ASC 740 and Uncertain Tax Positions Director

The mandate

The Senior Director will own the quality of US GAAP tax accounting where the answer depends on evidence and judgment rather than mechanical calculation. The enduring need is a consistent basis for recognition, measurement and disclosure of uncertain positions, valuation allowances, tax-law changes and discrete events. This seat must connect tax technical reasoning to close governance while protecting the independence of the accounting conclusion.

The first ninety days will establish a complete population of significant positions, a hierarchy of review and a clear distinction between legal merits, settlement expectation and accounting measurement. The Director will test whether opinions remain current, whether new facts have reached the provision promptly and whether interest, penalties and jurisdictional netting follow controlled policy.

Authority includes setting ASC 740 documentation standards, requiring refreshed technical support, chairing position reviews and declining to recommend entries that lack sufficient evidence. The Chief Accounting Officer retains final approval of reserved financial-reporting judgments; legal counsel owns privileged advice and tax leaders own controversy strategy. The Director must make those interfaces explicit rather than allow shared participation to blur accountability.

At the end of year one, every material uncertain position should have a named factual owner, a technically reasoned conclusion, a measurement history and a reconsideration trigger. Valuation-allowance evidence must be balanced and reproducible, disclosure language must reconcile to underlying analysis, and the technical team must be able to defend the result through challenge without relying on oral history.

What you will own

• Create a governed inventory of uncertain positions linking jurisdiction, technical issue, unit of account, recognition conclusion, measurement method, evidence owner and revisit trigger.
• Reassess legacy positions whose supporting facts, case law, audit posture or expected settlement route have changed since initial recognition.
• Establish a valuation-allowance framework that weighs objectively verifiable positive and negative evidence without allowing forecast aspiration to substitute for support.
• Approve the technical form of quarter-close tax memoranda and return papers that do not separate factual assertion from professional judgment.
• Reconcile tax-contingency roll-forwards, interest and penalties, disclosure ranges and cash-exposure reporting before financial statements enter final review.
• Define controls for tax-law enactments, rate changes, intraperiod allocation and discrete events so their accounting reaches the correct reporting period.
• Lead technical dialogue with external assurance while preserving management authorship of conclusions and a documented route for unresolved disagreement.
• Build a case library and review apprenticeship that enables senior team members to lead difficult positions under observed supervision.

Candidate qualifications

• At least 17 years in US corporate tax accounting, including Senior Director or equivalent accountability for ASC 740 judgments and public-reporting support.
• Personally authored FIN 48 analyses that addressed recognition, measurement, aggregation and subsequent change, with evidence of the reviewing authority's decision.
• A complex valuation-allowance case showing how you weighed forecasts, reversals, carryforwards, tax-planning strategies and contradictory evidence.
• Demonstrable command of federal, state and international tax interactions within a US GAAP provision, including outside-basis and foreign-tax consequences.
• Evidence of maintaining privilege boundaries while ensuring that the accounting file contained enough factual and technical support to stand independently.
• Experience reconciling uncertain-position accounting to controversy strategy without allowing anticipated negotiation behavior to distort the recognition test.
• A record of developing technical reviewers who can explain conclusions to audit and finance governance in precise, non-advocacy language.

Working terms and boundaries

• This is a permanent full-time appointment with first-year evidence reviews at the second quarter close, annual provision and final technical-capability assessment.
• The Director owns policy, review gates and recommendations; reserved journal approval, legal advice and controversy settlements remain outside delegated authority.
• The compensation package comprises annual fixed pay, a target incentive and conditional restricted shares subject to ordinary vesting and performance conditions.
• Hybrid attendance will be scheduled around position panels, reporting closes and assurance review, with confidential papers handled only through approved channels.
• Completion of the first-year arc requires a current position inventory, tested controls, reconciled disclosures, decision-ready documentation and two demonstrated deputy reviewers.

Application

Applications for this mandate are received in one way only: through the India Board Terminal's application process. It is automated end to end. Your Executive Passport travels to the mandate holder in its confidential form, your answers to the three questions below are read before anything else in your file, and every stage that follows is recorded on your applications page.

There is no address to write to and no intermediary to call. The mandate holder reads what the Terminal delivers and nothing else, which is what keeps the process the same for every applicant and keeps your name out of it until you release it. Applications close on 9 October 2026. Mandate reference TAX-PER-2026-NYC-05.