Greenfield Dynamic Tax Calculation Architecture

Challenge

Corporate tax professionals needed calculation tools that could handle complex, variable business scenarios while ensuring accuracy across interconnected workflows. Existing solutions forced teams back into spreadsheets, where flexibility came at the expense of control, scalability, and reliability.

Leadership

To ground the product in real market need, I conducted discovery with tax practitioners to validate demand and refine use cases. Working closely with subject matter experts and engineers, we co-designed a scalable architecture that incorporated variable isolation, common calculation components, and a robust data hierarchy to support both consistency and adaptability.

To maintain alignment and ensure delivery, I proactively communicated scope across stakeholders and tied identified use cases and technical challenges to hypotheses with measurable success criteria. This hypothesis-driven development framework gave the team a clear “definition of done,” guiding decisions to pivot or persevere while keeping us on time and on budget. I further strengthened delivery by incorporating risk management into the development process and instituting a gated release strategy (alpha, beta, gamma, gold), which continuously validated the product thesis against commercial viability while proactively mitigating risks.

Outcome

The result was a first-of-its-kind calculation engine underpinning a new State Apportionment product that significantly reduced spreadsheet reliance, accelerated workflows, and improved accuracy for tax professionals. By combining discovery, collaborative architecture design, gated releases, and hypothesis-driven development, we delivered a reusable and scalable zero-to-one product that met diverse use cases while maintaining trust in results. The innovation established a foundation for future expansion into state taxable income and compliance, positioning Bloomberg Tax for long-term growth in enterprise tax technology.