Senior Accountant, Indirect Taxes

Our mission at Duolingo is to develop the best education in the world and make it universally available. It’s a big mission, and that’s where you come in! At Duolingo, you’ll join a team that cares about educating our users, experimenting with big ideas, making fact-based decisions, and finding innovative solutions to complex problems. You’ll have limitless learning opportunities and daily collaborations with world-class minds — while doing work that’s both meaningful and fun. Join our life-changing mission to develop education for our half a billion (and growing!) learners around the world. Read our blog to learn more. About the role... We’re looking for a Senior Accountant, Indirect Taxes to own day-to-day indirect tax operations and strengthen compliance across sales/use tax in the U.S. and VAT/GST in international markets. You’ll partner closely with our external partners on filings and registrations, resolve notices and audits, and build scalable processes that keep us accurate and on time. In addition, you’ll lead operational touchpoints that improve tax data quality - especially vendor onboarding/1099 readiness - and take ownership of fixed assets accounting to ensure clean books and strong controls. This role sits within Accounting (not a role manager) and collaborates frequently with AP, FP&A, and Internal Audit. The team is co-sourcing all corporate income tax/provision work with an external co-source provider; your focus is indirect taxes and adjacent accounting operations. 🧠 You will... Lead U.S. sales and use tax compliance end-to-end: nexus monitoring, data prep, return review/approval flows with partners, payment scheduling, and notice resolution. Coordinate international VAT/GST compliance with external partners, supporting registrations, return reviews, and audits; ensure timely, accurate filings and documentation. Own tax data readiness across procure-to-pay: strengthen vendor onboarding to capture complete tax documentation and IDs, and establish year-round 1099 preparedness to avoid year-end crunch. Serve as the primary operational liaison to our indirect tax partners (indirect tax advisor and co-sourced tax provider), facilitating calendars, data requests, and status tracking. Own fixed assets accounting: maintain the subledger, validate capitalization vs. expense judgments, perform monthly close activities, and prepare reconciliations with clear support. Build and document scalable processes and SOX-ready controls for indirect tax and fixed assets; maintain tight, current procedures and evidence. Partner cross-functionally (AP, FP&A, Internal Audit) to resolve issues quickly, align on timelines, and drive a single source of truth for tax-impacted data. Track and report compliance status, upcoming deadlines, and risk items; proactively flag issues and propose practical remediations. ✅ You have... 3–5 years of experience in indirect tax operations and/or public company accounting, with hands-on exposure to U.S. sales/use tax and international VAT/GST workflows. Experience partnering with external tax advisors on registrations, return preparation/review, audits, and notices; adept at organizing inputs and driving to on-time filings. Exposure to AP/procure-to-pay workflows and an interest in improving vendor onboarding and year-end information reporting (e.g., 1099) over time. Exposure to fixed assets accounting (or a strong willingness to learn) - including subledger administration, capitalization vs. expense decisions, monthly close tasks, and reconciliations. Excellent documentation and organization; ability to stand up repeatable processes and maintain audit-ready evidence. Clear, concise communication and stakeholder management across Accounting, partners, and cross-functional teams. Ability to work on-site in Pittsburgh, PA (or New York, NY, as applicable to company policy for accounting roles). ⭐ Exceptional candidates will have... Experience coordinating multi-country VAT/GST compliance with global...