Head of Tax

Join us at the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), where we’re on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, policy makers, and entrepreneurs to tackle humanity’s greatest challenges in four transformative areas: Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology; Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture; Climate Change & Managing CO₂; Artificial Intelligence & Robotics.

This is ambitious work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you’ll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real‑world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society.

Your Role: We are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Head of Tax to join our growing team. The ideal candidate will possess strong technical expertise in indirect tax, with a working knowledge of other relevant areas such as Employment taxes, Business Tax, Transfer Pricing, and R&D tax credits. Reporting directly to the Finance Director, this role will be instrumental in shaping and leading our tax compliance and strategy as we scale.

Your Responsibilities:

• Managing all aspects of UK tax compliance, including Corporate Income Tax, Employment taxes, VAT, and other relevant taxes for the UK Group entities.
• Ensuring accurate and timely filings of quarterly and annual tax returns, along with other reporting obligations.
• Proactively creating and implementing processes, controls and governance, as well as improvements in the robustness of tax data to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the tax function.
• Developing features, functionalities and processes within the ERP system.
• Collaborating with different parts of the business to ensure tax considerations are integrated into business decisions and providing advice and support on tax‑related matters, including property transactions, transfer pricing, and structuring.
• Managing relationships with external tax advisors, auditors and HMRC, including the management of tax audits.
• Supporting with financial reporting, tax account reconciliations, tax provisions and tax forecasting.
• Identifying and mitigating tax risks, ensuring compliance with applicable regulations.
• Developing and implementing tax strategies, which are aligned with the company’s overall business objectives, considering both short‑term and long‑term implications.
• Staying up to date with changes in tax legislation, assessing their impact on the company and proactively adapting strategies as needed.

Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• Qualified tax professional (e.g., ACA/CTA/ATT) with extensive experience in UK tax.
• 10 years PQE, with experience working in‑house, as well as in a professional services firm.
• Able to work independently and as part of a team.
• Excellent communication skills and an ability to build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders at all levels.
• Strategic thinking.
• Experience of Oracle is desirable but not essential.
• Prior experience working in similar industries is nice to have.

Key Attributes:

• Experience with managing HMRC.
• Proactive self‑starter who is a highly organised individual with excellent attention to detail and accuracy.
• High proficiency in Microsoft Office products, particularly Excel.
• Ability to engage and effectively build relationships with business stakeholders across functions from all levels of the organisation.

Our Benefits:

• Salary: £120,000 - £140,000 + travel allowance + bonus
• Enhanced holiday pay
• Pension
• Life Assurance
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance
• Hospital Cash Plan
• Therapy Services
• Perk Box
• Electric Car Scheme

Working Together – What It Involves: You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary. You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford.