Sr. Director & Head of Tax

About the role:

Fundrise is rebuilding its tax function around a small, senior in-house team supported by a deliberate mix of external capacity. We are looking for the person who will own that function outright.
 
Reporting to the CFO and serving on the finance leadership team, you will own the tax positions across a complex fund platform — REITs, RICs, TRSs, C corporations, partnerships, and a Qualified Opportunity Fund — spanning real estate, private credit, and venture strategies. You will collaborate with the existing VP and the CFO on what stays in-house and what goes to outside advisors, offshore or onshore providers, or our fund administrator, and you will be accountable for the quality of all of it.
 
This is a build role. The team today is small, the operating model is intended to evolve, and the work is judgment-heavy from day one.

What you will own:

• The positions and the risk. This is the center of the job. You will own the technical tax positions Fundrise takes — principally in the REITs and the RICs — and the risk that comes with them. Take a position, document the reasoning to an audit-defensible standard, size the exposure so the CFO, portfolio management, and executive team can weigh it, and stand behind it. Escalate what genuinely warrants an outside opinion and decide the rest yourself.
• The delivery model. Design and run the split between in-house work and external capacity. Scope engagements, negotiate fees, set service levels, own the tax vendor budget, and build the review controls that let you sign off on work you did not personally perform.
• Compliance across the platform. REIT and RIC qualification — asset and income testing, prohibited transaction analysis, earnings and profits, distribution requirements. Federal and state filings across Forms 1120-REIT, 1120-RIC, 1120, and 1065, including filing calendars, extension strategy, and nexus determinations. ASC 740 provisions delivered on the SEC reporting calendar.
• Investor tax reporting. Investor 1099s are calculated by software we built; the team validates and posts. Own the review controls around that process and the review of externally prepared K-1s, and partner with Investor Relations on investor-facing tax content and questions.
• Transactions and structuring. Work with the real estate and venture teams on acquisition and disposition structures and review transaction documents. Build the relationships internally so you’re in the room while terms are being set, not consulted after.
• Resilience of the function. Document positions, methodologies, and recurring processes so that critical judgment and institutional knowledge are not concentrated in any one person. Automate where it removes real manual effort, including AI-enabled workflow.
• The team. Develop and hold a small group of senior in-house professionals to a high standard — and manage external partners with the same rigor.

What we are looking for:

• 10+ years of tax experience, with genuine technical depth in REIT taxation. This experience is the requirement, not a preference — it is where the hardest judgment calls sit. Partnership, TRS, RIC/’40 Act, and Qualified Opportunity Fund exposure is valuable; we will take the confidence to get current quickly over prior reps.
• Experience defending positions — to auditors, to a regulator, or in an examination — and the documentation discipline that makes that possible.
• Direct experience delivering through outside advisors, offshore delivery centers, or fund administrators, including reviewing that work critically rather than accepting it.
• A track record of making calls. We are looking for someone who forms a view, states it plainly, and owns the outcome. Routing every question to an outside advisor is not the job.
• Demonstrated ability to drive outcomes through Finance, Legal, Real Estate, Venture, and Engineering partners without direct authority over them.
  Fluency translating complex tax matters for non-tax audiences, including executives, auditors, the board, and investors.
• Comfort in a small, fast-moving, largely remote organization where the answer is frequently not written down anywhere yet.
• CPA, JD/LLM, or equivalent designation preferred. Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• A firm believer in Fundrise’s social mission.

This role is likely not the right fit if:

• You are looking to inherit and manage a large in-house team. Scale here comes from leverage, not headcount.
• You prefer to review work others have scoped rather than design how the work gets done.
• You want every position backed by an outside memo before you will commit to it.
• You want a defined, steady-state compliance calendar. This platform changes shape every year.

Benefits at Fundrise:

Remote-first work environment (must live in the United States)
Competitive medical, dental, and vision insurance, with Fundrise contributing to both employee and dependent premiums
Flexible Spending Accounts for medical expenses, dependent care, and parking
401(k) with 3% contributed by Fundrise, regardless of whether you are actively contributing yourself
Fully covered life insurance and short-term disability
Significant equity via our employee stock grant program
Gympass benefit including mental health resources
Flexible PTO
Employee Assistance Program
Paid parental leave