Vice President - Client Tax Operations

Vice President, Client Tax Operations

The Vice President, Client Tax Operations is a senior tax subject-matter authority within Citi Wealth, purposefully positioned at the intersection of tax regulation, client experience, data, technology, and operational governance. This is not a traditional tax operations role. The position serves as the primary tax leader for the Wealth business, operating as the connective tissue between Enterprise Tax Operations and Citi Wealth Client Services. In this capacity, the role owns the Wealth interpretation, execution strategy, and client alignment for global tax regulatory regimes impacting UHNW clients, including FATCA, CRS, CARF, IRS Chapters 3, 4, and 61, NRA and backup withholding, tax documentation, and information reporting (1099 and 1042-S). The role acts as a trusted advisor to the Wealth business, supporting client messaging, regulatory positioning, complex issue resolution, and reputational risk management. This position is intentionally designed to go beyond execution and oversight. You will define how tax is governed, architected, operationalized, communicated, and scaled across the Wealth platform. Success requires deep technical tax expertise combined with system-level thinking, data fluency, transformation leadership, and executive judgment. You will lead people, shape operating models, guide technology and data design, influence enterprise decision-making, and ensure tax compliance is embedded seamlessly into the UHNW client experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Tax Subject Matter Leadership & Business Advisory
  • Serve as the primary tax SME for Citi Wealth, providing authoritative guidance across FATCA, CRS, CARF, IRS Chapters 3, 4, and 61, W-8/W-9 documentation, FATCA, NRA and backup withholding, and 1099/1042-S information reporting.
  • Own Wealth-specific tax interpretations and positions, ensuring consistency with enterprise standards while addressing Wealth client needs and risk tolerance.
  • Act as a senior advisor to Wealth Client Services, Front Office partners, Legal, Risk and Compliance on client communications, disclosures, regulatory explanations, and sensitive tax-related inquiries.
  • Represent Citi Wealth in enterprise tax governance forums, regulatory discussions, and cross-business working groups.
• Operations Excellence, Strategy, & Execution
  • Provide end-to-end strategic Wealth-level oversight and governance across the full tax lifecycle for UHNW clients, ensuring accurate interpretation, transparency, and issue resolution related to tax documentation, withholding, and reporting performed by Enterprise Tax Operations and third-party providers.
  • Identify, analyze, and govern systemic tax exceptions and risk themes (e.g., undocumented accounts, changes in circumstances, expiring forms, invalid TINs), partnering with Operations, Technology, and Data teams to drive sustainable remediation and prevent recurrence.
  • Develop scalable business intelligence, analytics, and AI-enabled strategies to proactively detect emerging issues, improve data quality, accelerate resolution timelines, and reduce manual intervention across the Wealth platform.
  • Ensure operational readiness and flawless delivery of cyclical tax events through disciplined planning, control alignment, and execution playbooks.
  • Serve as a Wealth business escalation authority for complex client, operational, regulatory, and systemic tax issues.
  • Design and oversee exception management and remediation strategies, including root-cause analysis, thematic issue identification, durable corrective actions, and governance of aged or recurring issues.
• Regulatory Change & Remediation Leadership
  • Own the end-to-end regulatory change management lifecycle for Wealth tax obligations:
    • Regulatory horizon scanning and impact assessment
    • Gap analysis across policy, process, systems, and data
    • Prioritization, execution, and post-implementation validation
  • Lead large-scale remediation initiatives stemming from regulatory change, control failures, audit findings, or data quality gaps.
  • Ensure timely and effective implementation of new and evolving regimes (e.g., FATCA, CRS, CARF) across operations, technology, data, and client-facing teams.
• Leadership, Talent & Operating Model Ownership
  • Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing team of tax operations professionals, fostering deep expertise, sound judgment, and accountability.
  • Build a sustainable leadership bench through coaching, succession planning, and capability development.
  • Define the future-state tax operating model, including skills evolution across tax, data analytics, systems, automation, and AI.
  • Drive a culture of continuous improvement, risk ownership, and disciplined execution.
• Data, Analytics, AI & Transformation
  • Champion a data-driven tax operating model, leveraging KPIs, KRIs, trend analysis, and predictive insights to manage performance, capacity, risk, and client impact.
  • Partner with Data teams to strengthen data lineage, data quality, data governance, and transparency across tax processes.
  • Identify and implement opportunities to leverage advanced analytics and AI, including:
    • Predictive identification of documentation and withholding exceptions
    • Pattern detection across client and account populations
    • Intelligent workflow routing and automation
    • Regulatory monitoring and control optimization
  • Evaluate transformation investments with a focus on scalability, control integrity, and return on investment.
• Technology, System & Business Architecture
  • Act as a tax technology and architecture thought leader, partnering with Technology and Product to design and evolve tax platforms.
  • Own the business and data architecture for tax across the Wealth ecosystem, including upstream and downstream dependencies, data flows, and control points.
  • Translate regulatory requirements into Wealth owned system logic, functional requirements, data attributes, and control design.
  • Oversee third-party tax vendor relationships, influencing product roadmaps, integration strategies, performance metrics, and cost effectiveness.
• Governance, Risk, Financial & Control Excellence
  • Maintain end-to-end accountability for the tax operations control framework, including issue management, audits, exams, and regulatory inquiries.
  • Proactively manage client, regulatory, and reputational risk associated with tax matters impacting UHNW clients.
  • Ensure adherence to Citi policies, global regulatory standards, and industry best practices.
  • Provide executive-level reporting to senior leadership on operational health, risk posture, remediation progress, and strategic priorities.
  • Maintain cost discipline by balancing risk reduction, automation investment, and vendor strategy.

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, Business, Information Systems, or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in tax operations, wealth management, financial services, or highly regulated environments.
• 2 – 3+ years of people leadership experience, including managing senior specialists and/or managers.
• Deep subject-matter expertise across:
  • IRS Chapters 3, 4, and 61
  • FATCA, CRS, CARF
  • W-8 / W-9 documentation
  • NRA and backup withholding
  • 1099 and 1042 - S reporting
• Demonstrated experience leading complex regulatory change, remediation, and transformation initiatives.
• Executive-level communication skills with the ability to influence across Operations, Technology, Data, Risk, Compliance, Legal, and senior leadership.

Preferred / Differentiating

• Advanced degree (MST, JD) and/or CPA.
• Hands-on experience with tax engines, withholding systems, reporting platforms, and complex system integrations.
• Proven ability to translate tax regulation into enterprise-scale operating models and system designs.
• Experience applying analytics, automation, and AI to reduce risk and improve scalability.
• UHNW wealth management platform experience.

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