Director of Public Practice 4-Day Work Week | Leadership Role | Winnipeg, Manitoba McLenehan and Associates Chartered Professional Accountants $140,000 Base Salary | 32-Hour Week, Even in Busy Season | Lead the Department, Shape the Firm WHY 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 PROSPECT Most 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 EARN Base

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

Perks:
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 LEAD The clients 500 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 work Year-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 team The 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 tools CCH 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 together Strategy, 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
Lead the Public Practice Department
• 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 Client Delivery and Advisory
• Meet with business owner clients to deliver finished year-end results and tax returns, and explain them in plain language the owner can act on
• Provide financial and tax advice on owner-manager matters: compensation planning (salary versus dividends), corporate structures, purchase and sale of a business, and CRA correspondence
• Identify opportunities where clients would benefit from deeper advisory services, and coordinate with our Director of Business Development to grow those relationships People Leadership
• Lead and develop the department's Managers, Assistant Managers, Senior Accountants, and Accountants across the full people cycle: hiring input, onboarding, training, coaching, performance evaluations, and career development
• Build the bench: develop Senior Accountants into reviewers and Assistant Managers into Managers, and make the department stronger every quarter
• Work with our Director of People and Culture on recruiting, performance management, and career pathways for the department WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE: YOUR FIRST 90 DAYS Month 1 (Days 1 to 30): Learning the firm
• You know our clients, services, systems, and standards well enough to hold a credible advisory conversation
• You have met one-on-one with every member of the department and understand their strengths, goals, and development needs
• You are shadowing file reviews and client meetings alongside Mike and calibrating to the firm's quality bar
• You have mapped the department's current workflow from client request to partner sign-off and identified where it slows down Month 2 (Days 31 to 60): Taking the Reins




• You and your Managers are completing file reviews independently on standard files, with Mike involved only on complex matters
• Workload planning, scheduling, and day-to-day leadership of the department run through you
• You are joining client meetings and beginning to lead them
• You have agreed a set of department KPIs with Mike and begun reporting on them Month 3 (Days 61 to 90): Fully Operational
• The department's production and quality review run through you and your Managers, and Mike's role has narrowed to partner sign-off and the most complex files
• You own the team: performance management, development plans, and hiring input are yours
• You are delivering finished work and advice to clients independently
• You have a documented plan for the coming busy season that does not depend on Mike's review capacity WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR You must have:
• Chartered Professional Accountant designation (CPA), in good standing
• 7+ years of Canadian public practice experience, including several years reviewing files prepared by others
• Deep, current expertise in compilation and review engagements, corporate tax (T2), personal tax (T1), and owner-manager tax planning
• Proven experience leading a team of accounting professionals in public practice, including managing Managers or Senior Accountants who review the work of others
• The presence and judgment to sit across from a business owner, hold the conversation, and give advice they trust
• A track record of running a busy season: planning capacity, managing a team's workload, and meeting competing deadlines without dropping the standard You will stand out if you have:
• Experience as the final reviewer in a firm, or as a Senior Manager or Principal with responsibility for a department's production and quality
• Hands-on experience with CaseWare and Jazzit, CCH iFirm and iFirm Tax, and QuickBooks Online, or comparable tools
• Experience designing or implementing workflow and process improvements in a growing firm, and measuring the results
• Exposure to advisory work beyond compliance: cash flow, budgeting, business purchase and sale, or CFO-level conversations WHO YOU ARE Top performers will recognize themselves in this list:
• You have the technical judgment to be the last word on a file, and the self-awareness to know when to pick up the phone and talk it through
• You think in systems. When a file goes sideways, you fix the file and then you fix the process that let it happen
• You find genuine satisfaction in a clean file, and equal satisfaction in coaching the person who prepared it
• Your review notes teach; they do not just correct
• Business owners relax when you walk into the room, because you speak their language, not just the Income Tax Act's
• You can hold a high standard and a warm relationship with the same person at the same time
• You are honest with yourself and others when a file, a process, or a team member is not where it needs to be, and you act on it
• You have decided that a sustainable week is a condition of doing your best work, not a reward for surviving another busy season
• You want to be the leader a growing firm is built around, not just fill a seat This is not a role for someone who needs to be told what to do. It is a role for an experienced, self-directed professional who wants to run a department, work directly with the owner, and have a life outside the office. OUR VALUES Profit Minded: We do work that is profitable and allows our firm to grow. Quality Focused: We review each other's work and make sure we get it right. Value Driven: We give great advice to clients, which makes us valued partners. We believe everyone deserves the chance to thrive, personally and professionally. Our clients are small business owners building something meaningful, and this role exists to make sure the advice they get, and the team behind it, is exceptional. If you want to do the best work of your career inside a firm that respects your time and your life, we would love to hear from you.

HOW TO APPLY
Apply directly through our careers page on BambooHR, or send your resume and a brief note on why this role is the right fit for you to [email protected]. Step 1: A 20-minute introductory call with our Director of People and Culture. Step 2: A deeper conversation with Mike McLenehan about your technical experience, your leadership approach, and how you advise business owners. Step 3: A working session: walk us through how you would review a sample file and handle a client advisory scenario. A chance for both of us to evaluate fit. Step 4: Final conversation and offer. Every applicant we interview will hear the outcome of our hiring decision. McLenehan and Associates Chartered Professional Accountants 1919 Portage Avenue | 1581 Pembina Highway | Winnipeg, Manitoba

📌 Director of Public Practice (Winnipeg)
🏢 Mclenehan And Associates Chartered Professional Accountants
📍 Winnipeg