s U.S. sales and use tax function, including nexus analysis, taxability determinations, registrations, return filings, payments, and account reconciliations.
- Review customer contracts, product offerings, invoicing arrangements, and new business activities to determine appropriate sales tax treatment.
- Advise Accounts Payable team on use tax accruals, vendor-charged tax, exemption opportunities, and documentation requirements.
- Manage exemption certificates and support the application of manufacturing, research and development, resale, and other available exemptions.
- Oversee sales and use tax audits, notices, refund claims, voluntary disclosures, and other inquiries from taxing authorities.
- Oversee business personal property tax compliance, including annual renditions, assessments, payments, and reconciliations.
- Partner with Accounting team and external service providers to ensure property tax filings are complete and accurate.
- Review property tax assessments and identify opportunities for appeals, exemptions, abatements, and other savings.
- Manage property tax audits and coordinate with external service providers and local taxing authorities.
- Support VAT/GST compliance and advisory matters arising from the company’s expanding international operations.
- Coordinate with local finance teams and external advisors on VAT/GST registrations, returns, recoverability, invoicing requirements, and tax authority inquiries.
- Advise on the indirect tax implications of cross-border sales, services, leases, intercompany transactions, and entry into new jurisdictions.
- Support indirect tax due diligence and integration activities associated with acquisitions and other strategic transactions.
- Develop a roadmap to automate and scale the company’s indirect tax function.
- Evaluate and implement indirect tax technology solutions, including tax determination engines and compliance platforms.
- Partner with IT, Accounting, Billing, and Procurement to integrate indirect tax requirements into the ERP system and other transaction systems.
- Improve tax processes across the order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, and record-to-report cycles.
- Establish and maintain taxability matrices, compliance calendars, standard operating procedures, controls, and audit-ready documentation.
- Identify data gaps and process risks and develop sustainable solutions that improve accuracy and reduce manual work.
- Manage external advisors and service providers.
U.S. Sales and Use Tax
Property Tax
International Indirect Tax
Tax Technology, Processes, and Controls
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Taxation, Business, or a related field.
- Five or more years of indirect tax experience in public accounting, industry, or a combination of both.
- Strong technical knowledge of U.S. multistate sales and use tax, including compliance, taxability research, exemptions, audits, and controversy.
- Experience with business personal property tax compliance and assessments.
- Demonstrated ability to research complex tax issues and develop well-supported, practical conclusions.
- Experience managing external advisors and outsourced compliance providers.
- Strong project-management skills and the ability to independently manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
- Strong analytical, written, and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, high-growth, and evolving environment.
Preferred qualifications:
- CPA, CMI, JD, MST, or other relevant professional certification.
- Experience with international VAT/GST matters.
- Experience implementing or managing indirect tax technology such as Vertex, Avalara, or ONESOURCE.
- Experience with tax automation, data analytics, system implementations, or process transformation.
- Experience in aerospace, defense technology, manufacturing, software, or another business involving both products and services.
- Experience supporting acquisitions, international expansion, and public-company readiness.
- Combination of public accounting and in-house corporate tax experience.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Accounting, Finance, Taxation, Business, or a related field
- Five or more years of indirect tax experience in public accounting, industry, or a combination of both
- Strong technical knowledge of U.S. multistate sales and use tax, including compliance, taxability research, exemptions, audits, and controversy
- Experience with business personal property tax compliance and assessments
- Ability to research complex tax issues and develop well-supported, practical conclusions
- Experience managing external advisors and outsourced compliance providers
- Strong project-management skills and ability to independently manage multiple priorities and deadlines
- Strong analytical, written, and verbal communication skills
- Ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, high-growth, and evolving environment
- CPA, CMI, JD, MST, or other relevant professional certification
- Experience with international VAT/GST matters
- Experience implementing or managing indirect tax technology such as Vertex, Avalara, or ONESOURCE
- Experience with tax automation, data analytics, system implementations, or process transformation
- Experience in aerospace, defense technology, manufacturing, software, or another business involving both products and services
- Experience supporting acquisitions, international expansion, and public-company readiness
- Combination of public accounting and in-house corporate tax experience
What the Team is Saying
Shield AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Healthcare coverage is described as excellent, with dental/vision and mental‑health support, and ancillary protections like life and disability appearing in benefit summaries. The breadth and perceived affordability of coverage are highlighted as a standout component of the package.
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Parental & Family Support — Paid parental leave is featured alongside enhanced maternity benefits, fertility and childcare support, and onsite resources such as a Mother’s Room. These elements are positioned as competitive and above the minimal baseline for the company’s stage.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is granted to all full‑time hires, with RSUs, double‑trigger tax timing, and tools to model scenarios (e.g., through Carta Tax). Communications also reference a transition from options to RSUs, reinforcing access and maturity of ownership programs.
Shield AI Insights
What We Do
At Shield AI, you won't wait years to see your work reach the field. You'll build hardware and software that operates in the real world right now, in the hands of the people who depend on it. Hivemind, our AI pilot, has been flying since 2018. It has flown more than 30 platforms, including an F-16, and it now sits under a U.S. Air Force production contract for Collaborative Combat Aircraft. When you write code or shape a system here, you contribute to technology with a proven flight record and a clear production future. V-BAT flies intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions with an operational record that stretches from Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific. It delivers eyes where they matter most, in the most demanding conditions on earth. The teams behind it watch their work get tested where the stakes are real. X-BAT takes its first flight this year. It's an AI-piloted fighter that needs no runway, built to operate where traditional aircraft can't. Join now and you help shape a program at its earliest, most formative stage. That's the kind of ground-floor work that defines a career. Do the most impactful work of your life, on problems that matter. Autonomy at this level asks a lot of you. You'll take on problems in perception, planning, and control that few teams anywhere are equipped to solve. You'll work across disciplines, from aerospace and robotics to machine learning and systems engineering, alongside people who hold themselves to an exacting standard and expect the same from you. Our mission is clear: protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems. That purpose runs through every decision, every design review, and every deployment. It's why the work here carries a weight you can feel. Ready to join our mission? Explore our open roles and find where you fit.
Why Work With Us
Founded in 2015 by a former Navy SEAL, Shield AI builds AI pilots and uncrewed aircraft. Veterans aren't an afterthought here, they're at every level. It's why the work carries weight: AI pilots and uncrewed aircraft flying real missions, from Ukraine to the Indo-Pacific, protecting service members and civilians.
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