Partnerships 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.

About the Role

As Partnerships Manager, you'll own and scale Instead's most strategic growth channel: partnerships with CPA firms, accounting networks, tax technology companies, and professional services organizations. This is a builder role. You'll be identifying, closing, and operationalizing the relationships that drive Instead's distribution and revenue at scale.

There are maybe 50-100 people in the world who have the right combination of tax/accounting industry relationships, partnership execution experience, and the ability to operate in a fast-moving AI company. If you're one of them, we want to talk.

What You'll Do

• Own the full partnership lifecycle: identify, pitch, negotiate, close, and operationalize strategic partnerships with CPA firms, accounting networks, and tax technology platforms
• Build and execute co-selling and reseller motions with partner firms, creating alignment between their practice leaders and Instead's GTM team
• Drive distribution partnerships that embed Instead into accounting firm workflows, making us the default tax automation layer
• Develop joint go-to-market programs: co-branded content, webinars, conference presence, referral programs, and integration partnerships
• Work cross-functionally with Product, Engineering, and Tax to ensure partner needs are reflected in our roadmap and delivery
• Represent Instead at industry events (AICPA, CPA.com, state CPA conferences, tax technology summits) and build executive-level relationships across the ecosystem
• Track partnership performance rigorously: pipeline generated, revenue influenced, firms onboarded, retention impact
• Help define Instead's partner program structure, tiers, incentives, and enablement as we scale from early partnerships to a mature channel

What You Bring

• 5-10+ years in partnerships, business development, or channel sales within accounting, tax, or professional services technology
• Deep existing relationships in the CPA/accounting firm ecosystem. You know the players, the decision-makers, and how firms actually buy technology
• Proven track record of closing and scaling technology partnerships that drove measurable revenue outcomes
• Experience working with Top 100 or Top 250 accounting firms, regional firms, or CPA networks
• Strong commercial instincts. You can build a business case, structure a deal, and negotiate terms that work for both sides
• Comfort operating in ambiguity at a high-growth startup; you build the playbook, not follow one
• Executive presence and the ability to build trusted relationships with Managing Partners, CTOs, and practice leaders at major firms
• Bonus: Experience with tax technology (CCH, Thomson Reuters, Drake, Intuit ProConnect) or accounting practice management platforms

Compensation

$200-250K OTE (base + variable) + equity

Why Instead

You'll be building the partnerships function at one of the fastest-growing AI companies in tax, a $300B+ market that's barely been touched by modern technology. This isn't joining a mature partner program; it's creating one. The right person will have an outsized impact on Instead's trajectory.