Tax Manager - Brazil Indirect Tax & Tax Operations

Work Schedule

Standard (Mon-Fri)

Environmental Conditions

Office

Job Description

As part of the Thermo Fisher Scientific team, you’ll discover meaningful work that makes a positive impact on a global scale. Join our colleagues in bringing our Mission to life every single day to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer. We provide our global teams with the resources needed to achieve individual career goals while helping to take science a step beyond by developing solutions for some of the world’s toughest challenges, like protecting the environment, making sure our food is safe or helping find cures for cancer.

DESCRIPTION:

The Tax Manager – Brazil Indirect Tax & Tax Operations will be responsible for managing and overseeing key indirect tax and tax compliance activities in Brazil, ensuring accurate and timely execution, strong controls, and compliance with applicable tax requirements.

This position will have a strong focus on Brazil indirect taxes, transactional tax processes, invoicing and receiving activities, tax compliance, ancillary obligations, and the implementation of Brazil Tax Reform requirements.

The role requires a hands-on and experienced tax professional who combines strong technical knowledge with operational execution, project leadership, and effective stakeholder management.

The Tax Manager will work closely with Tax, Finance, Accounting, IT, Commercial, Supply Chain, Procurement, Shared Services, and other functions to ensure tax requirements are appropriately embedded in business processes and systems.

The position will also play an important role in driving process improvements, automation, standardization, tax technology initiatives, and internal projects, with a strong focus on accountability and execution.

Key Responsibilities

Indirect Tax Operations & Compliance

• Manage and oversee Brazil indirect tax activities, including ICMS, ICMS-ST, PIS/COFINS, IPI, ISS, and withholding taxes.
• Ensure accurate and timely tax calculations, assessments, reconciliations, payments, and compliance activities.
• Oversee tax aspects of invoicing and receiving processes, ensuring appropriate tax determination and compliance with Brazilian tax requirements.
• Review transactional tax processes and identify potential tax exposures, inconsistencies, control gaps, and improvement opportunities.
• Ensure appropriate controls and reconciliations are in place to support the accuracy and completeness of indirect tax processes.
• Partner with Finance and Accounting teams to ensure appropriate treatment and reconciliation of tax-related transactions.
• Support tax audits, internal controls, external audits, and requests from tax authorities as required.

Tax Compliance & Ancillary Obligations

• Manage the preparation, review, and timely submission of Brazilian tax returns and ancillary obligations (obrigações acessórias).
• Ensure consistency and reconciliation between tax calculations, accounting records, transactional data, and tax filings.
• Drive resolution of data quality, system, and process issues impacting tax compliance.
• Coordinate activities with internal teams and external service providers, where applicable.
• Maintain appropriate documentation, procedures, and controls supporting tax compliance processes.
• Lead or support the implementation of new or modified ancillary obligations and tax reporting requirements.
• Identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, and automate tax compliance activities.

Brazil Tax Reform

• Play a key role in the implementation of the Brazil Tax Reform, ensuring operational readiness and compliance with new indirect tax requirements.
• Support the transition from the current indirect tax framework to the new tax model, including impacts on tax determination, invoicing, receiving, compliance, reporting, accounting, and systems.
• Lead or coordinate Tax workstreams related to process changes, system configuration, data requirements, testing, and implementation.
• Support the implementation and ongoing operation of assisted tax assessment (apuração assistida) and other new compliance requirements.
• Translate regulatory requirements into clear operational, process, data, and system requirements.
• Coordinate testing and User Acceptance Testing (UAT), issue resolution, implementation, and post-go-live stabilization.
• Monitor regulatory developments and work with relevant stakeholders to ensure required changes are identified and implemented on a timely basis.

Projects, Tax Technology & Continuous Improvement

• Lead and execute tax-related projects and internal initiatives, ensuring clear scope, responsibilities, timelines, deliverables, and follow-up.
• Act as a Tax subject matter expert in projects involving ERP, tax technology, invoicing, compliance, process transformation, and business changes.
• Lead or support implementation of new tax compliance solutions and ancillary obligation requirements.
• Translate tax requirements into functional specifications and work closely with IT and technology teams throughout solution design and implementation.
• Coordinate requirements gathering, testing, UAT, issue management, implementation, and stabilization activities.
• Proactively identify opportunities for automation, process simplification, standardization, stronger controls, and improved data quality.
• Drive continuous improvement across tax processes, challenging existing practices when more effective solutions are available.
• Ensure projects and initiatives are completed with appropriate governance, documentation, and accountability.

Stakeholder Management

• Develop effective working relationships with Finance, Accounting, IT, Commercial, Supply Chain, Procurement, Shared Services, and other key stakeholders.
• Serve as a trusted Tax partner, providing practical guidance on indirect tax and transactional tax matters.
• Communicate complex tax requirements clearly and effectively to both tax and non-tax audiences.
• Coordinate cross-functional discussions and drive stakeholders toward decisions and timely resolution of issues.
• Effectively manage competing priorities, dependencies, and deadlines in a complex and dynamic environment.
• Provide appropriate visibility and escalation of significant tax risks, operational issues, and project dependencies.
• Work effectively with regional and global teams in a multinational and matrixed environment.

Candidate Profile

The successful candidate will be an experienced Brazilian tax professional with a strong combination of technical tax knowledge, operational expertise, project management capabilities, and business partnership skills.

The individual should be comfortable working in a hands-on environment, able to move between detailed transactional matters and broader projects and transformation initiatives.

A strong sense of ownership and accountability is essential. The candidate is expected to proactively identify issues, engage the appropriate stakeholders, develop solutions, and drive matters through completion.

Minimum Requirements / Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Law, Business Administration, Economics, or a related field.
• Significant professional experience in Brazilian taxation, with strong experience in indirect taxes and tax operations.
• Strong technical and practical knowledge of ICMS, ICMS-ST, PIS/COFINS, IPI, ISS, and withholding taxes.
• Solid understanding of Brazilian invoicing, receiving, tax determination, and transactional tax processes.
• Strong experience with Brazilian tax compliance and ancillary obligations.
• Previous experience implementing new ancillary obligations, tax compliance processes, or tax technology solutions.
• Demonstrated experience leading projects and working with cross-functional teams.
• Ability to understand tax requirements and translate them into process and system requirements.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and execution skills.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management capabilities.
• Ability to independently manage multiple priorities and drive issues through resolution.
• Advanced/fluent English is mandatory, including the ability to lead meetings, participate in projects, prepare communications, and interact effectively with regional and global stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with JD Edwards (JDE).
• Experience with TaxOne or comparable Brazilian tax compliance technology.
• Experience with ERP implementations, upgrades, integrations, or tax technology projects.
• Previous experience implementing or transforming Brazilian ancillary obligation and tax compliance processes.
• Experience with Brazil Tax Reform implementation, including tax, process, system, and compliance impacts.
• Experience working within a large multinational and matrixed organization.

Leadership & Core Competencies

Accountability & Ownership

Takes ownership of responsibilities and outcomes, follows through on commitments, proactively addresses issues, and drives matters to resolution.

Execution

Demonstrates a strong delivery mindset, effectively prioritizes activities, and converts requirements and decisions into measurable results.

Technical Expertise

Applies strong practical knowledge of Brazilian indirect taxation to business transactions, operational processes, compliance, and projects.

Project Leadership

Structures and drives projects effectively, coordinates multiple stakeholders, manages dependencies, and ensures timely execution of deliverables.

Stakeholder Management

Builds productive relationships across functions and organizational levels and effectively influences stakeholders to achieve business and compliance objectives.

Communication

Communicates complex tax matters in a clear, concise, and practical manner in both Portuguese and English, adapting communication to different audiences.

Problem Solving

Identifies root causes, evaluates alternatives, and develops practical and sustainable solutions rather than relying solely on escalation.

Continuous Improvement

Challenges existing processes and proactively identifies opportunities for automation, simplification, standardization, stronger controls, and increased efficiency.

Collaboration

Works effectively across Tax, Finance, IT, Shared Services, and business functions, creating alignment and shared accountability for results.