Arguably every firm in the country is looking for a Tax Director. Well, that might be a bit extreme (it is 2026 after all) but lots of firms are looking for Tax Directors.
Tax Director seems to be the role everyone is after. Have you heard of Private Equity (kidding, of course). One primary premise of their business model is to give the Partners their bag and replace them with Directors. We know of one “consolidator” with over 30 open Tax Director positions. For the roll up model to work, the aging partners have to be replaced. And this might just be the tip of the iceberg.
Taking that a bit further, I did some research (have you heard of AI? Rumor has it it’s going to be a game changer), and the best guess is there are 1,500 open Tax Director roles in the US.
Most of us know how we got here. Staffing has been the number one issue firms face since the surveys started. I started following in the 90s.
The history is pretty simple to explain. Smart folks, good at math, hard workers from primarily blue-collar backgrounds became accountants. “Being a CPA”, you can always get a job. Upward mobility.
Well, what happens after you get your license? The newly minted CPAs leave in droves. The busy season grind loses its luster. Most of their hard-working friends are making money in finance, tech and other industries. And how to hit “pay dirt” and make partner in public accounting is clear as mud. Hence, the mass exodus around the 5-year mark. Who can blame them? Present company included.
This helps explain the “gap at the top.” Boomers made their money and Gen Xers mostly left the industry. There are a lot of excellent Millennials yet many have just gone the route of starting their own firms. They wanted to be tech-forward, work their own hours and not be strapped to the “elusive” buyout of senior partners.
First of all, most Tax Director job descriptions are looking for a unicorn (or super hero, choose your description).
Here are the top characteristics these listings demand:
Our emerging view is that firms need to start separating true tax leadership from operational/process management and people management. The latter is a Director of Operations (DOO) role — and that role is starting to change as a result of tech and AI.
Most firms push workflow, client intake, admin coordination, email management, people management, scheduling, etc. onto senior tax people because they don’t have a better solution. So the most expensive, hardest-to-replace person in the building spends their days buried in coordination work. That's the Insanity Zone — and it's exactly where the unicorn hunt keeps you stuck. Firms that win over the next few years will leverage tech/AI to redesign these roles instead of continuing to stack responsibility onto one person.
Here’s where the opportunity exists. Your Tax Director will focus on technical work and managing client relationships. Tech and Workflow will reside with a Tax Admin or DOO. The people management will reside with DOO or HR depending on firm size.
There are only so many unicorns and there is a lot of demand. If your firm’s plan depends on finding one, you probably don’t have a hiring problem. You have an Operating Model problem.
So what should a Tax Director job description actually look like — one written for a real person, not a unicorn?
We made one.
Download the Renew Tax Director Job Description: a right-sized role built around technical leadership and client relationships, with workflow and people management designed to live where they belong.
Renew helps accountants transform their firms. The Renew Operating Model is a structured, step-by-step system built from over 25 years of real firm data. The right clients. The right prices. And importantly, the right team structure. It's how firms get out of the Insanity Zone for good.
