Senior Tax Manager

MacKai West; Wilmington (DE); On-site; USD 150,000 - 175,000; Full time

Job summary

MacKai West, in partnership with a rapidly growing CPA firm in the Greater Philadelphia/Delaware area, seeks a Senior Tax Manager to join its tax leadership team in Wilmington. The role offers high-level tax work, excellent compensation, and a clear runway to Director and Partner.

You will oversee engagements, mentor staff, and develop client relationships with high-net-worth individuals and privately held businesses while moving toward advisory leadership.

Qualifications

• Significant public accounting tax experience.
• Strong technical knowledge across 1040s, Partnerships/Pass-Throughs, Trust & Estate, and privately held businesses.
• Experience reviewing complex returns and overseeing engagements.
• Experience managing and developing tax professionals.
• Strong client-facing and advisory capabilities.
• CPA strongly preferred.
• Ambition to leadership and firm stewardship.

Responsibilities

• Manage and review complex tax engagements from planning through delivery.
• Review sophisticated individual, partnership, trust, estate, and business returns.
• Advise high-net-worth individuals and privately held businesses on tax planning opportunities.
• Build and maintain strong client relationships.
• Manage, mentor, and develop tax professionals.
• Work directly with Partners on technical, client, and strategic matters.
• Help improve processes as the practice continues to scale.
• Become increasingly involved in relationship development and the growth of the firm.
• Build toward Tax Director and ultimately Partner.

Skills

Public tax experience

Client advisory

Mentoring

Relationship-building

Tax planning

Education

CPA certification

Job description

Senior Tax Manager | Clear Path to Director & Partner

Wilmington, DE | Public | $150K–$175K+

Big-Firm Caliber Work Without the Big-Firm Lifestyle

There are plenty of Senior Tax Manager jobs offering “great culture,” “work-life balance,” and “growth opportunities.”

This one actually delivers on all three.

MacKai West is partnered with a rapidly growing CPA firm in the Greater Philadelphia/Delaware area seeking a Senior Tax Manager to join its tax leadership team.

The firm was built by professionals who came from larger national accounting firms. They liked the sophisticated work, strong clients, and high standards—but they didn’t believe doing great work should require sacrificing your life to do it.

They’ve created something different: high-level tax work, excellent compensation, ambitious growth, genuinely good people, and a culture where nobody takes themselves too seriously.

And it’s working. The firm continues to grow rapidly, people stay, and this hire will have a very real opportunity to grow into Director and ultimately Partner as the practice expands.

Why This Opportunity Is Different

A real runway to Director and Partner.

This is not a Senior Manager role where the next promotion depends on somebody retiring ten years from now. The firm is growing, leadership opportunities are being created, and they want someone capable of becoming an important part of the future of the practice.

Many of the professionals here started their careers with larger national accounting firms. They brought the technical standards, sophisticated client work, and professionalism with them—and deliberately left behind the bureaucracy and unsustainable hours.

People actually like working here.

“Collaborative culture” is probably written in every accounting job description on LinkedIn. Here, it actually means something. This is a smart, down-to‑earth group of people who help each other, enjoy working together, and don’t take themselves—or public accounting—too seriously.

Excellent compensation without the lifestyle tradeoff.

You shouldn’t have to choose between making great money and having a life outside of work. This firm doesn’t believe you should either.

A firm with serious momentum.

The business is growing aggressively, creating opportunities for talented people to take on more responsibility and advance quickly. This is an opportunity to join while that growth is happening—not after the organization has already become overly layered and corporate.

The Role

As Senior Tax Manager, you’ll take a leadership role within a broad‑based tax practice while overseeing engagements, developing junior professionals, and building meaningful relationships with clients.

The portfolio provides enough variety to keep the work interesting, with significant exposure across:

• High-Net-Worth Individuals and complex 1040s
• Partnerships and pass-through entities
• Privately held and small-to-midsize businesses
• Tax planning and advisory engagements

This is not intended to be a narrow technical‑specialist position.

The ideal candidate is a strong tax generalist who enjoys understanding the complete client relationship and can comfortably move between individual, entity, fiduciary, and planning matters.

As you progress, the role becomes increasingly advisory and client‑facing—working directly with business owners and HNW individuals, identifying planning opportunities, developing the team beneath you, and becoming someone clients view as a trusted advisor rather than simply the person reviewing their return.

What You’ll Do

• Manage and review complex tax engagements from planning through delivery
• Review sophisticated individual, partnership, trust, estate, and business returns
• Advise HNW individuals and privately held businesses on tax planning opportunities
• Build and maintain strong client relationships
• Manage, mentor, and develop tax professionals
• Work directly with Partners on technical, client, and strategic matters
• Help improve processes as the practice continues to scale
• Become increasingly involved in relationship development and the growth of the firm
• Build toward Tax Director and ultimately Partner

What We’re Looking For

We’re interested in speaking with accomplished public accounting tax professionals who bring:

• Significant public accounting tax experience
• Strong technical knowledge across 1040s, Partnerships/Pass-Throughs, Trust & Estate, and privately held businesses
• Experience reviewing complex returns and overseeing engagementsExperience managing and developing tax professionals
• Strong client-facing and advisory capabilities
• CPA strongly preferred
• The judgment, personality, and ambition to continue progressing into firm leadership

You may already be a Senior Tax Manager, or you may be a strong Tax Manager who's ready for a bigger seat, better compensation, and a much clearer path forward in the Delaware market.

The Bottom Line

If you’re successful in public accounting but increasingly tired of the idea that career progression has to mean more hours, more politics, and less of a life, this is worth a conversation.

You can work with sophisticated clients.

You can make great money.

You can continue progressing toward Director and Partner.

You can work alongside talented people you actually enjoy being around.

And you can still have a life outside of tax season.

Those things shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.