Job Overview
Operations Manager – Salah Financial – The Income Tax Center, St. Louis, MO (Full‑Time)
Salah Financial – The Income Tax Center is a 31‑year‑old accounting and tax advisory firm located in the St. Louis suburb of Town & Country. The firm is in a growth phase and looking for a senior operator to transform a founder‑led business into a top‑tier advisory organization.
This manager will own production operations focused on strategic tax advisory, business‑owner consulting, bookkeeping/CFO services, AI‑enabled operational infrastructure, and scalable long‑term growth. The role reports directly to the founder, manages production teams, and ensures operations run without founder involvement.
Key Responsibilities
- People
- Manage a team of CPAs, bookkeepers, admin staff, and contractors.
- Assign work, set expectations, run performance reviews, and make staffing decisions.
- Own hiring: sourcing, screening, interviews, offers, and onboarding.
- Develop team members and address underperformance directly.
- Production
- Own the full workflow for tax return preparation and bookkeeping delivery.
- Manage seasonal capacity planning and ensure readiness ahead of peak periods.
- Maintain quality standards across all client deliverables.
- Build and maintain SOPs for repeatable processes.
- Operations
- Own client escalations and resolve them before reaching the founder.
- Deliver a weekly operations report covering production, utilization, issues, and risks.
- Identify and fix bottlenecks proactively.
- Coordinate across departments to ensure smooth delivery when client engagements span multiple services.
- Manage vendor relationships and operational tools.
- Growth
- Build capacity models that support growth without proportional headcount increases.
- Prepare operations for new initiatives as the firm evolves.
- Provide cost and margin data to support strategic decisions.
Qualifications
- 10+ years in accounting, tax, or professional services operations.
- 3+ years managing a team of at least 5 personnel (CPAs, bookkeepers, or similar).
- Leadership experience in a firm with $10M+ revenue.
- Hands‑on experience with tax seasons and understanding of seasonal pressure.
- Strong people‑management skills.
- Process‑oriented with a track record of building systems that prevent problems.
- Proficiency with QuickBooks and standard tax/practice management software.
- CPA or EA credential (nice to have).
- Experience in a firm undergoing transition or growth phase.
- Built or restructured an operations function.
- Experience managing both employees and contractors.
Compensation & Benefits
Salary range: $140,000 – $220,000 per year. Base salary of $140,000 – $160,000 with a potential on‑target earnings (OTE) of $180,000 – $220,000 based on performance.
Benefits include:
- 100% employer‑paid health benefits with no waiting period.
- 3% company matching retirement benefits.
- 2 weeks PTO in the first year.
- Company retreats.
First 90 Days
- Full understanding of production workflows and team capacity.
- Day‑to‑day operational decisions run through you.
- Top three bottlenecks identified with fixes in progress.
- Escalation process fully owned.
First 12 Months
- Founder no longer involved in production.
- Production margins improved and tracked.
- Team performance managed through clear scorecards.
- Operations ready to support significantly higher volume.