Senior Manager, Accounting Team Lead

Graphite Financial

$117K — $137K *
US-AnywhereRemote in United States
Legal & Accounting
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Accounting required; CPA required
  • 7-10 years of accounting experience, including at least 2 years in a client lead or team leadership role
  • Deep knowledge of GAAP with experience in startup-specific accounting complexities
  • Strong proven ability to manage a team and client portfolio simultaneously
  • Excellent coaching and feedback skills with junior professionals
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills, with executive presence in client interactions
  • Proficiency in QuickBooks Online; experience with NetSuite or similar platforms preferred

Responsibilities

  • Coach Client Leads on client management and delivery approaches
  • Review client engagement approaches for technical risks and redirect as needed
  • Serve as the first escalation point for delivery challenges and client issues
  • Ensure all team outputs meet Graphite's quality standards
  • Conduct performance reviews and career development conversations
  • Identify capability gaps and address them through coaching or training
  • Balance workload across Client Leads to manage peaks and client demands

Benefits

  • Competitive Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage; 100% of employee's health insurance premium covered
  • Company-paid Short-Term and Long-Term Disability insurance
  • Generous Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO) and 11 Paid Company Holidays
  • Fully remote position with company-provided technology equipment and a $250 technology stipend
  • 401k with a company match
Full Job Description
ROLE PURPOSE:

Ensure high-quality, consistent client delivery across an assigned team by enabling, coaching, and coordinating Client Leads and staff. The Team Lead is accountable for team effectiveness - not just individual client outcomes. This is a leadership role that requires the ability to develop people, manage execution quality at scale, and maintain Graphite's delivery standards across a full book of client engagements. Team Leads also carry formal people management responsibilities including performance reviews, career coaching, and development planning.

WHAT IT TAKES TO SUCCEED AS A TEAM LEAD HERE AT GRAPHITE FINANCIAL

This is a fully remote leadership role within a client-facing professional services organization. You lead a team within a diverse and distributed workforce. Your standards, communication, and judgment define what your team delivers. The following qualities are essential.

  • Leadership Without Proximity: You set clear expectations, provide consistent coaching, and hold your team accountable - entirely through remote communication and structured operating rhythms. Your presence is felt through the quality of what your team produces.
  • Client Credibility: You maintain the technical depth and professional presence to engage senior client contacts directly when needed. Your team's standards reflect yours and you invest in both.
  • Responsiveness at Scale: You model the responsiveness you expect from your team. Delayed decisions and slow escalations create client risk. You move fast, communicate clearly, and resolve things.
  • Coaching Over Fixing: Your job is to make Client Leads better - not to do their work for them. When something goes wrong, your first instinct is to coach, not do.
  • Accountability for Team Outcomes: You own what your team delivers. You do not deflect to process, capacity, or individual performance. You identify problems early and solve them.
  • Professional Standards Enforcement: You hold Client Leads and Associates to a high bar for written communication, client interaction, and deliverable quality. This is not optional in a remote, client-facing environment.


CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Team Enablement & Oversight
• Coach Client Leads on solution design, client management, delivery approach, and professional judgment
• Review client engagement approaches for technical risk, complexity, or inconsistency with firm standards - and redirect when necessary
• Serve as the first escalation point for delivery challenges, client issues, and team capacity problems
• Ensure all work produced by the team meets Graphite's quality standards before it reaches clients

People Leadership
• Conduct formal performance reviews and ongoing career development conversations with direct reports
• Identify capability gaps within the team and address them through coaching, training, or other resources
• Build a team environment where Client Leads operate with confidence and accountability, not dependency

Capacity & Quality Management
• Balance workload across Client Leads and adjust resourcing to manage close peaks, client demands, and coverage risks
• Drive execution consistency across clients without creating bureaucratic overhead
• Ensure no client engagement is dependent on a single person - cross-training and documentation are standing expectations

Client Execution
• Maintain a purposefully limited personal client book using direct client execution to stay technically current, model the standards you set for your team, and remain credible as a coach and escalation resource

Cross-Team Coordination
• Partner cross-functionally across service lines and teams to translate firm-wide standards into practical, client-ready execution within your team
• Surface recurring delivery issues, client patterns, and improvement opportunities to the Director proactively

QUALIFICATIONS
• Bachelor's degree in Accounting required; CPA required
• 7-10 years of accounting experience including at least 2 years in a client lead, manager, or team leadership role; public accounting (Manager level) or outsourced accounting leadership experience strongly preferred
• Deep working knowledge of GAAP with direct experience navigating startup-specific accounting complexity: SAFEs, convertible instruments, ASC 606, equity compensation, and more
• Demonstrated ability to manage a team and a client portfolio simultaneously without sacrificing quality on either
• Strong coaching and feedback skills - you have developed junior accounting professionals before and take that responsibility seriously
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; executive presence in client-facing situations
• Proficiency in QuickBooks Online; experience with NetSuite, Sage Intacct, or similar platforms preferred
• Experience working in a remote professional services environment is strongly preferred

COMPREHENSIVE PERKS AND BENEFITS:

  • Health & Wellness: Competitive Medical, Dental, and Vision coverage. 100% of the employee's health insurance premium is covered by the company.
  • Financial Security: Company-paid Short-Term and Long-Term Disability insurance.
  • Work/Life Balance To Include: Generous Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO), 11 Paid Company Holidays, and comprehensive Paid Parental Leave.
  • Remote Work Setup: Fully remote position with company-provided technology equipment and a $250 technology stipend to support your ideal home office setup.
  • 401k: With a company match


The pay range for this role is:

117,104 - 137,769 USD per year (Remote (United States))

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