Certified Public Accountant

Location: Brooklyn, New York

Schedule: Full time, onsite five days per week

Compensation: Target base salary of approximately $140,000, negotiable based on experience, with potential additional performance incentives

Credential: Active CPA license required

About the Opportunity

Paro is recruiting on behalf of a growing Brooklyn CPA firm with more than 40 team members. The firm is seeking an Accounting Director to lead its client accounting operations, develop staff, improve engagement profitability, and help build a more scalable practice.

This is an opportunity to work directly with the owner and influence how the firm operates. The immediate priorities are establishing consistent staff performance reviews, strengthening monthly engagement budget reviews, and ensuring client fees remain aligned with the services delivered.

The role combines accounting oversight, people management, client relationships, and operational improvement. Strong accounting and client accounting services experience is essential, complemented by tax knowledge and sound business judgment.

Key Responsibilities

Accounting Oversight and Client Service

• Oversee bookkeeping, client accounting, and financial reporting engagements, ensuring accurate work and timely delivery.
• Provide technical review and guidance as client businesses grow and their accounting needs become more complex.
• Coordinate with tax professionals to support consistent service across a shared client base.
• Build client relationships, resolve service issues, and communicate clearly about expectations and changing needs.
• Provide hands on accounting or advisory support when an engagement requires additional senior expertise.

Staff Leadership and Development

• Manage team priorities, assignments, workloads, and accountability.
• Establish regular performance reviews and coaching conversations supported by meaningful individual and department KPIs.
• Identify technical education, training, and performance needs and set clear improvement expectations.
• Support existing managers and staff while taking operational responsibilities off the owners’ plates.

Engagement Budgets and Profitability

• Establish and maintain realistic budgets by client, service, and staff level, including preparation, review, client communication, and coordination time.
• Evaluate actual hours, labor costs, and engagement margins against budgets.
• Lead a monthly review of material budget overages, documenting causes, corrective actions, responsible individuals, deadlines, and subsequent results.
• Distinguish scope growth and client complexity from unrealistic budgets, training needs, avoidable rework, inefficient workflows, and inappropriate staffing.
• Implement checkpoints so staff identify unexpected work, missing information, and likely overruns while engagements are underway.
• Escalate significant issues to leadership with evidence and clear recommendations.

Scope Management, Proposals, and Pricing

• Identify services performed beyond agreed engagement scope and coordinate client approval and additional billing under firm policies.
• Recommend revised recurring fees when increased service needs become ongoing.
• Help develop proposals for complex or expanding accounting engagements, including deliverables, scope boundaries, staffing needs, and pricing.
• Document proposal assumptions, client responsibilities, and circumstances requiring additional fees.
• Address late or incomplete client information and its effect on delivery, budgets, and fees.

Processes and Technology

• Turn performance and budget findings into improvements through coaching, workflow changes, automation, staffing adjustments, or engagement revisions.
• Support the firm’s transition to centralized practice management and workflows through Canopy.
• Help implement AI tools, automation, and connected systems while maintaining accounting quality and appropriate review.
• Confirm that operational changes improve efficiency, profitability, and timely client service.
• Partner with the owner to build consistent processes that support continued growth.

Qualifications

• Active CPA license.
• Progressive public accounting experience with responsibility for staff supervision, client relationships, and engagement management.
• Strong understanding of the full accounting cycle and experience overseeing bookkeeping, client accounting services, and financial reporting.
• Demonstrated experience managing engagement budgets, evaluating hours and labor costs, and improving profitability.
• Ability to identify the causes of budget overages through documented analysis and assessment of completed work quality.
• Experience developing accounting proposals, estimating delivery requirements, and discussing scope changes and fees with clients.
• Tax knowledge and experience coordinating accounting and tax services.
• Demonstrated success coaching staff and turning performance data into specific actions and measurable improvements.
• Strong communication skills, business judgment, and willingness to take ownership of operational issues.
• Ability to work onsite in Brooklyn five days per week.

Preferred Experience

• Broad responsibilities within a midsize CPA firm.
• QuickBooks Online, Canopy, and Lacerte.
• Practice management system implementations or workflow consolidation.
• Practical use of AI and automation in accounting operations.
• Controller or advisory experience supporting growing businesses.

Compensation and Benefits

• Base salary negotiable based on experience and qualifications.
• Potential performance incentives tied to measurable operational improvements and financial results, with structure to be agreed.
• Employer contribution toward 50% of employee only health insurance premiums.
• Eligibility after one year for an employer funded 401(k) profit sharing contribution, currently approximately 3% of salary, subject to plan terms.

What Success Looks Like

Staff receive consistent feedback and technical support. Engagement budgets are reviewed monthly, and material overages lead to documented action. Changes in client scope are addressed promptly, fees reflect the work delivered, and workflows become more efficient without compromising quality.

This is a permanent leadership role for someone who wants to help shape a growing firm while giving its owners greater capacity to focus on strategic expansion.