Tax Lead, Controversy

Your role as Tax Lead - Controversy will include managing the full lifecycle of tax audits, examinations, and disputes across corporate income tax. You will be the connective tissue between tax authorities, outside advisors, and Shopify's internal teams — protecting the company's positions while providing leadership with visibility and advice during audits. You’ll leverage AI and automation to streamline audit workflows, synthesize large volumes of financial data/systems, tax documentation and optimize the speed and quality of audit responses.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Manage global income tax audits from initial notice through resolution, including information document requests, drafting responses, and managing timelines and deadlines.

• Build audit-ready documentation and defense files for tax positions.

• Develop and manage relationships with tax authorities (CRA, IRS, and international revenue agencies) and external advisors, serving as a primary point of contact during examinations.

• Advise on settlement strategy, appeals, competent authority / MAP proceedings, and voluntary disclosures where appropriate.

• Own the global controversy process that gives leadership real-time visibility into audit status, exposure, and reserve movements.

• Partner with transfer pricing, tax planning, compliance and legal teams to achieve best outcome from audits from taxing authorities

WHAT YOU'LL BRING

• 7+ years of relevant tax experience in a Big 4 firm, law firm, and/or a multinational in-house tax department, with high exposure to tax controversy and audit defense.

• Hands-on experience managing audits with the CRA, IRS, or comparable international tax authorities.

• Excellent written and verbal communication — ability to make persuasive technical arguments to an auditor and a clear risk summary to leadership.

• Strong project management instincts and comfort operating with limited processes in a fast-moving, high-growth environment.

• A data-forward mindset — ability to interpret tax calculations and models, and enable the evidence to drive the position.

• Ability to independently work with financial systems eg: Netsuite, Oracle, SAP

• Professional designation preferred: CPA, CA, JD/LLM (Tax), or equivalent.

BONUS POINTS

• Experience in technology, SaaS, payments, or high-growth commerce.

• Exposure to international tax matters: MAP / competent authority, transfer pricing, permanent establishment, and cross-border transactions.

• Familiarity with tax provision and analytics tooling and a habit of automating the tedious parts.