Engagement Manager

About Instead

Instead is where tax work gets done. Our AI agent orchestrates the entirety of how work gets done in tax, from preparation and compliance to filing and advisory. It's a fundamentally new way of doing tax work, and it's why top 500 firms, Big Four teams, and enterprise corporate tax departments are choosing Instead.

What makes us unique: we hold full government approvals with the IRS, 48 states, and all cities to e-file 1040, 1041, 1120, 1120S, and 1065, with 706, 709, 990, 5500, 2290, and PPT coming for tax year 2026. Instead is a full replacement for CCH Axcess, GoSystem, UltraTax, OneSource, CorpTax, Lacerte, ProConnect, Drake, and more. No other tax startup will be able to offer these capabilities for years as we are two to three years ahead of everyone else in government approvals. This lets us build product experiences that are simply unmatched in the market.

Instead is backed by Conviction, IRIS (the largest tax software provider in the UK), Skylark, Aprio, and many of our partners and customers. Our team includes leaders from Intuit, Gusto, Zenefits, Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer, PwC, BDO, RSM, and KPMG.

The Role

Instead's Engagement Managers own the customer relationship from the moment a firm signs on. You are the face of Instead to our customers, guiding them from onboarding through adoption, expansion, and renewal. You'll coordinate on-site implementation sessions, manage the overall engagement timeline, and make sure every firm gets to production usage as fast as possible.

You'll work closely with Tax Engineers, who bring the domain expertise and run the hands-on technical implementation. Your role is the relationship and commercial outcome: keeping the customer on track, identifying where they need more support, driving pilot-to-paid conversions, and owning renewals and expansion. You don't need to be a tax expert, but you need to understand how accounting firms operate and what it takes to earn their trust.

What You'll Do

• Own the end-to-end customer journey for a portfolio of accounting firms, from post-sale onboarding through full adoption and renewal
• Coordinate on-site implementation sessions (typically 2-day engagements), managing logistics, stakeholder alignment, and follow-up
• Build trusted relationships with firm partners, tax managers, and operations leaders, becoming their primary point of contact at Instead
• Drive product adoption through structured enablement plans, regular check-ins, and proactive outreach when usage drops or questions arise
• Own the commercial relationship post-sale, including pilot-to-paid conversion, renewals, and identifying expansion opportunities across additional entity types and firm locations
• Monitor customer health metrics and take initiative to reduce churn risk and drive retention
• Partner with Tax Engineers to ensure technical implementation quality and translate customer feedback into actionable product insights
• Help build and refine the Engagement playbook as Instead scales from dozens to hundreds of firm relationships

What You Bring

• 4+ years of experience in customer success, engagement management, account management, or a similar customer-facing role in a B2B SaaS or professional services environment
• A track record of driving customer retention, expansion, and satisfaction
• Strong project management skills. You keep implementations on track, stakeholders aligned, and customers confident
• Excellent communication skills. You can manage senior conversations with firm partners and roll up your sleeves with operations teams
• Commercial instinct. You know when to listen, when to advise, and when to push for a commitment
• Willingness to travel for on-site engagements (estimated 30 to 50% travel)
• Experience working with accounting firms, tax professionals, or other professional services customers is a strong plus but not required

What Makes Someone Exceptional

• You treat every customer like a partner, not a ticket. You proactively surface problems before they become escalations
• You can manage 20 to 40 concurrent engagements without dropping the ball on any of them
• You have a bias for action. When something is stuck, you don't wait for someone to tell you what to do
• You understand that adoption is not a checkbox. Real adoption means the firm is using Instead in production, on real returns, with real deadlines
• You can earn the trust of skeptical firm partners who have used the same tax technology for 20 years

Compensation

Competitive base, variable compensation, and equity

Location

Lehi, Utah (on-site with travel)

Instead is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate candidates based on capability, judgment, ownership, and fit for the role's responsibilities. We welcome candidates who can help us build a category-defining company in tax technology.