KPMG opens global mobility role blending tax, policy and people management

KPMG’s expatriate tax manager opening shows how global mobility work has become a specialty with its own career ladder. The job sits between tax compliance, assignment policy and team leadership, and it asks for five years of recent expatriate or individual tax experience, plus a bachelor’s degree and a CPA, JD/LLM or Enrolled Agent.

For KPMG professionals looking past a standard compliance track, that mix matters. The role is not limited to preparing returns. It calls for managing client expectations, reviewing tax equalization and international assignment policies, reviewing expatriate tax returns and equalizations, and mentoring and coaching staff. In other words, the manager is helping shape how a cross-border workforce gets paid, taxed and supported, while also carrying delivery responsibility.

That is a different shape of work from broader tax roles, where the day can tilt more heavily toward recurring filings, provision work or a narrower technical niche. Global Mobility Services pushes people into the mechanics of international assignments and the employee experience behind them. A good mobility professional is dealing with tax, immigration, compensation and administration at once, which means the fastest-building skills are often judgment, policy design and client communication, not just technical return preparation.

KPMG says the broader platform includes more than 5,000 Global Mobility Services professionals across more than 200 jurisdictions. In the United States, the practice says it helps organizations navigate global payroll and employment tax, support employees with income tax returns and settlements, and manage mobile, hybrid and remote workers in virtually any country. That scope gives mobility staff a wider view of how multinational clients run talent programs, especially as assignments become more fluid.

The firm is also signaling that this work is becoming more strategic. KPMG’s 2024 Global Mobility Forum materials say the field has shifted from “global mobility arrangements” to “global workforce arrangements,” a notable change for people who have long treated expatriate tax as a back-office function. Its 2025 Global Mobility Benchmarking Report says mobility leaders expect to raise the strategic value of their programs from 6.0 to 7.1 out of 10 over the next 12 to 18 months.

Technology is part of that push. KPMG says its mobility solutions use advanced technology and the KPMG LINK Go platform to centralize data, streamline workflows and provide real-time reporting. For employees, that points to a career path where process, data and advisory skills increasingly matter alongside tax expertise.

That is also what makes expatriate tax a durable specialty rather than a temporary assignment. As work-from-anywhere strategies, mobile workers and cross-border teams stay embedded in corporate life, KPMG’s mobility professionals are likely to remain close to core business decisions. For managers who want international client exposure, a people-management track and a role that can influence promotion value beyond pure compliance, the niche has become one of the firm’s clearest long-term lanes.