Tax Specialist

About the Job:

The Tax Specialist prepares tax-related financial reporting for Northwestern Mutual and affiliated entities to ensure accurate monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting to internal management as well as external agencies and auditors. You'll support federal, state, local and foreign compliance, execute tax accounting in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), Statutory Accounting Principles (SAP), and help build technology-enabled processes that produce timely, audit-ready tax and financial-statement data.

What You'll Do:

• Prepare tax-related financial statement accounting in accordance with GAAP and SAP including tax adjustments for investments, expenses, deferred compensation, reserves and others.

• Prepare tax return workpapers and filings (premium, sales & use, income tax) for Northwestern Mutual and affiliates.

• Support foreign tax compliance activities such as foreign returns, withholding filings, and U.S. residency certificates.

• Communicate proactively with cross-functional internal and external partners to ensure accuracy of data and resolve issues.

• Perform tax research and summarize findings for senior staff; escalate complex technical issues as needed.

• Collect, validate and organize source data across teams; maintain audit-ready workpapers.

• Identify and execute technology-driven process improvements to accelerate accurate tax reporting.

What You'll Bring to the Role:

• Bachelor's degree in Accounting or related field, or equivalent education plus experience.

• MST / CPA or actively working toward certification.

• Strong working knowledge of accounting and tax principles; prior tax experience is a plus.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; ability to prepare clean, audit-ready documentation.

• Demonstrate analytical and problem-solving skills; methodical approach to gathering and reconciling data.

• Proficient with Excel and willing to learn tax preparation and document-management/reporting tools.

• Team-oriented, ability to effectively maintain relations within divisions of Finance and other company departments as needed.

• Detail-focused, and able to manage multiple deadlines in a fast-paced environment.

• A high degree of personal initiative and self-motivation is required.

Skills You Have:

Attention to Detail: Focuses on specific details to spot and correct errors in advance of them being found and surpass quality expectations. Performs work with thorough proofreading for presentation, content, accuracy, and overall quality.

Cross Functional Partnering & Planning: Facilitates collaboration, communication, coordination, and planning with individuals and teams from different functions within the organization, and who have different areas of expertise, to achieve common goals.

Learning Agility & Critical Thinking: Pursues learning and obtains knowledge continuously in relevant fields, methods, or technologies in current and future practices; continuously utilizes critical thinking to identify opportunities, execute solutions, and measure impact to constantly improve existing practices and processes based on feedback, lessons learned, and market trends.

Research Communication: Synthesizes and communicates research findings and insights in compelling ways to stakeholders to influence potential design and decision making. Translates data into compelling narratives to demonstrate business insights and opportunities and influence business decisions.

Storytelling through Data: Communicates insights and opportunities from a dataset, using narratives, visualizations, and analysis.

#LI-Hybrid

Compensation Range:

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Geographic Specific Pay Structure:

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We believe in fairness and transparency. It's why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you're living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.

Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do. Get started now!

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer who welcomes and encourages diversity in the workforce. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.

Process Improvement (NM) - Intermediate, Technical Problem Solving (NM) - Intermediate, External Collaboration (NM) - Intermediate, Business Automation (NM) - Intermediate, Cross Functional Partnering & Planning (NM) - Intermediate, Adaptive Communication (NM) - Beginner, Legal Acumen (NM) - Beginner, Consulting (NM) - Intermediate, Compliance (NM) - Intermediate, Financial Acumen (NM) - Beginner, Storytelling through Data (NM) - Beginner, Analytical Thinking (NM) - Intermediate, Learning Agility & Critical Thinking (NM) - Beginner, Organizational & Political Savvy (NM) - Beginner, Attention to Detail (NM) - Intermediate, Research Communication (NM) - Intermediate, Risk Consulting (NM) - Intermediate

We're excited about the potential people bring to Northwestern Mutual. You can grow your career here while enjoying first-class perks, benefits, and our commitment to a culture of belonging.

• Flexible work schedules
• Concierge service
• Comprehensive benefits
• Employee resource groups