Talent Acquisition Manager

Posted Sunday, August 23, 2026

Thank you for your interest in WCG. The following is high-level information for our Talent Acquisition Manager role, a new position built to bring recruiting in-house across the entire firm. This is a dual-mode role. You prepare tax returns during tax season as a full Tax Team Associate, and you own firmwide recruiting from May through November each year.

If you are an internal WCG candidate reading this, this role is designed with you in mind first. If you are external with a strong recruiting background and the tax credentials to handle the season, we are open to that path too. The Career Path section further down addresses both audiences.

Who Is WCG

WCG CPAs & Advisors isn't your typical CPA firm, and if you've spent any time in public accounting, you already know that's either a red flag or a relief. For the right person, it's the latter.

Headquartered in Colorado Springs with team members across the U.S. and in India, we're a methodically growing firm with 7 partners, over 90 full-time team members, and projected 2026 revenues of $12.7M, representing about 14% year-over-year growth. We grow because our model works, not because we say yes to everything.

We offer the depth of a mid-size firm with the focus and personality of a boutique. We play in specific sandboxes- small business owners in S Corps, Partnerships, and PCs; complex individual tax, and real estate investors, and we play in them very well. Real estate and rental activity planning alone represents over 40% of our advisory work and is our fastest-growing segment.

No billable hours. No six-minute increments. No stuffiness. We operate on a value-based, next-gen advisory model built around annual service offerings that combine tax return preparation, routine consultation, and strategic planning. A tax return, in our world, is the result of a year's worth of conversations, not a transaction.

If that sounds like the environment you've been looking for, keep reading.

Last updated- June 30, 2026

WCG Team Overviews

India Team

Our India team is not an outsourcing arrangement, and it is not a back office. They are WCG Associates who happen to work from our office in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Same systems, same clients, same standards, same expectations. Oh, and same cool people.

You will find our India Associates embedded across the teams above, mainly Tax Prep, Tax Support, and Accounting Services. They use the same tools as their U.S. counterparts (UltraTax, SurePrep, QuickBooks Online, Xero), correspond with U.S. clients directly, advance along the same career paths, and take part in the same Associate Reviews. Because the work is genuinely shared, an India Associate is part of the client conversation, not a step removed from it.

The team works mostly onsite and is led on the ground by our WCG India Global Services Director. One firm, two countries, one heartbeat.

As of June 30, 2026, we have 15 full-time WCG India Associates.

If you are applying from India, the India Team Differences section of each role spells out what is specific to the Ahmedabad office: onsite work, compensation in INR, core hours in IST, the Saturday schedule during peak season, and the credentials we accept.

Support Team

Everything starts and ends with our Support Team, and we mean that. Their mission is to make clients' lives better and to back up every other team at WCG. The Support Team runs in four lanes:

  • Client Support: Our frontline team handling phone calls, chats, texts, and general email inquiries. First impressions live here. The rest of the WCG team spends every day trying to live up to it.
  • Tax Support: Our largest segment and does the heavy lifting on both ends of the tax return process. They handle front-end data collection (IDP, which stands for Information and Data Processing... yeah, the name is a little stale, but the function is mission-critical) and back-end assembly using SurePrep. They also collect payments, obtain e-file authorizations via Canopy, and file about 75% of our tax return extensions.
  • Human Resources: Led by our dedicated HR Manager who ensures compliance, sure, but whose primary function is supporting the team with their needs from travel and IT to family leave, the firmwide calendar, and beyond.

Operations Team

Operations is a small team with firmwide reach, and it exists to keep the whole machine honest. It is not a back office, and it is not a report factory. Operations owns the health of production across every team, tax returns, tax plans, and financial statement delivery alike.

It is led by our Operations Manager, who reports to the Firm Strategist, with an Operations Specialist handling the heavy data build underneath. The Manager is the one who takes workflow and operational data, reads what it means, and turns it into a decision, a clear ask, and follow-through until the work moves.

In practice that looks like keeping work correctly staged, assigned, and current in Canopy, aligning Pods to one WCG standard as we grow, forecasting revenue and translating it into hiring needs so we staff ahead of the crisis instead of during it, leading engagement reassignment when people shift roles or Pods, and owning firmwide procedure alignment and the training that supports it.

Someone has to keep the trains running on time and spot the pileup before it happens. That is Operations.

Tax Prep Team

We use Thomson Reuters UltraTax in a dedicated hosted environment, paired with SurePrep (including 1040SCAN) for electronic binders and annotations.

For the 2025 tax year, our team will prepare approximately 6,100 tax returns, a clean 60/40 split between individual and business entity returns. Because our Tax team has a well-documented fondness for summers, we push hard to complete 65% of returns by April 15, leaving May through July open primarily for tax planning work.

For the 2026 tax year, we expect to prepare 7,500 tax returns with the split increasing on the 1040 side given our increasing presence with real estate investors and rental property owners.

Over 50 Tax team members make this happen, including our 15+ dedicated team members in India.

Rental Expert and Tax Strategy Pod

Real estate and advanced tax planning are core niches at WCG, so we built a team specifically for them rather than leaving it to generalists.

The RETS Pod works behind the scenes to support our primary tax Pods on the technical heavy lifting: initial asset setups, cost segregation studies (including fun 3115/481(a) adjustments), the short-term rental loophole, and Real Estate Professional Status (REPS) analysis.

We use a structured three-session process (Foundation, Exploration, and Execution) to map a client's full tax exposure and build an actionable strategy. We replace promoter math with real math, stress-testing every advanced strategy against what we call the 3-Legged Stool: a client's actual cash, effort, and risk tolerance.

2025 tax returns due in 2026 was our first time with the RETS Pod (fka, the rental expert pod). We had some bumps and bruises, and we have a lot of growing yet to do. Our ideal world is for all rental activities and related niche investments to be handled by the RETS Pod, leaving the remaining pieces of the tax return to be completed by other WCG tax accountants. Two exceptions: a real estate holding company that files a partnership return, and a super simple 1040 where the rental and investment activities are the main event. Those get handled tip to tail by the RETS Pod.

If real estate tax strategy is your thing, this is where WCG is investing. We currently have 5 team members in this pod and are aiming for 9-10 by the end of 2026 to support our fastest-growing client segment as we continue the evolution from the original Rental Expert Pod to the 2.0, or the RETS Pod.

AI Tax Prep Pod (Coming November 2026)

WCG is actively building an AI Tax Prep Pod for the 2027 tax season, focused on AI-assisted preparation of individual (1040) returns. The thesis is straightforward: AI tools have evolved into something good enough and fast enough that a small dedicated team using them well can produce high quality and high throughput. The procedures, playbook, and standards do not exist anywhere yet. We are building them from scratch.

The Pod will operate similar to the RETS Pod: a specialized team with its own workflow, its own quality standards, and a direct line into the broader Tax Team. Tax returns prepared by the Pod will be reviewed by experienced reviewers using our standard quality controls. AI does not replace the review function. It changes the preparation function.

We are hiring the Pod Lead now. Podmates will be added as the role and the tooling mature. If you want to be part of building something genuinely new in this profession, this is the time.

Accounting Services Team

At WCG, Accounting Services means Bookkeeping + Analysis, not just reconciliations. There's a meaningful difference, and our clients feel it in their financial reporting, real-time tax planning, and day-to-day decision-making.

Our 11-person team (including a small group in India) each works with 25-30 clients using QuickBooks Online, Xero, and REIHub exclusively. No desktop, no Freshbooks, no whatever whatever. We also use Reach Reporting to give business owners a visual, trend-based view of their financials. Because a graph tells a story that a spreadsheet sometimes can't.

On cadence, we intentionally skip quarterly. Monthly, bi-monthly, and quad-monthly schedules let us smooth the workflow across the year so our team isn't buried in crazy Aprils, Julys, and Octobers. It's a small structural decision that makes a big difference for both the team and the client.

New for 2026, we also run a lighter, AI-assisted tier for the engagement that does not need full Bookkeeping + Analysis but still needs clean, tax-return-ready numbers. Think of it as bookkeeping-lite: AI-driven categorization and bank reconciliation that get the books accurate enough to prepare a solid tax return, without the periodic reporting, analysis, and consultation of the full-service tier. It runs on its own separate platform, not in QuickBooks Online or Xero, and it is built for the straightforward client who mostly needs good data at tax time rather than ongoing financial statements.

Accounting Services also handles sales and use tax filings and personal property tax. Clean, focused, genuinely valuable work.

Payroll Processing Team

WCG has processed payroll for over 800 small businesses for years. We're proud of that. But in summer 2026, we're making a deliberate shift, transitioning all payroll clients to ADP or Paychex for client-direct processing.

This isn't a retreat, it's a reset with intention. Payroll processing, done right, demands its own infrastructure, attention, and resources. By stepping back from it, we're doubling down on what we do best: high-level advisory, tax strategy, and the consultative work that actually moves the needle for our clients.

WCG is getting sharper on purpose. Read our Reset With Intention webpage for more information on our 2026 initiatives.

Business Development Team

Our 6-person Biz Dev team is the engine behind WCG's growth, specifically our advisory segment as opposed to tax-only engagements (we call those TOEs). They draft proposals, re-paper existing engagements, handle corporate governance matters like entity formations and S Corp elections, and own the onboarding process from first inquiry to fully engaged client.

The Biz Dev team works hand-in-hand with our Client Acquisition Team (the CAT) to make sure every prospect gets a thoughtful, human experience as they transition into a WCG engagement.

This isn't a sales team. Prospects come to us primarily through our website, content, and referrals. We average 6-7 inquiries per day, and 2 out of 3 are from high income earners who want tax reduction strategies through short-term rentals and other niche assets.

The Biz Dev team's job is to listen well, match the right engagement to the right client, and make WCG easy to say yes to.

Locations

In addition to over 60 remote team members, our physical footprint includes:

  • Headquarters: 2393 Flying Horse Club Drive, Colorado Springs, CO 80921
  • South Dakota: 300 North Main Street, Mitchell, SD 57301
  • Wyoming: 920 E Sheridan Street Suite B, Laramie, WY 82072
  • India: Awfis World Centre, Ashram Road, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Talent Acquisition Manager Intro

At two or three hires a year, external recruiters make sense. At the pace WCG is growing now (and therefore hiring now), eight to twelve professionals annually across tax, accounting, support, business development, and our India team, paying 20% to 25% of first-year salary to outside recruiters stops being cost-effective. It also stops being strategic. External recruiters have no allegiance to WCG. The same candidate they send us goes to three other firms the same week.

The Talent Acquisition Manager role exists to bring that work in-house. You source directly using LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate and similar channels. You conduct the first-round Fit interview with candidates and administer the Fit Alignment Assessment (if they move on). You know WCG’s culture, the roles, the Pods, and the current team, and you can talk to candidates with the depth that outside recruiters simply cannot match. You own and manage the hiring process for every role at WCG, and you are one of us.

The dual-mode structure matters. From mid-November through April, you are a Tax Team Associate preparing tax returns and reporting to a Pod Leader. From May through November, you are firmwide recruiting reporting to Operations. That is not a downgrade, it is a design. The tax season work keeps your tax fluency current and your credibility with candidates high (besides, not much recruitment is happening from December to April anyway, right?). The off-season work is where you deliver the bulk of the recruiting value at exactly the time WCG has capacity to onboard new hires for the following tax season.

A few things worth saying directly:

  • This is not an HR role. Emily Marcol runs HR at WCG. This role is recruiting, sourcing, first-round interviewing, and pipeline management, not benefits, family leave, or associate relations. Different function, different lane.
  • You recruit for the whole firm. Tax, accounting services, tax support, client support, business development, operations, and India. Every role, every location. That firmwide view is a feature, not a bug.
  • The role is dual-reporting by design. During tax season, you report to a Pod Leader like any Tax Associate. From May through November, you report to Operations. Both halves are real roles with real accountabilities.
  • This is not a step out of a tax career. Internal candidates who take this role remain on the Tax Team career path. If you decide after a year or two that recruiting is not your long-term future, you can transition back to a full-time tax preparation role without penalty.

Is This You?

This role is a strong fit if you are…

  • A relationship builder who is also a hunter. Great recruiters do both. You can send 40 thoughtful LinkedIn messages in a morning and then have a genuine 45-minute conversation with a candidate about whether WCG is really the right fit for them.
  • Comfortable conducting first-round interviews. You are the first WCG face a candidate meets, and you are assessing culture fit, alignment, and communication depth in real time. If you are uncomfortable making judgment calls on people you just met, this role will not fit.
  • Tax-fluent enough to talk shop with candidates. You do not have to be a tax expert to recruit tax professionals, but you have to speak the language. Candidates smell it immediately when a recruiter cannot tell the difference between a 1040 and an 1120S.
  • Comfortable pivoting between two different modes. Tax season is heads-down preparation with a Pod. Off-season is outbound sourcing, candidate conversations, and pipeline management. Neither role tolerates half attention. You have to fully switch modes on May 1 and again in mid-November.
  • Excited about building something new at WCG. This role does not exist today. You will define what the recruiting function looks like, what metrics matter, and how the pipeline gets built. If you need a fully documented playbook to succeed, this timing is wrong.

A quick reality check…

The dual-mode structure is unusual. Some candidates read it as flexibility and get excited. Others read it as instability and get uncomfortable. Both reactions are legitimate. If the idea of being a tax accountant for six months and a recruiter for six months sounds energizing rather than jarring, keep reading.

Recruiting is a numbers game and a rejection game. You will send outbound messages and hear nothing back most of the time. You will find candidates who look perfect on paper and then vanish. You will build strong pipelines and watch three-quarters of them go somewhere else. If you need a role where every effort produces a visible result, recruiting is going to grind on you.

The first-round interview responsibility is not a screening call. It is a substantive conversation where you are assessing whether the candidate fits WCG well enough to move forward. That means you carry real weight on hiring outcomes, and Partners and Directors will ask you to defend your reads. Get comfortable with that.

You are one person building the recruiting function for a growing firm. You cannot be everywhere at once, and there will be roles that get slower attention than others. Prioritization is part of the role.

Talent Acquisition Manager Basics

Applicants Must

  • Hold an active CPA, EA, or Chartered Accountant (CA) credential.
  • Have at least 2 to 3 years of U.S. tax return preparation experience, ideally including exposure to individual (1040) and business entity (1120S, 1065) work.
  • Have genuine interest in recruiting as a professional discipline, whether from prior experience or from clear signal that the work energizes you.
  • Communicate clearly and confidently in writing and on the phone. Recruiting is 80% communication.
  • Be comfortable conducting first-round Fit interviews and making calibrated recommendations on candidate advancement.
  • Be comfortable with LinkedIn as a daily working platform, including sourcing, messaging, and pipeline management.
  • Be comfortable with technology and cloud-based workflow. LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate is the primary sourcing platform, and Canopy will house recruiting workflow alongside other firmwide operations.
  • Be willing to fully switch modes twice a year (mid-November for tax season, May 1 for recruiting season) without carrying half your attention across the transition.

Nice To Haves

  • Prior in-house recruiting or agency recruiting experience, especially in professional services or CPA firms.
  • Familiarity with LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate, Boolean search, or similar sourcing platforms.
  • Prior experience with an ATS (applicant tracking system) or CRM-style pipeline management tool.
  • Existing professional network in tax and accounting, especially with Enrolled Agent, CPA, or CA populations.
  • Prior experience administering personality assessments, structured interviews, or similar candidate evaluation tools.

Compensation

$120,000 to $130,000 base compensation, reflecting the dual scope of the role (tax season Associate work plus off-season recruiting responsibility and first-round interview accountability). The upper range is reserved for candidates who can step into both halves with minimal ramp.

Recruiting bonuses of $2,500 on hire plus $2,500 at the one-year mark for each successful full-time U.S. and India placement, kicking in after the first three full-time hires for the annual hiring season. These bonuses are additive to total compensation. Presently, no bonus or incentive is offered for seasonal or intern positions but you will be expected to recruit them just the same.

Total compensation could easily exceed $150,000 annually.

Reporting Manager

Pod Leader (mid-November through April) and Operations Manager (May through mid-November). Yes, you will have two bosses, but you will also have one common mission.

Talent Acquisition Manager Role Responsibilities

Your role has two distinct modes across the year. You work closely with WCG’s Partners, Directors, and other Managers on candidate advancement, offer decisions, and role prioritization. Your duties include WCG’s general firm responsibilities plus, or as modified by, the following:

Tax Season Duties (Mid-November through April)

  • Preparing tax returns as a full Tax Team Associate assigned to a Pod.
  • Reporting to a Pod Leader and functioning as a regular Podmate during this window.
  • Contributing to Pod huddles, client work, and firm citizenship the same way any Tax Associate would.
  • Handling handoff of active recruiting matters to Operations before tax season begins.

Recruiting Season Duties (May through mid-November)

  • Owning the firmwide recruiting pipeline across all teams: Tax, RETS, AI Tax Prep, Accounting Services, Support, Operations, Business Development, and India.
  • Sourcing candidates directly using LinkedIn Recruiter Corporate, professional networks, associations, and other channels.
  • Managing candidate outreach, initial screening, and pipeline movement through the WCG hiring process.
  • Conducting first-round Fit interviews with candidates for all open roles, replacing the current model where a Partner or Director conducts the first-round conversation.
  • Administering the Fit Alignment Assessment and interpreting results in the context of the candidate’s interview performance and role requirements.
  • Coordinating the interview process with WCG’s Partners, Directors, and other Managers for downstream rounds and offer decisions.
  • Building and maintaining WCG’s employer brand on LinkedIn and other professional platforms.
  • Continuously assessing the efficacy and veracity of our assessment tools.
  • Partnering with the Firm Strategist and Operations Manager on hiring forecasts, headcount planning, and role prioritization.
  • Continuing to run parallel with external recruiters through 2027 as WCG transitions to primary in-house sourcing, and coordinating with retained specialists on hard senior seats when needed.
  • Building the recruiting playbook, metrics, and process for WCG. This role does not exist today. You get to define it.

Year-Round General Firm Duties

  • Guiding WCG along the path of success.
  • Promoting WCG culture and encouraging excellence and high team morale.
  • Developing and implementing WCG goals, procedures, and policies in coordination with other Partners, Directors, Managers, and Associates.
  • Identifying improvement gaps and assisting with deploying corrective measures.
  • Providing feedback, concerns, and recommendations to WCG leadership.
  • Coordinating client-centric efforts with other teams during tax season.
  • Answering client phone calls and emails during tax season.
  • Filing and organizing electronic documents.
  • Helping keep the workflow moving.
  • Other tasks related to firm operations, tax, and recruiting.

Talent Acquisition Manager role responsibilities and duties will change from time to time depending on hiring needs, tax season demands, and firm evolution. They are reviewed, modified if necessary, and agreed to during Associate Reviews.

Hours Requirements

All salaried positions must work 1,900 hours annually / 12-month trailing period. This is hands-on-keyboard, butts-in-seats (unless you have a standing desk) work-related time spent on WCG activities. This is not billable hours- as a reminder, WCG does not do time-based client billing or have "charge hours" in favor of retainer / fee-range engagements.

Holidays, office closures, PTO, and other paid time off do not count toward and are not deducted from the 1,900-hour requirement, because your time off is genuinely yours.

WCG does not set a weekly minimum number of hours. That said, each team has different busy seasons and hours-

  • Client Support. Works a schedule close to the tax team cadence below, just a bit lighter, and covers a handful of Fridays through non-tax season since the firm stays open to clients. It is a custom setup, so we will walk you through the specifics.
  • Accounting Services. Works the same hours as the Tax Prep team below, but the busy season starts about 6 weeks earlier and also ends sooner.
  • Operations and Strategy. Those in operations and strategy roles typically follow the tax team cadence.
  • Tax Prep. For tax team members, our experience historically is that 55-60 hours per week during tax season (roughly 10 weeks) and 50-55 hours per week during extension season (roughly 8 weeks) are needed to find success, with lighter hours the rest of the year (for example, 30-32 hours per week during summer).
  • Other Support. Certain roles, such as Human Resources, Business Development and others, follow a typical 40-hour work week across all weeks.

As a firm, most Associates are off on Fridays outside of tax season except for those mentioned above. If you are confused, that is OK. WCG tries to be flexible and as such, it is a challenge to convert flexibility and fluidity into a bullet list. We can review with you directly to clear up the madness. Please refer to the WCG Associate Handbook for additional information.

UPDATE! You might see reference to 2,100 hours elsewhere. As of June 8, 2026, we are moving to the 1,900 hour version above to simplify and remove confusion.

Career Path

The Talent Acquisition Manager role is new at WCG, and the career trajectory is being defined alongside the role itself. As the recruiting function matures and WCG’s hiring volume continues to grow, the role has room to expand into a Director of Talent Acquisition position with oversight of the full recruiting operation and potential growth of the recruiting team (candidly, this is unlikely until 2030ish).

For internal candidates, taking this role does not take you off the Tax Team career path. If you decide after a year or two that recruiting is not your long-term future, you can transition back to a full-time Tax Associate role and pick up where you left off on the Tax Supervisor and eventual Pod Leader trajectory.

For external candidates, the role is designed to build genuine tax fluency alongside recruiting expertise, which is a rare combination in the market and opens paths into senior firm operations, Partner-track roles, or eventual leadership of the recruiting function.

WCG does not limit anyone who wants to grow and develop.

How To Join The WCG Team

Here is the step by step process-

Candidate Questionnaire

Click on the button below to complete a quick Candidate Questionnaire and upload your resume.

Initial Conversation

If we like your detailed and thoughtful responses, we schedule a Teams chat with some WCG big shot:

  • Accounting Services Team. You will meet with Karlee Tiesler, Director of Accounting Services, for U.S. and Surbhi Setia, WCG India Team Director for our India candidates.
  • Tax Support / Client Support. You will meet with Tonya Duval, Director of Support Teams for U.S. and Surbhi Setia, WCG India Team Director for our India candidates.
  • Tax Return Preparation Team. You will meet with Jason Watson, CEO and Partner, for U.S. and Simar Singh Bagga, WCG India Team Manager for our India candidates.
  • Operations, Strategy, Others. You will meet with Terra Plamp, Firm Strategist or Jason Watson, CEO and Partner, for U.S. and Simar Singh Bagga, WCG India Team Manager for our India candidates.

We intentionally have a WCG leader host the first conversation since we can quickly assess alignment and basis for moving forward. If it's not a heck yeah, then it's a no thanks, right? Let's find that out sooner rather than later.

It is slated for 75 minutes to give you plenty of time to get your questions answered and gain familiarity, though it often runs shorter. This is purely to get a feel for each other. We can teach you anything… short of being nice, being professional, being energetic, being someone we can work with. Taxes? Easy. Accounting? Got you. Ability to hold a meaningful conversation? Well…

Fit Alignment

After that initial meeting, and if we believe there is a basis to work together, we ask you to complete our Fit Alignment Assessment. It takes about 30 minutes and helps us understand where you would slot in. Most WCGers have taken it, so we have a good baseline. We are cautious with how we read it- it is not pass or fail, and it usually just underscores what we already gleaned from your questionnaire and our chat.

Final Rounds

Not all roles need additional interviews. If necessary, we introduce you to other members of our recruitment team depending on the role and location. For example, a U.S. bookkeeper might chat with Michelle Ihlefeldt where an India bookkeeper might chat with Sumit Sirwani. After you chat with at least two of them, we get together and talk behind your back.

Offer Letter

Finally, one of the big shots checks in to see if you have any additional questions, and to start formulating a role with the team, compensation, start dates, etc. Then an offer letter is presented. Yay!

Radio Silence

Once an offer is accepted, then there might be a lot of radio silence depending on start date. As things get closer, we order a background check. For remote positions, we also do a tech survey to see what you need, and we start to discuss travel plans.

It’s The Final Countdown

In true one hit wonder Europe fashion, about 30 days before your start date, training materials and a schedule are presented and it's the final countdown.

And away we go!

join the WCG team

Join The WCG Team

Apply online to join the team- answer some questions and upload a resume!

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WCG Careers

Learn about our comprehensive training process, made to balance team experience and client service.

2026 Benefits

WCG 2026 benefits summary outlines health insurance (United Healthcare Choice Plus HDHP, employee-only), dental, and vision coverage.

Associate Handbook

This Associate Handbook was developed to describe some of the expectations we have for all associates and what you can expect from WCG.

WCG CPAs & Advisors is a full service consultation and tax preparation firm located in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and we look forward to working with you!

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