Tax Technology Lead (Sr. Manager)

📋 Description

• • OpenAI is seeking a highly skilled and experienced Tax Technology Lead, equivalent to a Senior Manager, to spearhead the design, configuration, and ongoing evolution of our critical tax engine architecture. This pivotal role sits within the Tax and Trade team, a dynamic group at the forefront of OpenAI's global expansion, responsible for navigating complex international tax, trade, and regulatory landscapes. We operate as strategic partners, deeply integrated into product development, finance, policy, and infrastructure decisions to proactively manage risk, identify opportunities for incentives, and ensure OpenAI's responsible and competitive growth worldwide.
• • As OpenAI's innovative AI products, diverse monetization strategies, and expansive global infrastructure continue to scale at an unprecedented pace, our tax systems must evolve with the same precision, reliability, and robustness as our product architecture. This position is instrumental in building one of the most sophisticated tax technology platforms in the industry, designed to support global digital products, high-volume real-time transaction processing, and rapidly adapting monetization models across numerous jurisdictions.
• • This is not merely a maintenance role; it is a leadership opportunity to architect the very foundation of our tax determination processes, ensuring they are reliable, scalable, and seamlessly integrated into OpenAI's core product infrastructure. The successful candidate will define how tax functions as a critical production system, influencing billing, payments, and financial reporting as OpenAI expands its global footprint.
• • The Tax Technology Lead will be responsible for the end-to-end implementation and continuous operation of Vertex, our chosen tax determination platform, ensuring its deep integration with OpenAI's checkout, billing, and financial systems. You will operate at the crucial intersection of Tax, Financial Engineering, Product Engineering, and Finance Systems, guaranteeing that tax logic is not only accurate and scalable but also auditable and production-grade, keeping pace with OpenAI's rapidly evolving global products and business models.
• • Key responsibilities include leading the comprehensive configuration and lifecycle management of the Vertex platform, encompassing Vertex O Series, Vertex Edge, and anticipating future module integrations as our product offerings expand. You will meticulously design and maintain tax determination logic across real-time checkout flows, complex invoicing systems, and downstream financial reporting environments, ensuring consistency and accuracy across all operational stages, from sandbox to staging and production.
• • A significant aspect of this role involves Custom Rule Development, where you will design and implement sophisticated custom taxability drivers, material group logic, and Pre/Post-Tax Assist rules to expertly handle intricate business scenarios. You will also manage Entity Management, creating and customizing new taxpayers (company codes) to accommodate new business initiatives and potential acquisitions.
• • Collaboration is paramount. You will work hand-in-hand with Financial Engineering, Product Engineering, and Business Systems teams to define precise tax engine requirements, establish robust APIs, define clear data contracts, and architect effective integration patterns. This includes supporting critical checkout flows, particularly e-commerce scenarios, ensuring the accurate sourcing of taxes and precise liability determination.
• • Furthermore, you will oversee the seamless integration of Vertex outputs into our billing and ERP environments, managing crucial aspects like GL mapping, jurisdictional reporting, reconciliation logic, and e-invoicing requirements. You will diligently manage tax engine configuration updates, including taxability rules, product mappings, jurisdiction logic, and exemption management.
• • To ensure the highest level of accuracy and reliability, you will develop and execute comprehensive testing frameworks, encompassing unit, integration, and regression testing, to rigorously validate tax outcomes before deployment. You will actively participate in projects from their initial design phase through to production deployment, maintaining a sharp focus on accuracy, observability, and overall system reliability.
• • Designing and maintaining robust internal controls over our tax systems is essential to guarantee data integrity and regulatory compliance. You will also play a key role in supporting tax audits by providing traceable tax data, performing reconciliations with our ERP systems, and generating detailed transaction-level documentation.
• • Proactive monitoring of tax engine performance, swift identification of anomalies, and proactive remediation of system issues will be critical. You will also be responsible for building comprehensive documentation and operational playbooks to ensure our tax systems are easily understood, maintained, and scalable across all relevant teams.
• • Ultimately, you will serve as OpenAI's internal subject-matter expert on tax technology architecture and the intricate behavior of our tax systems, guiding strategic decisions and ensuring best practices are followed.