Direct Tax Controversy Portfolio Director

The mandate

The Director will turn direct-tax controversy into a governed portfolio of legal rights, factual evidence and economic decisions. The permanent accountability is broader than managing authority correspondence: it includes choosing which issues to defend, narrow, settle or prevent from recurring, while preserving a consistent record across technical analysis, financial reporting and executive risk acceptance.

The first quarter will establish a complete matter population, procedural-rights calendar, exposure methodology and strategy standard. Each material case must separate facts from interpretation, assess contrary evidence, quantify cash and accounting consequences, and identify the authority able to approve the next step. Similar issues across jurisdictions should be compared without assuming that local procedure or precedent is interchangeable.

The role may set case standards, approve routine responses within delegation, commission scoped advice, return deficient submissions and recommend settlement or litigation. Reserved concessions, material settlements and formal proceedings remain with authorised governance. Compliance teams remain responsible for filings, and accounting owners retain conclusions on uncertain positions.

By year end, no material matter should depend on an individual's inbox or recollection. Procedural rights must be protected, case files must withstand leadership transition, strategy changes must be recorded against new evidence, and learning from disputes must reach policy, documentation and control owners before the same issue repeats.

What you will own

• Establish a verified controversy inventory linking issue, period, authority, amount, procedural status, evidence, technical owner, accounting effect and reserved decision.
• Publish a case-strategy standard that compares defence, narrowing, settlement, alternative dispute and litigation through probability, cash, precedent, cost and timing.
• Protect objection, appeal, payment and information-response rights through a controlled calendar with accountable deputies and escalation lead times.
• Require factual chronologies and contradictory evidence to accompany technical arguments before authorising material submissions.
• Govern external counsel and specialists through narrow questions, approved assumptions, budgets, privilege protocols and usable decision outputs.
• Reconcile controversy developments to uncertain-position accounting and cash forecasts while preserving the separate recognition tests.
• Convert repeated dispute themes into policy, documentation or process-control decisions with named implementation owners.
• Develop regional matter leaders through red-team reviews, observed authority interactions and delegated routine strategy approvals.

Candidate qualifications

• At least 18 years in corporate direct tax, including Director-level command of audits, objections, appeals, settlements or litigation preparation across several jurisdictions.
• A case where you changed route after new evidence altered technical strength, procedural leverage or expected value, with the decision quantified.
• Demonstrable ability to protect procedural rights while maintaining constructive authority relationships and truthful factual submissions.
• Experience reconciling legal strategy, accounting for uncertain positions and cash exposure without allowing one perspective to dominate improperly.
• Evidence of directing external advisers efficiently and refusing generic opinions that did not answer the actual decision question.
• A repeat controversy you traced to policy or control failure and the permanent correction you secured.
• Proven development of senior tax leaders capable of taking independent case decisions under an explicit authority matrix.

Working terms and boundaries

• The appointment is ongoing and full time, with first-year reviews after portfolio verification, two strategy forums and annual case-plan approval.
• The Director controls standards and delegated recommendations; precedent concessions, material settlements and formal proceedings remain reserved.
• Annual remuneration consists of fixed pay, target bonus and conditional performance units subject to normal approval and vesting.
• Hybrid attendance includes Nairobi governance and scheduled case sessions, with travel only where authority process or evidence requires it.
• First-year success requires protected rights, complete files, decision-linked accounting and cash views, prevention actions and credible deputy ownership.

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 5 October 2026. Mandate reference TAX-PER-2026-NBO-25.