AI Transformation & Automation Lead

AI Transformation & Automation LeadClaude | AI Agents | Python | Business Automation

Remote — Philippines | Long-term Independent Contractor

₱220,000–₱295,000 per month

A premium opportunity for an exceptional AI professional.

If you're an exceptional fit but your current remuneration is above this range, talk to us.

Our objective is ambitious

We are an established family owned Australian tax, accounting and business advisory firm with a capable team and modern technology environment.

We believe AI can amplify what talented people can achieve.

Our ambition is a firm where technology removes unnecessary work, provides better information and creates more time for people to think, solve problems, advise, build relationships and create value for clients.

We want AI and automation to make work easier, more interesting and more valuable while substantially increasing what our team and business can achieve.

Your instinct should be: “How can we do this?”

This is not a VA, IT support or conventional programming role.

We don't want someone waiting for a list of automation tickets.

We want someone who naturally asks:

Why are we doing this manually? Could AI do this better? Could these systems work together? Is there a completely different solution? What is now possible that wasn't before?

And then works out how to make it happen.

This is bigger than automation

We're not looking for disconnected workflows.

We want to progressively rethink how an accounting and advisory firm operates when AI, automation, data and software become core business capabilities.

You'll work directly with our CEO and have the opportunity to understand the entire firm.

We want someone capable of moving from:

Business problem → idea → prototype → working solution → measurable improvement.

We're keeping our transformation plans high-level publicly. We have strong ideas about where we're going, but want the successful person helping design how we get there.

We want early momentum

We don't expect you to transform the firm in your first month.

We do expect you to learn rapidly, understand our people and systems, identify promising opportunities, test ideas and implement sensible early improvements while developing a broader roadmap.

Some opportunities will produce quick results; others require deeper work. We value both — not simply the number of automations produced.

Learn quickly. Build early. Measure. Improve.

Our technology environment

Our environment is centred around Xero and Microsoft, including:

• Xero Accounting
• Xero Practice Manager (XPM)
• FYI Docs
• Ignition
• Microsoft 365
• Outlook, Excel, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive
• other accounting and professional-services systems

We want this ecosystem working together intelligently. You don't need experience with every application. If a platform is new to you, we value the attitude:

“I haven't worked with that yet — let me understand it and see what's possible.”

The problems are interesting

At a high level, we want AI and technology to help us:

• amplify what talented people can achieve;
• transform the efficiency of professional services;
• remove repetitive and low-value work;
• give people more time for judgement, advice and clients;
• connect our technology more intelligently;
• improve workflow, planning and decision-making;
• provide better and more timely information;
• identify emerging issues earlier;
• improve staff and client experience; and
• create capabilities that may not currently exist.

Those are the outcomes.

How we achieve them is something we want to develop internally.

We also hold highly sensitive client information. We want to develop privacy-preserving approaches that allow us to safely expand our use of AI while maintaining appropriate confidentiality, security and professional controls.

We want intelligence, not just software

We want technology that helps our people:

do better work, make better decisions, identify problems earlier, understand what may happen next and know where their attention is most valuable.

Over time, we want our systems increasingly proactive rather than reactive.

What that ultimately looks like is part of the challenge we're hiring you to solve.

Build — but also teach

This is critical.

Our CEO wants to become genuinely excellent at using AI himself — not simply better at prompting.

He wants to understand Claude, Claude Code, AI agents, MCP, APIs, automation architecture, integrations, workflow design, model selection, governance and emerging capabilities.

As you build, teach.

Explain what you're doing. Demonstrate it. Experiment together. Challenge assumptions.

If there is a better approach:

Show us.

We don't want someone who simply implements the CEO's ideas.

We want someone who brings him better ones.

Your technical toolkit

We care more about demonstrated capability, judgement and learning speed than qualifications.

We expect strong practical capability across several of:

• Claude / Claude Code / Anthropic API
• leading LLM platforms
• AI agents / agentic workflows / MCP
• Python
• APIs / REST / JSON / webhooks
• n8n, Make and/or Power Automate
• SQL / databases
• Git/GitHub
• Microsoft 365 / Microsoft Graph
• Excel automation
• BI / data modelling / cloud systems

Experience with Xero, XPM, FYI, Ignition, Power BI, Azure, RAG, Docker or professional-services technology is valuable but not essential.

The ability and desire to master unfamiliar systems is.

Who we're looking for

Technical capability matters enormously.

But this role will be won by a combination of:

Curiosity. Initiative. Commercial thinking. Technical ability. Communication. Teaching ability. Judgement.

And:

A bias toward making things happen.

When something is complicated: “Let's break it down.”

When software can't do something: “What other ways could we make it happen?”

When you encounter something unfamiliar: “I'll work it out.”

When an experiment fails: “Good. What did we learn?”

You should enjoy problems without detailed instructions.

Responsible innovation

We are an Australian accounting and registered tax practice.

We want to pursue the productivity and client-service opportunities created by AI with real ambition, while matching that ambition with equally strong professional judgement, governance, competency, security, confidentiality and responsibility.

AI should enhance our practitioners' professional capability, not replace their accountability.

We believe:

Strong governance should allow us to use AI more confidently and more extensively.

You'll help us build both the capability to innovate and the systems that allow us to innovate safely.

What success looks like

We won't measure success by the number of automations you create.

We care about what changes because of them.

We want less repetitive work, more time for thinking and advice, easier production of high-quality work, better-connected systems, better information, better planning, earlier identification of problems and greater capacity for sustainable growth.

Our ambition:

Technology amplifies talented people.

We want our people to have exceptional tools, intelligent systems and AI capabilities that allow them to achieve far more while making their work easier, more interesting and more valuable.

Why this opportunity is different

Direct CEO access. Real influence. Greenfield opportunity. Freedom to experiment. Permission to challenge us.

This is a genuine transformation mandate, not simply a few automations. You'll work with the decision-maker, test good ideas within appropriate controls and help make the people around you more capable.

The engagement

This is a long-term independent contractor engagement, working remotely from the Philippines.

We expect approximately full-time professional capacity, with substantial availability during Australian business hours.

₱220,000–₱295,000 per month

We have deliberately positioned this as a premium opportunity.

If you're already in a strong AI, automation, software or transformation role and want autonomy, meaningful problems, direct access to decision-makers and the opportunity to build rather than maintain:

We want to hear from you.

Exceptional performance and measurable impact may also be recognised with additional discretionary financial rewards.

How to apply

Please don't send us a generic AI-generated cover letter.

We want to understand how you think.

1. What's the best AI or automation system you've personally built? What did you build, what technology did you use and what measurable result did it produce?

2. If your objective was to make a capable professional-services team significantly more effective through AI and automation, where would you start?

3. You inherit Xero, XPM, FYI Docs, Ignition and Microsoft 365. How would you determine what could be connected, automated or redesigned?

4. How would you expand an accounting firm's use of AI while protecting confidential client information?

5. What's your practical experience with Claude and Claude Code? Where is Claude excellent, and where would you choose another tool?

6. Tell us something technical you recently taught yourself simply because you wanted to understand it.

7. You start Monday with no automation list. What would you investigate, demonstrate or improve in your first 30 days?

Be ambitious. But be credible.

Selection

The strongest applicants will speak directly with the CEO.

Finalists will receive a paid real-world business challenge to investigate and build a small proof of concept.

Then you'll spend more time with the CEO.

Part will be technical.

The other part:

Teach him something.

Choose an AI capability an intelligent business owner should understand. Explain it, demonstrate it and show why it matters.

We're looking for someone who can:

Think. Build. Experiment. Measure. Communicate. Teach. Challenge us constructively.

And continually ask:

“How can we do this?”