Internal Tools & AI Automation Engineer

Support Shepherd; Philippines; Remote; PHP 480,000 - 960,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Direct line to founder

Ownership of tooling foundation

Visible impact on daily work

Room to grow

Job summary

Support Shepherd, a U.S.-based tax strategy firm, is seeking its first dedicated technical hire to reduce manual data handling and empower advisors with AI-powered tools.

You will work with the founder and advisors, learn current workflows, and ship practical internal tools using Claude Code and similar AI tools, integrating data from tax documents to automate intake, extraction and reporting.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional software development with full-stack apps.
• Hands-on use of AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot).
• Experience with LLM APIs and data from PDFs, sheets, and SQL.

Responsibilities

• Map existing client workflows to identify time sinks and define fixes.
• Build internal tools using AI-assisted development for automation.
• Automate intake, data extraction from tax documents, and reporting.
• Create tooling that tracks client status and recurring deliverables.
• Train teammates and document how tools work for maintenance.

Skills

Full-stack Dev

Python

JavaScript/TypeScript

Claude Code

Cursor

GitHub Copilot

LLM APIs

APIs & Integrations

English fluency

Tools

Claude Code

Cursor

GitHub Copilot

Zapier

Make

n8n

Job description

About The Company

We are a rapidly growing U.S.-based tax strategy firm serving high-income professionals and business owners. Our clients typically already have a capable accountant. What they lack is someone proactively designing how their income is taxed, and that is the gap we fill.

Our work goes well beyond filing. We analyze a client's returns, income and investments, calculate what their liability should be, and design the entity and investment structures that legally reduce it year after year. We then monitor each client as their income and the tax code change, and every return is reviewed twice before it is filed.

Our founder approaches the tax code the way an engineer approaches a system: predictable inputs, optimizable outputs. That mindset runs through the firm, and it is why we are now investing in someone who can apply the same thinking to how we work internally.

About The Role

Our work is high-value and detail-heavy: reading returns, pulling figures from client documents, modeling strategies and tracking each client year-round. As our client base and advisory team grow, too much of that still runs on manual effort. This role exists to take that load off our advisors so their time goes to strategy, not data handling.

You will be our first dedicated technical hire, and the role has two halves. First, you sit with our founder and advisors, learn how the work actually gets done, and find where time is being lost. Second, you build the fix, using AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code to ship practical internal tools quickly.

The measure of success is simple: tools our team uses every day, and hours given back to client work. The right person cares more about solving the right problem than building the most impressive thing.

Key Responsibilities

• Workflow Discovery & Prioritization
• Interview the founder and each advisor to map how client work flows from intake through strategy, filing and ongoing monitoring
• Identify where time is lost to manual steps, rework or scattered information, and estimate the hours each fix would save
• Maintain a prioritized build list with the founder, and agree on scope and a definition of done before building

Internal Tool Development

• Build and ship internal tools using AI-assisted development (Claude Code and similar), moving from working prototype to daily use quickly
• Automate client intake and document collection so files arrive organized and complete
• Build tools that extract and structure data from tax documents and returns, reducing manual entry
• Create calculators and models that let advisors compare tax strategies for a client quickly
• Build tracking views that show where every client stands across the year
• Automate recurring client deliverables, such as summaries and strategy reports, from templates

AI & Automation

• Design LLM-powered workflows using APIs such as Anthropic's Claude, including prompt design and output testing
• Build in human review wherever accuracy matters, since tax figures must be correct before they reach a client or a return
• Connect the firm's existing systems, such as CRM, document storage, email, calendar and spreadsheets, through APIs or automation platforms

Security & Data Handling

• Handle client financial and personal data with care: least-privilege access, no client data in unapproved tools, and clear records of what each tool touches
• Support the firm's information security practices as new tools are introduced

Adoption, Documentation & Support

• Train the team on each new tool and gather feedback in the first weeks of use
• Document how each tool works so it can be maintained and extended
• Fix issues promptly and improve tools as workflows and tax rules change

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional software development, with full-stack applications shipped to real users (Python and/or JavaScript/TypeScript)
• Daily, hands-on use of AI coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor or GitHub Copilot, with examples of what you have built using them
• At least one real project built on an LLM API, such as Anthropic or OpenAI
• Solid experience with APIs and integrations, and with working data out of PDFs, spreadsheets and SQL databases
• Clear spoken and written English, and comfort leading working sessions with non-technical people to understand what they need
• Able to work a U.S. Pacific Time schedule, with a reliable internet connection and backup power
• Sound judgment and discretion with sensitive financial and personal data

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior work with U.S. clients or teams, especially on U.S. hours
• Experience in accounting, tax, fintech or another professional services environment
• Familiarity with U.S. tax documents such as Form 1040, K-1s and W-2s
• Document extraction or OCR experience
• Experience with automation platforms such as Zapier, Make or n8n
• Experience as a solo or first technical hire, owning tools from idea to daily use
• Exposure to security practices such as access management or SOC 2 controls
• A portfolio or GitHub showing internal tools or automations you have built
• Ideal Candidate Profile
• You Are
• A builder first. You would rather ship a simple tool this week than design a perfect one next quarter.
• Curious about how other people work. You ask good questions and listen before proposing a solution.
• Comfortable owning a tool end to end, from the first conversation through daily use and maintenance.
• Precise. You know a wrong number in a tax workflow is costly, so you test, verify and build in review steps.
• Self-directed and organized. You can manage your own priorities as the only technical person on a small team.
• A clear communicator who can explain technical trade-offs to a founder in plain language.
• Energized by AI tools and always looking for a faster way to get things done.

Why Join Us

• Direct line to the founder. You work alongside a founder who thinks like an engineer and wants technology built into how the firm operates.
• Real ownership. As our first dedicated technical hire, you shape what gets built, how it is built, and the internal tooling foundation as we grow.
• Visible impact. Your tools will be used by our team every day, and you will see the hours they save.
• Room to grow. As the firm scales, so does the scope of what we build, and your role with it.