Senior Tax Manager
Complex Individual & Flow-Through Work
Downtown Chicago | Hybrid
If you’re at the stage of your career where you don’t need hand holding, don’t want corporate fluff, and just want to do good work with good clients, alongside other experienced professionals, this is it.
This is a small, established CPA firm in downtown Chicago, but the work is anything but small.
You’re stepping into a role where you’re trusted to operate at a senior level: owning your client relationships, managing your workload, and structuring your days in a way that actually works for you.
This is far less about managing a large team and far more about managing your own clients and portfolio.
The Role -
You’ll work with a sophisticated client base including high-net worth individuals, complex 1040s tied to K 1s and hedge funds, a healthy volume of trusts, plus partnerships and other flow-through entities.
Trust experience is helpful, but not essential. If your strength sits more in complex individual or flow through work, the firm is very open to developing the trust side with you over time.
This is a genuinely hands on role. You’ll be preparing returns, handling client relationships end-to-end, managing IRS and state notices, and being the person clients rely on to get things done properly.
If you’re coming from a larger firm where you’ve become removed from the work or stuck reviewing without context this is the opposite environment.
The firm is intentionally lean and senior heavy. You’ll be surrounded by peers, not layers of junior staff, and expected to operate with judgement and independence.
Busy season typically sits at 50–55 hours, with the occasional heavier week rather than a constant grind. Outside of tax season, you get a summer, including Fridays off.
You’ll have flexibility, autonomy, and trust. Not micromanagement.
Key Details -
This hire is also part of the firm’s longer-term succession planning, allowing a couple of Partners to gradually step back. This isn’t a “Partner in 12 months” pitch but if you’re looking for longevity, influence, and a firm where people actually stay, the runway is there.
This role suits a Tax Manager or Senior Manager who’s comfortable operating at that level, enjoys real client contact, and wants to focus on the work they find most interesting without big-firm politics, forced socials, or endless layers of sign-off.
Sound like somewhere you’re interested in? Click apply.
Don’t worry if you don’t have a resume made up, just reach out on here. If you want to explore a genuinely different kind of tax manager role, apply in confidence or message Imogen Talbot Slack at Distinct North America to talk it through. Feel free to text or call 3125849844.
Think you only have 87% of the required experience? Perfect - apply anyway. The CPA firms we partner with want diverse, interesting people, not corporate clones stamped from the same tedious mould.
Don’t overthink it. The worst outcome is a pleasant conversation about your career. The best? Well, that's where it gets rather exciting.