Product Manager - Internal Product (Tax)

About the role

This Product Manager role at Alpaca focuses on the internal tax product, encompassing the entire tax reporting lifecycle. The primary responsibility is to drive the product roadmap for IRS reporting, including various 1099 forms and state-level requirements. This involves defining timelines, acceptance criteria, and quality gates to ensure accurate and timely filings annually.

A key aspect of the role is vendor management, specifically overseeing relationships with tax technology vendors and monitoring their performance. The individual will also be responsible for building and managing the cross-functional calendar for tax season, coordinating across engineering, operations, and compliance teams to meet critical deadlines without fail. Success hinges on proactive identification of gaps and scaling the tax infrastructure to support new asset classes, account types, and multi-entity structures.

The role requires a strong partnership with core engineering teams to ensure upstream data ingestion is correctly architected from the outset, supporting reliable tax operations. This includes ensuring foundational database infrastructure accurately captures diverse income types and account rules. The Product Manager will also design and launch internal monitoring tools and dashboards to provide real-time visibility into filing statuses, error rates, and correction cycles.

The salary for this position ranges from $112,000 to $188,000 USD.

Skills that matter here

• Tax: This role requires deep working knowledge of US brokerage tax reporting, including 1099 production and IRS filing requirements.
• Product Roadmap: The role involves defining and executing the product roadmap for IRS reporting and other tax obligations, setting timelines and quality gates.
• Vendor Management: This position requires managing relationships with tax technology vendors and holding them accountable to performance standards.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: The Product Manager will coordinate across engineering, operations, and compliance teams to ensure tax deadlines are met and requirements are translated effectively.
• System Design: The role involves partnering with engineers on system design and data reconciliation, particularly for foundational database infrastructure and data ingestion.
• Data Reconciliation: The individual will work closely with engineers on data reconciliation to ensure accuracy within tax systems and reporting.

Who this role suits

• A person with a background in product management or technical program management within fintech, brokerage, or financial infrastructure.
• Someone who has direct experience with US brokerage tax reporting and has navigated at least one full tax season at a relevant firm.
• An individual capable of translating complex tax rules into clear engineering requirements and defending prioritization decisions to senior stakeholders.
• A candidate comfortable working with data systems, understanding file formats, and ensuring data integrity for tax operations.

From the employer

Your Role:

• Own the tax product lifecycle at a rapidly scaling self-clearing broker-dealer.

Things You Get To Do:

• Own Tax Reporting End-to-End: Drive the product roadmap for IRS reporting (1099-B, 1099-DIV, 1099-INT, 1099-MISC, 1042-S) and state-level requirements. Define timelines, acceptance criteria, and quality gates that ensure on-time, accurate filings year after year.
• Vendor Management: Own relationships with tax technology vendors, and manage ongoing performance.
• Meet Critical Tax Deadlines: Build the cross-functional calendar for tax season, track dependencies across Engineering, Operations, and Compliance, and ensure zero missed deadlines.
• Scale for New Products: Extend tax infrastructure to support new asset classes (fixed income, crypto staking rewards), new account types (IRAs, advisory), and multi-entity structures. Proactively identify gaps before they become blockers.
• Upstream Data Government: Ensure that tax operations scale reliably by partnering with core engineering teams to ensure upstream data ingestion is architected correctly from day one.
• Data Architecture: Ensure foundational database infrastructure correctly captures and saves diverse income types, entity codes, and account rules (IRAs, HSAs) before they hit the tax systems.
• Internal Monitoring: Design and launch internal monitoring tools and health dashboards that provide real-time visibility into filing statuses, error rates, and corrections cycles.

Who You Are (Must-Haves):

• Tax Domain Expertise: Deep working knowledge of US brokerage tax reporting, like 1099 production, cost basis regulations (including wash sales and corporate actions), and IRS filing requirements. You have lived through at least one full tax season at a broker-dealer or clearing firm.
• Product Management Experience: Proven track record in Product Management or technical program management roles at a fintech, brokerage, or financial infrastructure company. You know how to create a roadmap, manage a backlog, and ship under hard deadlines.
• Vendor Management: Hands-on experience managing third-party tax or financial technology vendors. You can hold vendors accountable to SLAs while maintaining productive partnerships.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Exceptional ability to coordinate across Engineering, Operations, Compliance, and Legal. You can translate complex tax rules into clear engineering requirements and defend prioritization decisions to senior stakeholders.
• Technical Fluency: Comfortable working with data systems, understanding file formats (e.g., IRS schemas, FIRE format), and partnering closely with engineers on system design and data reconciliation.

How We Take Care of You:

• Competitive Salary & Stock Options
• Health Benefits
• New Hire Home-Office Setup: One-time USD $500
• Monthly Stipend: USD $150 per month via a Brex Card.