Together We Build – Partnership, Innovation, Excellence, and Safety

At Kelso Industries, 5,000+ employees across 40+ companies work together to deliver exceptional HVAC, mechanical, plumbing, refrigeration, and electrical solutions nationwide. Join us to grow your career, make an impact, and be part of a team where innovation, excellence, and safety come first.

Recruiter Notice: We respectfully ask external recruiters and staffing agencies not to submit candidates. We only accept direct applications.

Kelso Industries is a private equity backed platform of more than 40 mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC operating companies on a path to becoming a public company. We are seeking a Director of Tax to lead the tax function for the Kelso enterprise. This leader is the company-side owner of every tax workstream, including federal and state income tax, the ASC 740 provision, non-income tax, and post-acquisition tax integration, and is accountable for tax strategy, tax risk, and the public-company readiness of the tax function.

This is a builder role, not a maintenance role. Kelso does not have an in-house tax department today. This leader will design the centralized tax operating model, build the processes, controls, and team behind it, and take the function from advisor-managed to public-company ready. The role reports to the Corporate Controller and works directly with the Chief Financial Officer, external advisors, and operating company finance leaders.

WHAT YOU’LL DO (RESPONSIBILITIES)

Tax strategy and public-company readiness

• Set the tax strategy for the enterprise, including effective tax rate management, cash tax planning, entity structure, and state tax planning, and present tax matters to the Chief Financial Officer and, as needed, the board and audit committee.

• Lead the tax workstream of IPO readiness, including the tax aspects of pre-IPO structuring and reorganization, tax disclosures in registration statements, and readiness to report tax on public-company timelines, in partnership with the Chief Financial Officer and external advisors.

• Build tax processes, policies, documentation, and SOX 404 controls over the tax provision and tax compliance to a public-company standard, in coordination with the technical accounting and financial reporting team.

• Identify, quantify, and manage tax risk across the enterprise, including exposure reserves, historical compliance gaps, and the tax implications of new business models and contract structures.

Income tax and the ASC 740 provision

• Own the quarterly and annual income tax provision under ASC 740, including the deferred tax inventory, valuation allowance analysis, uncertain tax positions, rate reconciliation, and financial statement disclosures, delivered on a timeline that supports Form 10-Q and Form 10-K reporting, and lead provision review with the external auditor.

• Own the federal and state income tax compliance process for Kelso and its subsidiaries, including the compliance calendar, entity listing, extension and estimated payment schedules, and the review and filing of returns prepared by the external tax preparer.

• Set state apportionment, nexus, and filing positions for a multi-state footprint, and direct composite, withholding, and pass-through entity tax elections where applicable.

• Control the data provided to the external preparer, including trial balances, fixed asset rollforwards, book-to-tax adjustments, and entity information, and approve all deliverables before filing.

• Lead federal and state income tax audits, notices, and controversy matters, including strategy, negotiation, and resolution.

Non-income tax

• Own the centralized sales and use tax compliance program across all operating companies, including the filing calendar and archive across all jurisdictions and filing types, taxability matrices, nexus studies, exemption certificate management, and review of returns prepared by the managed service provider.

• Serve as the company-side owner of the NetSuite tax tables and item taxability configuration that feed sales tax calculation in NetSuite and downstream systems, and set the direction for tax technology, including evaluation of a third-party tax engine.