Head of Tax

Who We Are:

Alpaca is a US-headquartered, global leader in agent-first brokerage infrastructure for stocks, ETFs, options, crypto, fixed income, 24/5 trading, and more. Amongst our subsidiaries, Alpaca is a licensed financial services company, serving hundreds of financial institutions across 40 countries with our institutional-grade APIs. This includes broker-dealers, investment advisors, wealth managers, hedge funds, and crypto exchanges, totalling over 10 million brokerage accounts. Our global team is a diverse group of experienced engineers, traders, and brokerage professionals who are working to achieve our mission of opening financial services to everyone on the planet. We're deeply committed to open-source contributions and fostering a vibrant community, continuously enhancing our award-winning, developer-friendly API and the robust infrastructure behind it. Alpaca is proudly backed by $400 million in funding from top-tier global investors including Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, Tribe Capital, Social Leverage, Horizons Ventures, Opera Tech Ventures, SBI Group, Derayah Financial, Unbound, Peak XV, Elefund, and Y Combinator. Our Team Members:

We're a dynamic team of 400+ globally distributed members who thrive working from our favorite places around the world, with teammates spanning the USA, Canada, Japan, Hungary, Nigeria, Brazil, the UK, and beyond! We're searching for passionate individuals eager to contribute to Alpaca's rapid growth. If you align with our core values—Stay Curious, Have Empathy, and Be Accountable—and are ready to make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply.

Your Role:

The Head of Tax will report directly to the Global Controller and lead the company’s global tax function. This role will own tax strategy, governance, compliance, reporting, and planning across a growing multinational organization.

The Head of Tax will serve as the company’s primary tax subject-matter expert, partnering closely with Finance, Legal, Treasury, Product, and business leaders to ensure tax considerations are thoughtfully incorporated into new products, international expansion, transactions, and broader business decisions. This individual will also be responsible for developing scalable tax processes and controls that support the company’s continued growth and future public-company readiness.

Key Responsibilities

Own the company’s global tax function, including tax strategy, governance, risk management, compliance, reporting, and planning.

Manage U.S. federal, state, and international income tax compliance, including foreign reporting requirements and coordination of local-country filings.

Oversee indirect tax and withholding obligations, including sales and use tax, VAT/GST, and cross-border withholding taxes.

Own the annual and interim tax provision under U.S. GAAP and ASC 740, including deferred taxes, valuation allowances, uncertain tax positions, and related financial statement disclosures.

Develop and maintain a global tax compliance calendar, internal controls, policies, and supporting documentation appropriate for a scaling, audit-ready organization.

Lead tax planning related to legal entity structuring, capitalization, intercompany arrangements, repatriation, and expansion into new markets.

Develop and maintain transfer pricing policies, intercompany agreements, documentation, and implementation across the company’s international entities.

Assess permanent establishment, nexus, tax residency, and other risks arising from the company’s global operations and workforce.

Partner with Finance, Legal, Treasury, Product, and business operations teams to provide tax guidance on contracts, new products, regulated financial-services activities, and operational decisions.

Support M&A tax due diligence, transaction structuring, purchase accounting, and post-acquisition integration.

Manage tax authority inquiries, examinations, notices, and disputes, ensuring timely resolution and appropriate remediation.

Monitor legislative and regulatory tax developments and communicate their potential financial, operational, and strategic impact to leadership.

Lead tax forecasting and cash-tax planning in coordination with FP&A and Treasury.

Oversee tax residency certificates, treaty-relief documentation, and related filings, including Forms 8802 and 6166.

Manage external tax advisors, including scope, budget, deliverables, and service quality, while developing scalable internal tax capabilities.

Identify and implement opportunities to improve tax efficiency, controls, data quality, processes, and automation.

Build and develop the internal tax function as the company’s needs and global footprint continue to expand.