US Tax Lead

Flare is building the first AI accounting firm, serving startups and high-growth companies.

Today, we operate as an AI-powered accounting firm serving US & UK businesses employing human accountants across India and South Africa. In practice, with ex Y Combinator founders, we behave much more like a technology startup than a traditional accounting firm. Engineering is at our core as we develop our own software and AI agents that can be used by our accounting and sales teams with the ultimate goal of achieving software level margins with all the benefits of a services business (notably low churn + high customer lifetime value).

Founded in 2022 by ex-KPMG leadership and Y Combinator alumni, Flare has grown to over $2.5M ARR, with just 30 humans. Our clients include YC, Sequoia, a16z and OpenAI backed startups (e.g. Solve Intelligence, Heron Data & Sully.ai) as well as public companies such as DeFi Technologies (NASDAQ: DEFT).

Accounting firms have never been able to scale revenue without increasing headcount. As a result the profit margins are traditionally compressed at ~20% given the limited operating leverage available. No firm can scale past their headcount ceiling resulting in an incredibly fragmented market with most practices doing less than a few million in revenue per year. This is despite accounting services having one of the largest TAMs on earth and one of the best retention business models. The bottleneck isn’t demand, it’s operations. Solving this problem will unlock infinite scale.

Our vision is to create the first infinitely scalable accounting firm, run by software.

We’re in a market dominated by dinosaurs that don’t realise there’s a meteor on the horizon. As we build more agents to replace human tasks, we will increasingly scale like a software company, launching new services and geographies that we can apply our software margins to. Our ambition is to build a $100m business within the next 3 years given the scale of our growth, profitability and opportunity; but beyond that, the next big 4 firm.

Flare is backed by an incredible group of select investors including Eric Feng (former GP @ Kleiner Perkins and co-founder of Hulu) and Chaz Englender (YC founder & Cofounder/CEO @ Model ML, YC W24).

Currently the majority of Flare’s hundreds of clients have at least one US entity for which we handle the bookkeeping in-house. For additional services such as tax, we currently pass this work through to a trusted partner firm. Our ambition is to bring the US tax service in-house to streamline the US tax filing process for our clients and to attract more US clients in the future who ultimately want a one stop shop for their company’s accounting needs.

This is a founding role. You will be the first member of Flare’s US tax team, with a mandate to design, launch, and grow our US tax service from zero. In year 1, you’ll be hands-on across our existing US client book; over the following 12–24 months you’ll hire and lead a team beneath you. You will own the service line - its scope, processes, technology, quality, and ultimately its P&L - and you will work directly with Flare leadership to shape strategy.

If you have ever wanted to build a US tax practice from scratch, with the financial backing and warm client base of an established firm behind you, this is that role.

Service delivery

• Prepare and review federal, state, and local income tax returns for Flare’s US clients, primarily Forms 1120, 1120-S, and 1065 (with associated K-1, K-2, and K-3 reporting).
• Manage the full compliance calendar: extensions, quarterly estimates, year-end planning, and information returns (1099 series, 1042/1042-S where relevant).
• Respond to IRS and state tax authority notices; manage examinations and audits end-to-end.

Practice build-out

• Design the US tax service offering - scope, packaging, pricing, and engagement terms.
• Select and implement Flare’s US tax tech stack: prep software, research tools, workflow, e-sign, payments.
• Author the SOPs, review checklists, and quality control framework that future hires will operate against.
• Plan and execute the transition from our current partner firm - knowledge transfer, client migration, and file handover.
• Obtain the firm-level EFIN and any state-level CPA firm registrations Flare needs to deliver tax services in scope.
• Own firm-wide compliance.

Team & growth

• Partner closely with Flare’s in-house US bookkeeping team to ensure books are tax-ready, and with the UK advisory side on cross-border client matters.
• Hire, train, and manage future US tax staff - first a senior associate within 6–12 months, then scale.
• Own the US tax P&L - utilisation, realisation, margin, and revenue growth.