Director Of Public Practice - 4-Day Work Week

Director of Public Practice4-Day Work Week | Leadership Role | Winnipeg, ManitobaMcLenehan and Associates Chartered Professional Accountants
$140,000 Base Salary | 32-Hour Week, Even in Busy Season | Lead the Department, Shape the FirmWHY YOU'LL LOVE WORKING HERE
4-Day Work Week: Four 8-hour days. In public practice. Through busy season. Yes, really.
Competitive Salary: $140,000 base. Full-time pay for a 32-hour week.
Real Authority: You run the public practice department: the people, the production, the processes, and the quality standard. You report to the owner, and no one else.
Generous Time Off: 3 weeks of vacation plus a paid week during the December holidays.
Paid Growth: Firm-funded professional development and your annual CPD, covered.
RRSP Matching: Contribution matching to support your long-term financial security.
Comprehensive Benefits: Prescription, dental, and vision coverage.
THE OPPORTUNITYMost senior roles in public practice follow the same script. You carry the team, but someone else makes the decisions. You review files until nine at night in March. You are told the firm values balance, and then busy season arrives and the promise quietly expires.
This one is different.
McLenehan and Associates CPAs is a growing Winnipeg-based accounting firm serving hundreds of incorporated Canadian small businesses, from monthly bookkeeping and year-end compliance through to Fractional CFO and Virtual Controller services. Our people like the work they do and the people they do it with. And our 4-day work week has proven, for years, that high standards and a full life outside the office are not in conflict.
Until now, the final review of year-end files, the delivery of finished work to clients, and the day-to-day leadership of our public practice team have run through Mike McLenehan, the firm's owner. As the firm has grown, that has made Mike the bottleneck, and it has kept him from the work only an owner can do: strategy, growth, and building the firm. That changes with this hire.
We are putting Directors in place who hold full responsibility for their departments. A Director of Business Development and a Director of People and Culture are already in their seats. The Director of Public Practice is an important addition to that leadership team, taking ownership of the department at the centre of the firm: year-end preparation, corporate tax, and personal tax.
This is the senior seat that experienced CPAs talk about but rarely find: a firm with 500 to 600 incorporated business owner clients, a department of Managers, Assistant Managers, Senior Accountants, and Accountants ready to report to you, a proven 4-day work week, and an owner who is ready to hand you the department and support your decisions.
To be clear, this is not a role that takes you out of the work. You will review files, you will sit across from business owners and deliver their results, and you will hold ultimate responsibility for the quality of everything that leaves the department. What is different is that you will also own the system that produces that work: the workflow, the capacity planning, the processes, and the people.
We are not looking for someone to grow into this role. We are looking for someone who has already done this work: reviewed the files, led the people, sat with the owners, and run a busy season. Someone who wants to do it inside a firm that respects their time and their judgment.
If that describes you, keep reading.
WHAT YOU'LL EARNBase Salary: $140,000
Work Week: Four 8-hour days. 32 hours. Year-round, including personal tax season and corporate year-end peaks
Time Off: 3 weeks of vacation plus a paid week during the December holidays
Retirement: RRSP contribution matching
Health Benefits: Prescription, dental, and vision coverage
Professional Development: Annual CPD covered, plus firm-funded development in leadership and advisory skills
Reporting Line: Directly to Mike McLenehan, the firm's owner. No layers in between
Location: In-office, Winnipeg. This is a senior leadership role and the team is here
Public practice has trained most senior CPAs to quietly accept that a strong salary comes bundled with a brutal spring. Here, the salary is full-time and the week is 32 hours. Work out what that does to your effective hourly rate compared with your last busy season, and then keep reading.
THE DEPARTMENT YOU'LL LEADThe clients500 to 600 incorporated, owner-managed Canadian small businesses: trades, professionals, retailers, contractors, and holding companies. They are building something meaningful, they want advice they can act on, and they want to hear it from someone who speaks their language.
The workYear-end compilation and review engagements, corporate tax returns (T2), personal tax returns (T1), and owner-manager tax planning: compensation planning, corporate structures, and the purchase and sale of a business. We do not perform audit engagements. The department exists to deliver compliance work of a consistently high standard and to turn that work into advice our clients value.
The teamThe department is made up of Managers, Assistant Managers, Senior Accountants, and Accountants. You lead all of them. Your Managers share responsibility with you for quality assurance and quality review on every file, and you hold ultimate responsibility for what leaves the department. Mike's partner sign-off remains on client deliverables.
Your toolsCCH iFirm for practice management and iFirm Tax for every T1 and T2. CaseWare with Jazzit financial statement templates for year-end preparation. QuickBooks Online across most client files. You will have a strong voice in what we adopt next.
How we will work togetherStrategy, hiring, compensation, processes, budgets, and software are decided together, you and Mike. Implementation is yours, and so is the result. Mike will be alongside you for the first several weeks of file reviews and client meetings until you are calibrated to the firm's standard, and then his involvement shifts to partner sign-off, the most complex matters, and the strategic decisions you bring to him.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
Own the production system for year-end preparation, corporate tax, and personal tax: workflow, capacity planning, scheduling, and deadlines across the full year, including T1 season and corporate year-end peaks
Design, document, and continuously improve the department's processes so that quality and turnaround do not depend on any one person, including you
Set and monitor the department's KPIs, including turnaround time, budget versus actual on files, deadlines met, and review points, and report on them regularly to Mike
Lead the department's software and workflow improvements in iFirm, CaseWare, and the tools around them, in coordination with the firm's leadership team
Quality Assurance and File Review
Hold ultimate responsibility for quality assurance and quality review across the department, working with your Managers, who share the review workload with you
Review year-end compilation and review engagement files, corporate tax returns (T2), and personal tax returns (T1) before they reach the partner for sign-off, with a focus on the complex, the unusual, and the high-stakes
Uphold the firm's quality standards and professional requirements on every file, and know when an issue needs to be escalated
Coach preparers and reviewers through your review notes so the same issues stop recurring. Your goal is fewer review points every season, not more
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