Tax Director & Counsel, NAM

At Diageo, our purpose is to celebrate life everywhere, every day. To do that, you will join an organization that is passionate about customers and consumers, and proud of what they do. Diageo teams constantly set high goals and then try hard to exceed them. We are also an incredibly diverse organization, and we value each and every one's talent and personality.

About the role:

The Tax job family encompasses global roles accountable for the design and implementation of tax strategies, policies and the tax governance framework. It also includes the provision of tax support to Diageo's business units, delivery of projects to create shareholder value, and proactive management and mitigation of key tax risks, compliance and reporting.

Purpose:

The Tax Director & Counsel is a strategic advisor to the tax team and our customers, ensuring compliance with complex US federal, state and local tax laws, and ensures Diageo's US tax posture remains defensible and aligned with business goals, and stays ahead of legislative and regulatory changes.

The role provides tax support on M&A transactions, restructurings, and other commercial transactions and business initiatives/projects.

The role is responsible for driving North American (NAM) tax strategy and planning and supports Group Tax strategy. The role is also primarily responsible for management of transfer pricing policy and issues within the NAM market, and provides support on federal tax audits, material state tax audits and other tax controversies.

Job Dimensions:

Reporting to the VP Tax - Americas, the role is a strategic advisor to Global Tax and our customers, ensuring compliance with NAM tax laws. The role will be responsible for our response to tax law developments, including active engagement with industry groups. The role will partner closely with Finance, Government Relations, Legal and Business Development to develop policies in line with our business model.

The NAM Tax team is comprised of US tax and Canadian tax experts and oversees all areas of US & Canada federal, state, and international income taxes, as well as key functions in significant indirect taxes (sales/use/property). The team is accountable for all NAM income tax reporting, compliance, controversy, risk management, and planning in line with the Global Tax Policy.

Financial

NAM market constitutes approximately 39% of the overall net sales and one half of operating profit for management purposes.

Market Complexity

NAM market is extremely complex. Market is active in all areas of Diageo global business (supply, brand owner, demand). Legislative environment is very complex and evolving.

Reporting includes management reporting packages, multiple legal entities, and federal, state, provincial and local audits.

Leadership Responsibilities & Capabilities

• Responsible for displaying Diageo Leadership Standard and Diageo Values
• Interact effectively with senior customers within the business, as well as external advisors and group auditors
• Maintain integrity and focus on tough situations; be able to constructively challenge partners
• Demonstrate commercial competence, strong analytical skills and sound judgement in managing tax opportunity and risks
• Responsible for developing and coaching others within Group Tax
• Manage resources and numerous priorities

Role Responsibilities:

• Lead tax interaction on all NAM business development and commercial transactions
• Coordinate with Legal and Government Relations to proactively develop advocacy strategies and responses to legislative and regulatory tax proposals
• Track legislative and regulatory tax developments impacting the NAM market and Group Tax strategy, and provide timely communications to internal customers on considerations and proposed actions and mitigation strategies; coordinate with Finance on tax modelling to quantify tax impacts of new tax proposals
• Drive NAM tax strategy and planning
• Support global tax objectives including global strategy, planning and transactions, as well as implementation of tax policies throughout the business
• Provide support on federal and state and local tax audits
• Coordinate with Legal on tax litigation matters
• Draft tax technical memoranda
• Manage transfer pricing policy for NAM and review documentation
• Provide coaching to develop team knowledge and serve as a resource for deep technical expertise to members of Group Tax

Experience/skills required:

• Approximately 8+ years corporate tax experience in advisory and/or in-house tax department (preferably both)
• Big 4 experience preferred
• 2+ years of tax M&A experience
• JD required
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in accounting or finance
• Masters or equivalent experience in Tax/LLM in Tax a plus
• Strong tax technical knowledge across a broad range of taxes
• Strong legal research and writing
• Strong financial modelling and tax accounting knowledge
• Excellent written and oral communication skills with the ability to communicate complex tax issues to senior management
• Excellent interpersonal, business partnering and influencing skills
• Commercially astute; analytically strong critical thinking with global perspective
• Imaginative and solution oriented
• Able to balance a diverse and complex agenda
• Energy and drive to cut through and make things happen

Diversity statement:

Our purpose is to celebrate life, every day, everywhere. And crafting an inclusive culture, where everyone feels valued and that they can belong, is a crucial part of this.

We embrace diversity in the broadest possible sense. This means that you'll be encouraged and celebrated for who you are just by being you. You'll be part of and help build and champion an inclusive culture that celebrates people of different gender, ethnicity, ability, age, sexual orientation, social class, educational backgrounds, experiences, mentalities, and more.

Our ambition is to create the best performing, most trusted and respected consumer products companies in the world. Join us and help transform our business as we take our brands to the next level and build new ones as part of shaping the next generation of celebrations for consumers around the world.

Feel inspired? Then this may be the opportunity for you

If you require a reasonable adjustment, please ensure that you capture this information when you submit your application.

Client-provided location(s): New York, NY

Job ID: Diageo-JR1115952

Employment Type: FULL_TIME

Posted: 2025-08-06T04:02:42