Tax Manager

Primary location:
Portishead
Working hours:
Full-time
Hybrid working available:
Yes
Salary :
Competitive

• Would you like to build a tax function from the ground up, rather than inherit one?
• Are you looking for genuine breadth — UK compliance, international and indirect tax, withholding tax, transfer pricing, R&D and Patent Box — instead of a single specialism?
• Do you want to design tax into an ERP and data platform, not manage it in spreadsheets?

Viper Innovations is a King’s Award-winning engineering technology company partnered with The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). We deliver advanced monitoring and asset integrity solutions that protect mission‑critical electrical systems in subsea energy, rail, and industrial sectors worldwide.

This is Viper’s first dedicated tax role. As Viper moves from selling internationally to operating internationally, we need that capability in-house — and built to last.

You will own a broad tax remit: UK tax compliance, international and indirect tax, withholding tax, transfer pricing, R&D and Patent Box, product classification and management of our external tax advisers. You will report to the Finance Director and work closely with the Financial Controller and Finance Manager. This is not a compliance-only role: we are looking for judgement, and you will have the scope to build the processes, documentation and systems that make tax repeatable rather than dependent on individuals.

• Own and coordinate UK corporation tax compliance, tax accounting and provisions, and R&D tax relief and Patent Box inputs, including project and timesheet evidence integrity.
• Review and submit UK VAT returns, working closely with the Finance Manager, who coordinates the underlying data and supporting reconciliations.
• Manage withholding tax end to end — customer deductions, WHT certificates and double tax relief evidence — and reconcile to the ledger.
• Operate and proactively develop the annual tax compliance calendar as part of the finance team’s month‑end and year‑end timetable, and maintain the group’s tax records across all active jurisdictions: country tax registers, action and risk logs, and documented tax positions.
• Support transfer pricing compliance and intercompany arrangements, particularly for US operations and future international structures.
• Develop and maintain Viper’s product classification position for tax purposes across traded and target territories, keeping tax wording consistent across contracts, quotes, invoices and marketing.
• Manage our external tax advisers, ensuring advice is scoped, challenged, summarised and genuinely embedded into how we operate — using technology to make that advice usable.
• Embed tax controls and data into Dynamics 365 Business Central, invoicing processes and month‑end reporting: tax built into the ERP and the governed data layer, not spreadsheets.
• Act as the practical tax interface to the wider business — customs, Incoterms and importer‑of‑record questions with Supply Chain; employment tax and mobility with HR and Delivery; and practical tax training for Sales, Finance, Legal and Operations.
• Support the Finance Director and Financial Controller on international growth: scoping adviser requirements, modelling the tax cost of options, and translating tax complexity into Board‑ready commercial implications

• CTA and/or ACA/ACCA qualified, with approximately two years’ post‑qualification experience in practice or industry.
• A strong UK corporate tax grounding, with the ambition to build breadth across international tax, withholding tax, VAT and sales taxes, transfer pricing and customs.
• International and commercial tax curiosity — this is not a pure compliance role. Keenness to…