Associate Program Manager

Role Overview

This role combines functional expertise in regulatory tax compliance with strong business analysis and operational leadership. The individual will act as a bridge between client stakeholders, product, and engineering teams, while also managing tax operations to ensure accurate, timely, and compliant deliverables.

The role requires hands-on involvement in requirement analysis, system validation, reporting accuracy, and operational oversight across compliance processes such as FATCA, CRS, and Chapter 3 withholding and reporting.

Key Responsibilities

Business Analysis and Delivery

• Requirements Gathering & Documentation
• Conduct detailed requirement gathering sessions with client stakeholders and internal teams.
• Undertake system and functional impact, translate business requirements and regulatory tax rules/ updates (Chapter 3, FATCA, CRS) into structured documentation (BRDs, FRDs, user stories, process flows, etc.).
• Produce use cases, data flow diagrams, process flow diagrams and sequence diagrams.
• Create and maintain documentation for specific client implementation/ integration, API, and product release notes.
• Developer and Tester Enablement
• Conduct walkthroughs with developers and testers to explain requirements, and regulatory logic in precise technical terms and in simple understandable ways.
• Actively participate in defect triage, root cause analysis, and resolution validation.
• Test Case Design & Execution
• Create comprehensive test cases and test scripts covering functional, regression, edge-case and negative scenarios.
• Work closely with QA teams to create/ clarify acceptance criteria.
• Lead and manage System Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) end-to-end, including defect lifecycle management and sign-off.
• Report Validation & Compliance Review
• Validate system-generated regulatory reports i.e. general compliance/ ad-hoc report requests from clients and year-end tax filing outputs (e.g., 1042-S, 1099, 8805, 8966 FATCA, CRS).
• Review reporting logic, data mapping, and output accuracy against applicable regulatory schemas and filing standards.
• Validate the XML generated for FATCA and CRS for submission into the government portals and deliver to the client/ client’s auditors.
• Lead client data migration as part of the new client onboarding process.
• Leadership and Backup Coverage
• Act as a Project Manager / Technology Delivery Lead in the absence of the manager, ensuring continuity of delivery and decision-making
• Coordinate with onshore/offshore teams, track progress, and manage priorities across workstreams
• Drive status updates, stakeholder communication, and issue escalation as needed

Tax Operations Management

• Team Leadership and Oversight
• Manage the day-to-day operations of the Tax Ops team, providing clear direction, prioritisation, and escalation management.
• Assign tasks and allocate resources based on team capacity, skillsets, and urgency.
• Process Improvement and Automation
• Assess operational workflows to identify inefficiencies and areas for process improvement or automation.
• Partner with technology teams to scope and drive automation initiatives that reduce manual effort and improve accuracy.
• Document updated SOPs and train team members on revised processes.
• Guidance and Support
• Provide subject matter guidance to team members on new regulatory requirements, withholding obligations, and reporting (general or year-end) activities.
• Act as the first point of contact for complex operational queries.
• Train new joiners.
• General Reporting and Year-End Reporting Support
• Oversee operational readiness for reporting cycles and contribution/ delivery to year-end regulatory reporting cycles.
• Provide hands-on support for the preparation and review of year-end tax reports, ensuring completeness and accuracy across all reportable populations.

Product Subject Matter Expertise

• Deep System Knowledge
• Develop and maintain comprehensive, end-to-end knowledge of the tax compliance platform, including functional working, data ingestion, processing logic, and output generation.
• Serve as the internal SME and go-to authority on system capabilities, limitations, configuration options, and known behaviours.
• Report & Reporting Logic Mastery
• Maintain thorough working knowledge of all reports (general or regulatory year-end reporting related) generated by the system- their data sources (high level), business rules, transformation logic, and output formats.
• Identify and escalate discrepancies between expected regulatory output and actual system behaviour, partnering with development for resolution.
• Contribute to product roadmap discussions by providing informed feedback grounded in regulatory requirements and operational experience.

Required skills and qualifications

• Proven experience as a Senior Business Analyst in a software delivery or financial services environment. Candidates with a background in finance, tax, or accounting functions within a technology delivery context.
• Total experience of 13 years, with a minimum of 7/8 years in a Business Analyst role within a finance, banking, or tax-technology environment.
• Mumbai location is preferred (primary).
• Hands-on experience in SIT/UAT testing, test case creation, and defect management.
• Experience managing teams or leading operational workflows.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, particularly with data validation and reporting.
• Ability to translate complex business requirements into clear functional specifications.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, including working with large datasets, complex formulas, data validation, and reconciliation (e.g., lookups, pivot tables, conditional logic).
• Prior experience or exposure to FATCA, CRS, or Chapter 3 regulations is preferred.
• Experience with regulatory reporting (e.g., 1042-S, 1099, CRS/FATCA submissions) is an added advantage.
• Candidates without prior tax regulatory experience but with strong analytical and functional skills are encouraged to apply; structured on-the-job training will be provided to build domain expertise.
• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Computer Science, or a related field. Relevant professional certifications (e.g., CBAP, ICA, CIPP) are advantageous.