Tax Manager in Portishead

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.

Key Responsibilities Include:

• 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.

What We Are Looking For:

• 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 learn and develop matters as much as years served.
• The judgement to know when to take external advice, and the ability to turn that advice into clear procedures and checklists that non‑tax colleagues can follow.
• A confident, clear communicator who can engage independently with the business: the role reports to the Finance Director and interacts frequently with Board members.
• Technology‑curious, with a demonstrable interest in ERP, BI, automation and AI‑enabled ways of working, and the appetite to drive and share best practice across the finance team.

Desirable, but not essential:

• Experience of R&D tax relief and/or Patent Box regimes.
• Exposure to international tax, withholding tax, VAT/sales taxes or customs in a growing business.
• Experience of working with external advisers — preparing scopes, tracking actions and turning advice into implementation.
• Experience of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, or a comparable ERP and reporting environment.

What’s in it for you?

• 26 days holiday plus bank holidays (with the option to buy or sell 5 additional days).
• Life assurance.
• Critical illness insurance.
• Attractive contributory pension scheme.
• Cycle to work scheme/volunteering scheme/electric car scheme available.
• Hybrid & flexible working arrangements: We offer a balanced hybrid working model, with three days based in the office and two days working remotely. Our flexible working hours include core hours from 10am to 3pm, allowing employees to structure their start and finish times.
• Bonus Scheme to celebrate the company’s successes.

If you are excited by the idea of building a tax capability rather than maintaining one, and want to do it in a growing technology company with global reach, we’d love to hear from you!

Note on Sponsorship: We regret to inform you that at this time, we are unable to offer sponsorship for work authorisation for this role. Therefore, candidates must possess valid authorisation to work in the UK without requiring visa sponsorship.