---
title: 'SALT Lead at Sphere, Inc.'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/salt-lead-sphere-inc-united-states-4g46yrfh73cd'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-06'
---

# SALT Lead at Sphere, Inc.

- **Company:** Sphere, Inc.
- **Location:** United States
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** remote
- **Posted:** 2026-06-26
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-06
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sphere/33506450-8368-4f73-90fa-4646a73da889/application

**Skills:** U.S. sales and use tax, Nexus analysis, Exemption management, Python, SQL, Alteryx, Accounting principles, Indirect tax research

> Serve as the primary subject matter expert on U.S. sales and use tax matters, partnering with cross-functional teams to evaluate tax implications, lead research, and build scalable compliance processes for the company's trade infrastructure platform.

## Job description

## ABOUT SPHERE

Every breakthrough in trade infrastructure has followed the same pattern: reduce a transaction cost, expand the market. Containerization for goods. SWIFT for money. Stripe for payments. Compliance is one of the last and largest — and the hardest, because trade rules aren't data to be looked up. They're a complex adaptive system with 190+ sovereign jurisdictions, in different languages, changing constantly, reacting to each other.

Sphere built the system that solves it. Our AI (TRAM) ingests global trade law, interprets it, resolves conflicts across jurisdictions, and produces compliance determinations more reliable than human experts. We handle the entire lifecycle — calculation, registration, filing, remittance — at millisecond latency with zero downtime.

- Backed by a16z and YC. $21M Series A, 30%+ month-over-month growth, customers include ElevenLabs, Replit, Deel, Runway, and Lovable.
- Small team, global surface area. Everyone owns a domain that would be a full team at a larger company. San Francisco, five days in office.
- The problem keeps compounding. Expanding into input tax, withholding, e-invoicing, tariffs — each multiplies the complexity. Tens of millions of transactions today, billions ahead.

## THE ROLE

We are seeking a Sales Tax Lead to serve as a key member of our Tax team and the primary subject matter expert on U.S. sales and use tax matters. Reporting directly to the Head of Tax, this role will help shape how tax is reflected across our products, operations, and customer experience by translating complex tax requirements into scalable business solutions.

You will partner closely with Product, Engineering, Operations, Compliance, and Customer Success teams to evaluate the tax implications of new products, features, and business initiatives. You will lead tax research, support product taxability decisions, provide guidance on customer and internal tax questions, and monitor regulatory developments that impact our platform and customers.

As a foundational member of the tax organization, you will help build and scale the processes, knowledge resources, and automation that enable the company to deliver accurate, reliable, and compliant tax solutions at scale.

## WHAT YOU'LL DO

Within days:

- Conduct research on U.S. sales tax regulations, legislative developments, and emerging compliance requirements.
- Assist with tax registration, licensing, and compliance-related research across multiple jurisdictions.
- Provide technical tax support and respond to inquiries from cross-functional internal teams
- Partner with customer-facing teams to deliver tax guidance and support customer needs
- Assist with customer onboarding, activation, and tax-related implementation questions

Within months:

- Manage apportionment, nexus, and sourcing methodologies across multiple entities and jurisdictions
- Contribute to the development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of internal knowledge resources and documentation
- Partner with Engineering and Business Operations teams to design, implement, and scale automated processes that improve efficiency and support business growth

## REQUIREMENTS

- Strong communication skills - we work at an extremely fast pace and so clear, concise communication is essential
- Deep knowledge of U.S. sales and use tax, including compliance, nexus analysis, audits, and exemption management
- Knowledge of at least one data-focused technology tool, such as Python, SQL, Alteryx, or similar
- Knowledge of accounting principles and processes
- Experience researching indirect tax issues including taxability of products and services
- Multi tasking capabilities - a lot will be thrown at you and you’ll need to manage your time wisely

## WHO YOU ARE

You'll thrive here if:

- You're a Dog. You've been underestimated, gone through struggle, and never stopped running. You have a chip on your shoulder and enormous drive. You look at Stripe, Deel, and Flexport all punting on compliance and think: good, that means the opportunity is ours. Hunger beats pedigree.
- Early stage is in your bones. You've built things where there's no playbook and nobody handing you the answer. You define the problem instead of waiting for instructions.
- You own it end to end. Give you a goal and you figure out your own path. Small team, global surface area — everyone owns a domain that would be a full team at a larger company. No one tells you how.
- You believe speed and accuracy are both possible. We're building a complex product that requires robustness and 100% uptime, and we have to build at our customers' pace. Move fast. Don't break things. Both.

This won't be a fit if:

- You need structure handed to you or ambiguity feels draining rather than motivating
- You want to manage people more than own hard problems (we're a flat, experienced team — everyone builds)
- You're used to "good enough" shipping (small errors have outsized impact here)

## About Sphere, Inc.

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Sphere automates global cross-border tax compliance (sales tax, VAT, GST) using an AI-native engine that reads and interprets tax law across 190+ countries.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, USA
- **Founded**: 2022 (estimated based on first venture round)
- **Founders**: Nicholas Rudder (CEO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Tax compliance software, cross-border trade, financial infrastructure
- **Target customers**: B2B – mid-market to enterprise companies selling goods or services internationally (e.g., digital platforms, e‑commerce, SaaS)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Make the world one market" – reduce the compliance cost of every transaction to zero.

## Products & Services
- **Global Tax Compliance Platform**: End-to-end automation for sales tax, VAT, and GST across 100+ regions. Modules include registration, calculation & collection, filing & remittance, and monitoring.
- **Tax Review and Assessment Model (TRAM)**: Proprietary AI engine that reads unstructured legal text, reasons about how tax law applies, and produces determinations with full citations. Continuously ingests statute law, regulations, case law, and administrative guidance from official sources.
- **Local Rails to Tax Authorities**: Direct integrations with 100+ tax authorities worldwide for filing and remittance, enabling true end-to-end automation.
- **API & Integrations**: Plugs into major billing platforms and payroll providers; 24/7 Slack-based support from tax experts.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: $21M Series A (led by a16z, announced in 2024); annual revenue estimated at $1M (early-stage, fast-growing)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: a16z, Felicis Ventures, Y Combinator, Uncommon Capital; angel investors include founders of Go1, Lyft, BetterUp, Xendit, Flexport
- **Growth Signals**: Double-digit month-over-month revenue growth (stated on website); headcount grew ~88% YoY (LinkedIn, though now ~50 employees per company page); processing billions in transaction value; customers include ElevenLabs, Replit, Deel, Lovable, Granola, Fal, Linktree

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI-native legal reasoning**: TRAM does multi-step analysis rather than keyword matching, enabling accurate determinations across constantly changing tax codes.
- **End-to-end via local rails**: No other platform offers direct filing and remittance into 100+ tax authorities globally.
- **Human-in-the-loop accuracy**: Every determination is reviewed by tax experts before production; 90% are approved automatically with median review under 10 seconds.
- **Built for complexity**: Designed to handle the adaptive system of 190+ sovereign tax jurisdictions that change frequently.

## Strategic Focus
- Expand coverage to additional jurisdictions and tax types (e.g., customs duties)
- Scale the platform to handle billions of transactions annually
- Deepen integrations with billing, e‑commerce, and payroll systems
- Continue building AI capabilities to monitor real-time law changes and flag affected determinations

## Why Work Here
- **Small team, massive impact**: ~50 people building infrastructure that will touch billions of transactions – "every new hire changes the company."
- **Culture of ownership and expertise**: Team includes experienced tax professionals, engineers, and operators; fast-paced, low bureaucracy.
- **Remote/hybrid/office**: Primarily in-office at San Francisco HQ (Built In lists on-site, remote roles also available for some positions).
- **Notable perks**: Early-stage equity, direct mentorship from founding team, chance to shape product and engineering culture from the ground up.
- **Growth trajectory**: Double-digit MoM revenue growth, backed by top-tier investors, and solving a massive ($200T+ cross-border goods/services) problem.

## Sources
1. [getsphere.com - About Us](https://www.getsphere.com/about-us)
2. [getsphere.com - Homepage](https://www.getsphere.com/)
3. [Built In - Sphere Careers](https://builtin.com/company/sphere-getspherecom)
4. [LinkedIn - Sphere](https://www.linkedin.com/company/getsphere)
5. [Ashby - Lead AI Engineer Job Posting](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/sphere/4e3c5943-bd07-4ce1-8e13-68b00221d0b7)

## Other roles at Sphere, Inc.

- [Sales Development Representative](https://feeny.ai/job/sales-development-representative-sphere-inc-san-francisco-y5pnh008fjtr) — San Francisco, CA
- [Account Executive (SF)](https://feeny.ai/job/account-executive-sf-sphere-inc-san-francisco-vkpt1pz1mb64) — San Francisco, CA
- [Videographer and Content Creator](https://feeny.ai/job/videographer-and-content-creator-sphere-inc-san-francisco-5xnh5rb3948q) — San Francisco, CA
- [TRAM Trainer - EMEA](https://feeny.ai/job/tram-trainer-emea-sphere-inc-europe-dh4m0dh8qzks) — Europe
- [TRAM Trainer](https://feeny.ai/job/tram-trainer-sphere-inc-united-states-ekzzt03xckgn) — United States
- [Tax Support Specialist](https://feeny.ai/job/tax-support-specialist-sphere-inc-san-francisco-hqstcrhkm2mb) — San Francisco, CA
- [E-Invoicing Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/e-invoicing-lead-sphere-inc-united-states-t2p9stf2gbry) — United States
- [GTM Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-engineer-sphere-inc-san-francisco-69yetm30p7jn) — San Francisco, CA
- [AI Agent Infrastructure Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/ai-agent-infrastructure-lead-sphere-inc-san-francisco-m0w9sms8tqx9) — San Francisco, CA
- [Forward Deployed Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-engineer-sphere-inc-san-francisco-q5veze8rzyty) — San Francisco, CA