Regional 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.

You are accountable for global growth, profitability, and reputation of A&T worldwide, serving as the senior product and delivery authority for A&T in the market—trusted by prospects and key accounts—and a partner to Revenue and Sales in winning and expanding business.

Responsibilities

Commercial Leadership & Growth

• Own the growth agenda for A&T (revenue, win rate, retention, and expansion) as the primary measure of success.
• Act as the senior, client-facing product authority for A&T, anchoring strategic client engagements, pitches, high-stakes decisions, and escalations.
• Partner with Revenue and Sales to qualify opportunities, shape scope and pricing, and help convert and expand accounts.
• Define and evolve the commercial logic (packaging, bundling, premiums, and guardrails) to enable profitable selling and delivery at scale.
• Own the reputation of the A&T product in the market.

Product Strategy & Standards

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

Market Insight & Service Design

• Maintain an up-to-date view of market trends, competitor moves, and evolving customer demands for A&T.
• Translate market and client insight into service design and delivery organization so the function meets demand and expectation.
• Shape the product roadmap and delivery-model choices (in-house, outsourced, automated) to capture growth opportunities.

Process Standardisation & Continuous Improvement

• Set the regional A&T operating model and process standards; approve processes, SOPs, and control frameworks before they enter 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 with Finance support for modelling and analysis.

Regional Delivery Governance & Team Leadership

• Lead the Outsourcing Control (OC) leads accountable for regional delivery outcomes and economics.
• Provide the framework for regional autonomy (in-house vs. outsourced mix, capacity, and hiring proposals), and arbitrate cross-regional or peer-function disagreements when escalated.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the 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 as needed.

Compliance, Audit & Risk

• Set the regional 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.
• 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; ability to read trends and customer demand and shape the service accordingly.
• Process-oriented mindset—global standards as the foundation for scalable, sustainable delivery—with judgment on 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.