Global Product Owner, Accounting & Tax

Overview

This leadership role owns the Accounting & Tax (A&T) product end to end, including global scope, standards, commercial logic, processes, and economics. You will lead the function as a Managing Director–level member of the Delivery leadership team, reporting to the Chief Delivery Officer. Primary objectives include business growth through flawless delivery, driving growth, profitability, and reputation of A&T worldwide.

You serve as the senior product and delivery voice for A&T in the market—trusted by prospects and key accounts—and partner closely with Revenue and Sales to win and expand business. You translate market trends and customer demands into how the service is designed, packaged, priced, and delivered.

Responsibilities

Commercial Leadership & Growth

• Own the growth agenda for A&T: revenue, win rate, retention, and expansion.
• Act as the senior, client-facing product authority for A&T, including anchoring strategic engagements, pitches, high-stakes decisions, and escalations.
• Partner with Revenue and Sales to qualify opportunities, shape scope and pricing, and convert and expand accounts.
• Define and evolve the commercial logic—packaging, bundling, premiums, and guardrails—so A&T can be sold and delivered profitably at scale.
• Own the reputation of the A&T product in the market.

Product Strategy & Standards

• Own global scope, service definitions, and standards for A&T (what is in, what is out, and how it is delivered).
• Set global execution standards, SLAs, and compliance expectations across all regions and delivery models.
• Drive delivery consistency across regions while enabling flexibility within agreed guardrails.

Market Insight & Service Design

• Serve as the ultimate subject-matter expert for A&T, maintaining a deep, current view of market trends, competitor moves, and customer demands.
• Translate market and client insight into service design and the delivery organization.
• Shape the product roadmap and delivery-model choices (in-house, outsourced, automated) to capture growth opportunities.

Process Standardisation & Continuous Improvement

• Set the global A&T operating model and process standards; approve processes, SOPs, and control frameworks before they enter delivery.
• Direct the Global Process Manager (GPM) on process design, standardisation, controls, and scalability—turning product intent into repeatable, executable delivery.
• Support enterprise AI direction and drive adoption within A&T to enable scale and quality.

Cost Management & Commercial Sustainability

• Own product-level cost-to-serve for A&T, driving efficiency, productivity, and long-term economic sustainability.
• Make deliberate trade-offs across scope design, automation, sourcing, and delivery-model choices to keep delivery economics healthy as the product scales.
• Diagnose cost pressures, identify root causes, and lead corrective action, supported by Finance on modelling and analysis.

Regional Delivery Governance & Team Leadership

• Lead all Regional Product Owners (RPOs) for A&T as their global head, holding them and the Outsourcing Control leads accountable for regional delivery outcomes and economics.
• Provide the framework for regional autonomy (in-house versus outsourced mix, capacity, and hiring proposals) and arbitrate cross-regional or peer-function disagreements when escalated.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the GPM, RPOs, and OC leads; build product, commercial, and delivery capability across the global A&T team.

Scope & Commercial Governance

• Propose and own changes to product scope, service tiers, and commercial logic, routing them through the agreed approval framework for impact assessment and implementation readiness.
• Support enabling functions on scope-to-catalogue mapping, SKU registration, and pricing alignment.
• Validate post-implementation effectiveness of scope and commercial changes through defined metrics and refine where needed.

Compliance, Audit & Risk

• Set the global compliance posture for A&T across accounting standards (IFRS, local GAAP), tax legislation, and statutory reporting requirements.
• Ensure A&T delivery maintains internal controls and regulatory adherence in every jurisdiction the product serves.
• Engage with internal and external audit on A&T product-level matters.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work closely with the Chief Delivery Officer, peer Global Product Owners, Revenue, Technology, and enabling functions across Delivery.
• Represent the A&T product in cross-functional and executive forums.

Key Performance Indicators

• Revenue growth and win rate for the product.
• Retention and net revenue retention (NRR).
• Margin and cost-to-serve.
• Delivery SLA attainment and quality.
• Client satisfaction (NPS).

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field; CPA, CA, ACCA, or equivalent professional accounting qualification preferred. MBA or equivalent is a plus.
• 15+ years of experience in accounting, tax, or finance operations, with at least 5 years owning a product, service line, or regional / global function end to end.
• Managing Director–level leadership experience, with the gravitas to operate as a senior commercial and product leader.
• Demonstrated track record of driving growth—revenue, win rate, retention, and expansion—not only delivery.
• Experience running a service-line P&L at scale—owning cost-to-serve, productivity, margin, and pricing logic.
• Strong working knowledge of IFRS and local GAAP, tax legislation, and statutory reporting requirements across multiple regions (APAC, EMEA, and ideally the Americas).
• Demonstrated experience designing service standards, commercial logic (packaging, bundling, premiums), and pricing frameworks.
• Strong client-facing and business-development capability; comfortable as the senior product voice in front of clients and prospects.
• Experience leading senior delivery and product leaders—regional heads, process leads, and outsourcing-control / vendor-management leads—across multiple regions.
• Deep market awareness and ability to read trends and customer demand to shape the service accordingly.
• Process-oriented mindset with strong judgement on when global standards should be applied versus where flexibility serves the client.
• Strong analytical and strategic problem-solving skills, comfortable with financial modelling, scenario analysis, and unit economics.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills, with ability to influence at executive level.
• Proficiency in accounting platforms—Xero in particular (the central A&T platform)—and other ERP / accounting systems (QuickBooks, SAP, Oracle, or equivalent).
• Comfort with AI-assisted tools and automation as enablers of product scale and quality.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience as a product or service-line head in a global outsourced accounting / corporate-services firm or in a Big-4 advisory / managed-services context.
• Experience leading a P&L turnaround, transformation, or in-housing programme.
• Experience operating in an EoR, PEO, or global business services environment.

Compensation & Benefits

Not specified in the provided job description.

Location

Not specified in the provided job description.