Indirect Tax Global Lead

Company Description

We’re Checkout.com. You might not know our name, but companies like eBay, Spotify, Klarna, Uber, and Sony do, because we’re behind many of the digital experiences you use every day.

We are where the world checks out, enabling over 10 billion transactions yearly for more than one billion global shoppers.

Whether you want to book a holiday, order food, renew a subscription, or check out online, there’s a good chance our tech powers the payments behind the scenes. Our platform helps the most ambitious businesses deliver effortless digital experiences, at scale.

If you want to do career-defining work, you’ve come to the right place. We move fast, think globally, and believe great teams are built by hiring exceptional people with conviction, curiosity, and the desire to make an impact.

With 20 offices across six continents and London as our HQ, we’re shaping the future of fintech – and we’re just getting started.

We are looking for a talented and pragmatic Senior VAT / Indirect Tax Manager to join our Tax team in London, reporting to the Head of Tax.

This is a high-impact role for someone who combines strong indirect tax expertise with a builder’s mindset. You will lead VAT and wider indirect tax matters across a fast-moving global fintech, while helping us modernise how tax work gets done. The role blends advisory, compliance oversight, process design, data interrogation and cross-functional partnering.

You will oversee outsourced service providers to ensure high-quality, timely compliance delivery, but just as importantly you will approach those relationships with fresh thinking. We are looking for someone who will challenge legacy processes, re-think operating models, and use systems, data and AI-enabled tools to make our indirect tax processes more efficient, scalable and insightful.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone who enjoys balancing hands-on technical work with transformation, stakeholder management and continuous improvement in a business that values pace, curiosity and better ways of working.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead indirect tax support for the business, with a primary focus on VAT across the UK and international footprint, providing practical and commercially focused advice on products, transactions, business changes and expansion initiatives

• Oversee outsourced indirect tax compliance across relevant jurisdictions, ensuring returns, filings and related deliverables are accurate, timely and fit for purpose

• Reassess and improve the current outsource model, driving clarity of roles, better use of internal and external resource, stronger service levels and a more modern, efficient end-to-end process

• Own and continuously improve indirect tax processes, controls and documentation, including documenting repeatable activities, key judgements and hand-offs across the compliance cycle

• Use data from financial and reporting systems such as Workday, Looker and BigQuery to interrogate transactions, validate outputs, reconcile filings, identify issues and improve decision-making

• Partner with Finance, Accounting, Product, Legal, Operations, Data and other teams to ensure indirect tax considerations are understood early and embedded into business decisions

• Support systems and process change initiatives by translating indirect tax requirements into practical data, reporting and control needs

• Identify opportunities to simplify, automate and strengthen indirect tax workflows, including thoughtful use of AI and other emerging tools

• Monitor legislative and business changes and translate them into clear actions for the business and the tax operating model

• Manage indirect tax audits, queries and adviser relationships effectively, maintaining a strong control environment while keeping a commercial perspective

• Contribute to a high-performing team culture by bringing energy, ownership, openness to change and a willingness to improve how we work every day

Skills & Experience

• Qualified accountant and/or tax adviser

• Significant experience in VAT / indirect tax, ideally gained across both advisory and in-house environments

• Strong financial services experience is essential; experience in payments, fintech or another complex regulated environment would be highly advantageous

• Strong in-house experience is preferred, with the credibility and judgement to operate effectively in a fast-paced commercial environment

• Proven experience overseeing outsource providers or external advisers, with the ability to challenge, optimise and improve delivery models rather than simply manage them

• Strong technical knowledge of UK and international VAT / indirect tax principles, with the ability to apply that knowledge practically in a scaling business

• Demonstrable experience improving processes, controls and ways of working, including simplifying manual activity and building more efficient operating models

• Confidence working with data and financial systems, including the ability to interrogate and validate large data sets and use tools such as Workday, Looker, BigQuery and spreadsheets effectively

• Comfortable experimenting with new technologies, including AI-enabled tools, to improve quality, insight and efficiency

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to explain complex tax issues clearly and influence a wide range of partners

• Hands-on, curious and delivery-focused, with sound judgement and a willingness to challenge existing approaches constructively

• Thrives in a dynamic environment and is able to balance detail, pace and competing priorities without losing sight of outcomes

Additional Information

Bring all of you to work

We create the conditions for high performers to thrive, through real ownership, fewer blockers, and work that makes a difference from day one.

Here, you’ll move fast, take on meaningful challenges, and be recognized for the impact you deliver. It’s a place where ambition gets met with opportunity, and where your growth is in your hands.

We work as one team, and we back each other to succeed. So whatever your background or identity, if you’re ready to grow and make a difference, you’ll be right at home here.

It’s important we set you up for success and make our process as accessible as possible. So let us know in your application, or tell your recruiter directly, if you need anything to make your experience or working environment more comfortable.

Life at Checkout.com

We understand that work is just one part of your life. Our hybrid working model offers flexibility, with three days per week in the office to support collaboration and connection.

Curious about what it’s like to be part of our team? Visit our Careers Page to learn more about our culture, open roles, and what drives us.

For a closer look at daily life at Checkout.com, follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram