Indirect Tax Specialist

Indirect Tax Specialist - Budapest

About Ketjen

Ketjen Corporation is a provider of advanced catalyst solutions to leading producers in the petrochemical, refining, and specialty chemicals industries. Our company is driven by a strong set of core values: curiosity, care, collaboration, humility, accountability, and integrity. These values guide our decisions, shape our culture, and define how we work together to deliver exceptional value to our customers and communities.

About the Role

Ketjen is seeking a detail-oriented and analytical Indirect Tax Specialist to primarily support the Company’s Non-US indirect tax compliance and reporting activities in Budapest, Hungary. The role will also support US and North America activities, but the majority support will be for non-US locations in the EMEA and Middle East region. This role is responsible for ensuring and assisting with accurate and timely compliance with all Indirect VAT, and other transactional tax requirements across manufacturing, sales, distribution, shared service center, and corporate operations.

The Indirect Tax Specialist will partner closely with Finance, Procurement, Supply Chain, and plant operations to ensure proper tax treatment of transactions, mitigate risk, and support audits. This position requires strong technical knowledge of indirect tax regulations, attention-to-detail, and the ability to operate effectively in a fast-paced, manufacturing-focused environment.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Indirect Tax Compliance & Reporting

• Prepare, review and file Non-US VAT, related tax filings, and other indirect tax submissions to ensure timely and accurate compliance.
• Prepare North America VAT, sales and use calculations as needed.
• Maintain tax determination processes and ensure proper tax treatment of transactions across multiple jurisdictions.
• Reconcile tax accounts, support month-end, quarterly, and year-end close activities, and maintain required documentation.
• Monitor country invoicing and indirect tax changes to assess impact on company operations and ensure ongoing compliance.
• Assist with implementation of continuous improvement activities and E-invoicing projects as required.

Audit Support & Risk Management

• Support indirect tax audits by gathering documentation, responding to inquiries, and coordinating with internal stakeholders.
• Identify potential tax exposures and recommend corrective actions to mitigate risk.
• Maintain internal controls and documentation to support compliance and audit readiness.

Business Partnership & Advisory

• Partner with Procurement, Supply Chain, Accounts Payable, and plant teams to ensure proper tax application on purchases and transactions.
• Provide guidance on taxability of import and export transactions, customer sales, VAT recoveries, VAT reporting, etc.
• Support new business initiatives, system changes, and operational projects by evaluating indirect tax implications.

Process Improvement & Systems Support

• Identify opportunities to improve indirect tax processes, reporting accuracy, and efficiency.
• Support ERP tax configuration and automation initiatives to enhance compliance and reduce manual effort.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, or related field.
• 3 to 4 years of experience in indirect tax and transactional tax requirements within a corporate or public accounting environment.
• Strong knowledge of Non-US VAT tax regulations and various multi country compliance requirements (including Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Spain, UK, Saudi Arabia, Hungary)
• Experience working with Intrastat reporting and
• Experience working with SAP.
• Experience working in various ERP systems that connect with SAP and proficiency in Excel.
• Strong analytical skills, diligence, and ability to manage multiple deadlines.
• Ability to be flexible with working hours while performing in a shared service environment.
• Ability to speak in various other languages (ex. French, Spanish, Dutch, etc.) with ability work 100% in English if needed.

Preferred

• Experience supporting manufacturing or industrial organization.
• Experience with tax automation tools (e.g., OneSource, Avalara, or similar).
• Experience with VIEA and Intrastat reporting in EMEA