Careers · Open role

CPA Practice Leader

Location
Los Angeles, California
Coverage
California, including San Francisco and San Diego
Arrangement
In person, with travel between practices
License
Current, active California CPA license
Apply for this role Meet the team
01

About the company

WIN is a group of entrepreneurs building services for fellow entrepreneurs. We want business owners to have a team that understands their business and gets the back-office work done, so they can spend more time building their companies.

We are starting by acquiring established California accounting and tax practices serving small businesses and their owners. These firms have valuable expertise, longstanding relationships and teams who know their clients well. We want to preserve that knowledge, give retiring owners a credible succession path and equip the next generation of leaders to grow the business.

Our founding team brings experience from Goldman Sachs, s16vc and Miro. We are combining acquisitions, technology development and people management to build a much more capable service for entrepreneurs. Brain, our operating platform, will connect client knowledge and workflows across the practices. Winners, our talent and training program, will help our people develop the skills and judgment to lead as AI takes on more of the production work.

We are looking for an experienced CPA to help build this with us. You will earn sellers’ trust, take responsibility for client relationships and professional quality, and lead the teams in your assigned practices. You will also work directly with our product team to shape Brain around the realities of accounting and tax work. Your experience will help determine what we build first and how we put it to work.

You will have responsibility for staffing, delivery and commercial performance within agreed authority, with the opportunity to take on broader leadership as WIN grows. We want you to help turn capacity into growth, develop strong people and build practices that clients recommend.

The role is based in Los Angeles, with regular in-person work and travel to assigned California practices.

02

The role

We are looking for an experienced CPA leader for our accounting practice acquisition and integration business in California.

Selling a practice means handing over relationships built over many years. Owners need to know that their clients and teams will be in good hands. Clients need a CPA they can get to know, rely on and continue working with.

You will build that trust before an acquisition and carry it through the transition. You will lead client relationships, manage the accounting teams and take responsibility for accounting and tax quality across the practices assigned to you. You will own staffing and performance decisions within the agreed authority and work with our product and IT teams to improve business processes.

Our company goal is to at least double EBITDA. You share this goal with the IT team, combining client growth, process improvements, technology and effective team management to increase the capacity and profitability of our practices.

03

Work arrangement

Based in Los Angeles, with responsibility across California, including San Francisco and San Diego. Regular in-person work with practice owners, clients and teams, and travel between practices, are required.

04

Responsibilities

Lead practice succession and client transition

Earn retiring owners’ trust and agree a transition plan covering clients, employees, professional responsibilities and the owner’s involvement. Conduct joint client introductions, capture client-specific knowledge and take responsibility for maintaining those relationships and continuity of service.

Hire and manage the team

Assess employees and capacity, define roles, recruit and onboard the professionals needed, and conduct performance reviews and coaching. Within the agreed budget and authority, promote, reassign or dismiss employees and restructure teams, responsibilities and reporting lines when needed to improve performance.

Build effective working relationships inside each practice

Meet employees individually, understand their responsibilities and concerns, identify key people and resolve conflicts. Explain changes clearly, involve staff in redesigning their work and retain the knowledge needed to serve clients well.

Run service delivery

Allocate work, balance capacity across the assigned practices and manage the tax and accounting calendar. Set clear preparation, review and client-response responsibilities; resolve overdue work and bottlenecks; and maintain delivery during the transition.

Act as the lead CPA

Set accounting and tax policies, review complex returns and financial work, resolve technical questions and coach other CPAs and accountants. Define when specialist advice is needed, who can approve each type of work and how significant professional judgments are documented.

Improve business processes with product and IT

Redesign workflows and help prioritize and select IT solutions to reduce manual work and increase team productivity. Define accounting requirements, business rules, exceptions and acceptance criteria; validate outputs, lead staff adoption and measure the effect on capacity, quality and operating costs.

Grow the client base

Bring qualified clients previously deferred for lack of capacity into paid service, and attract new clients through referrals, professional relationships and direct business development. Own the conversion from initial interest to an active client relationship and ensure the team can deliver the agreed services profitably.

Represent the company professionally

Build trust and visibility in the California CPA and business community through professional relationships, association participation, speaking and other relevant public work. Represent the company credibly to practice owners, prospective clients and referral partners.

05

Build and improve how we work with WIN Brain

You will be a key partner to the product team, bringing live client work, professional judgment and practical feedback into the development of Brain.

Capture the knowledge behind the client relationship

During seller handovers, document important decisions, recurring issues, client commitments and the reasoning behind accounting and tax treatments. Help the next person understand both what was done and why.

Choose the workflows we improve first

Identify where the team loses time, repeats work or encounters avoidable errors. Start with the handoff from books to tax, including adjustments, depreciation schedules and owner balances. Define what a successful workflow needs to produce and test it on actual engagements.

Set clear boundaries for people and agents

Define what agents can prepare or execute, what requires professional review, who can approve it and when a specialist must be involved. Validate changes before expanding their use and confirm that completed work meets the agreed standard.

Help Brain connect the full client picture

Make sure changes in one area reach the people responsible for related work. An owner-compensation decision, for example, may affect payroll, business and personal tax, and financing. Flag missing information and conflicting assumptions before work is released.

Turn experience into better delivery across WIN

Work with specialists to validate useful solutions before other practices reuse them. Coach staff on the new workflows and give the product team feedback on mistakes, unnecessary review steps and missing context. Measure the effect on total delivery time, quality and cost, including review and rework.

06

Required experience

  • 10+ years in US public accounting / CPA practice, serving external clients, including at least 5 years in an independent or regional CPA firm with a primarily business-focused client base of small and midsize businesses and their owners, rather than a primarily individual tax-return client base.
  • At least 5 years leading a practice or a substantial practice team as an owner, partner, principal, director or senior manager, with direct responsibility for client relationships, staffing, service delivery and professional quality. These years may overlap with the experience above.
  • Experience managing a team of at least 5 accounting or tax professionals, including personal responsibility for recruitment, hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, employee development, restructuring and dismissals when necessary.
  • Current hands-on accounting and tax expertise: bookkeeping and financial-statement review, month-end and year-end close, federal and California tax compliance and planning for partnerships, S corporations, C corporations and their owners.
  • At least one implemented business-process or accounting-system improvement delivered with an IT team, software provider or implementation team. Be able to explain your role, how outputs were validated, how staff adopted the change and what improved.
  • Demonstrated improvement in practice productivity and financial performance, supported by before-and-after results and a clear explanation of the changes, their costs and your contribution.
  • Experience growing a client base, including attracting new clients and expanding capacity to serve additional demand.
  • Experience acquiring accounting practices and integrating them into your own firm is a strong plus. Be able to explain the client transition, team integration and operating results.
  • Clear communication with business owners, employees and technical teams, the ability to manage difficult conversations and organizational change, and credible public representation supported by professional references.
07

Licenses and professional standing

  • A current, active, unrestricted California CPA license in good standing, with continuing education requirements maintained. Provide the license number for verification with the California Board of Accountancy.
  • A valid PTIN for the applicable calendar year before undertaking paid federal tax-return preparation that requires one.
  • California attest authority is required if the agreed responsibilities include signing reports on attest engagements, including audits or reviews of financial statements. It is not a general requirement for this accounting and tax leadership role unless that signing responsibility is included.
08

Strongly preferred

  • An established professional reputation and referral network in Los Angeles and the wider California market.
  • A background as a practice owner who wants to stay involved in client work and professional leadership within a larger group.
  • Experience introducing automation or AI into accounting workflows while maintaining appropriate review and client confidentiality.
09

What you must demonstrate within 90 days

Seller trust and transition

For each assigned practice with access agreed, a seller-agreed transition plan and completed introductions appropriate to the acquisition stage. Demonstrate the seller’s confidence in recommending you to clients and employees through direct feedback and actual introductions.

Client retention

Target 100% retention of acquired clients. Track the original client cohort and associated revenue; report every departure and its cause separately from new-client growth.

Client growth

Demonstrate conversion of the opening backlog into active paying clients and progress against the operating plan’s new-client targets. Report clients activated and revenue generated, keeping backlog conversion and new business separate.

Team and delivery

Complete the assessment of the assigned team, establish clear responsibilities and address staffing and performance gaps while maintaining service deadlines and professional quality.

Brain adoption

Put one priority workflow into regular use with the assigned team. Establish a baseline, validate outputs, document review responsibilities and demonstrate an improvement in delivery time or quality. Staff should be able to use the workflow consistently without relying on the product team to manage each engagement.

10

How to apply

Send your resume to [email protected] with the subject “CPA Practice Leader”. Include your California CPA license number so we can verify it with the California Board of Accountancy.