Tax Knowledge Senior Manager

Ideas | People | Trust

We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world.

We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high‑growth businesses that fuel the economy - and directly advise the owners and management teams that lead them.

We’ll broaden your horizons

Our Tax Stream Operations team includes several sub-teams, specialising in risk management, technology and knowledge & collaboration, all working to support our other departments within the tax stream. Ranging from recent graduates to experienced specialists, we co-operate with colleagues and stakeholders from across the stream to deliver practical solutions for our clients.

Joining them, you’ll be given the freedom to work independently, but also the support you need, when you need it. It’s a chance to use your specialist skills, outside of a conventional client-facing role, and to be part of a collaborative team that plays an essential role in ensuring the success of our firm.

We’ll help you succeed

Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long-lasting relationships.

You’ll be someone who is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own tasks, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO’s partners to help businesses effectively. You’ll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to organisations we work with.

As a member of the Tax Knowledge & Communication team, your role will be to strengthen professional competence and tax technical capability across the national tax stream. You will help ensure our people maintain the technical skills needed to deliver a quality service to our clients. Working with technical specialists, quality and risk colleagues and central people teams, you will shape, deliver and continually improve relevant programmes, resources and communications.​

Responsibilities

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This full-time role will lead, manage and continually evaluate initiatives that support professional competence and technical capability across the tax stream, including Early in Careers (EiC) and national tax technical activity.

Early in Careers programme – Supporting a quality early careers experience that builds professional competence, complements the tax apprenticeship programme and wider firm initiatives, and prepares colleagues to deliver consistently high-quality work. Key tasks and skills include:

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• •Responsible for the continuous improvement and strategic evolution of the Tax Academy and On the Job programmes within a broader professional competence and technical capability framework. Engage with key stakeholders and carry out regular capability reviews to understand business needs, quality risks and skills gaps at all levels. ​
• •Driving large-scale improvements in the experience and capability of the EiC population by leading the EiC representative network to identify opportunities for people to collaborate across streams and offices. Influencing local teams to strengthen support, knowledge sharing and professional standards for EiCs. ​
• •Managing and updating Early in Career resources, including Tax Academy presentations, Tax Induction materials and On the Job programme documentation. ​
• •Identifying and coordinating subject matter experts, contributors and facilitators for technical capability activities, ensuring they understand the objectives and are well prepared. ​
• •Facilitating and managing Tax Induction and Milestone events, including preparing agendas and working with PD to agree content and contributors. Supporting supplier research and engagement with Procurement where specialist design or delivery support is required. ​
• •Carrying out quarterly reviews and considering feedback as part of the system of quality management, sharing effective regional practices across the stream and adjusting activity so that it continues to meet business, professional competence and service-quality needs. ​
• •Annual agreement on budget allocation with the People Executive and annual review of costs against agreed budget to ensure costs are effectively monitored and managed. ​

Tax Technical Capability programme – Leading the national approach to tax technical training, professional competence and CPD, consolidating expertise and resources where appropriate to reduce duplication and improve the consistency and quality of tax services. Key tasks will include:

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• •Engaging regularly with stakeholders including the Tax Knowledge team, Tax Risk and Tax Stream training representatives. Working with subject matter experts to identify and address technical skills gaps, particularly at manager level and above, and to anticipate capability needs arising from increased use of AI. ​
• •Coordinating subject matter experts and contributors for technical briefings, resources and targeted interventions, ensuring objectives are clear and content is accurate, practical and relevant. ​
• •Tax Knowledge Management: Managing relevant technical resources and CPD records on Workday/Insite, maintaining these as required and promoting them through Tax Insite and Tax Comms channels. ​
• •Reviewing activity as part of the system of quality management, using appropriate measures such as reach, CPD compliance, feedback, identified skills gaps and evidence of quality impact. ​
• •Working with PD, technology, quality and risk colleagues to ensure that AI and other digital tools are used responsibly, while keeping the tax stream’s technical skills strong and supporting consistently high-quality service. ​

Across all responsibilities, strong collaboration will be required between relevant stakeholders, including PD, Tax Knowledge, Tax Risk and technology teams, to ensure clear alignment and consistent messaging across the tax stream.

Requirements

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• •A strong understanding of the stream’s strategic framework, quality obligations and client-service priorities, ensuring capability activity remains aligned with stream strategy; ​
• •A continuous evaluation and improvement approach; assessing technical capability, CPD compliance and quality outcomes against objectives; identifying gaps and ensuring improvements are captured and implemented; ​
• •Knowledge sharing: Ability to create inclusive opportunities for tax stream members to access, apply and share technical knowledge in their day-to-day work; ​
• •Relationship building: Ability to communicate effectively with varied key stakeholders, consulting with others, and embracing constructive challenges to support the delivery of change.

Technical knowledge ​

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• •A broad understanding of tax and experience in a client-facing role are required to understand the professional competence and tax technical capability needs of the tax stream and translate them into practical support. ​
• •Good writing/language skills – to tailor material according to the audience and where necessary to write

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Behaviours & attitude ​

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• •Proactivity: The role requires discipline, self-organisation and persistence to ensure successful management of multiple projects. ​
• •Communication & Collaboration skills : The role is about building engagement across the stream. It requires strong stakeholder relationships and confidence in giving constructive, often upward, feedback. ​
• •Plus all the essential workplace skills of teamwork, efficiency, flexibility, level headedness, resilience and excellent productivity.

You’ll be able to be yourself; we’ll recognise and value you for who you are and celebrate and reward your contributions to the business. We’re committed to agile working, and we offer e