Functional Consultant - GST / Indirect Tax (Tax-Tech)

Kevin Shah & Associates · India

Kevin Shah & Associates (KSAA) is a growing legal firm based in Mumbai, founded by experienced professionals from diverse fields. The firm offers cross-practice services with strong expertise in Indirect Taxation and International Trade & Customs. KSAA is client-centric, focused on providing practical, high-quality, and cost-efficient solutions tailored to each client’s needs. The firm emphasizes partner involvement, transparent processes, and long-term relationships, making it a trusted choice for clients. KSAA also has its Tech Vertical called Kat Compliance Karma Pvt. Ltd. for which it is seeking a Functional Role. The said Company is into developing a GST Software.

•  Reports to: Founder & CEO (source of the GST knowledge download)

•  Works with: Tech team Business Analyst (BA), UI/UX team, and the development vendor

•  Nature of role: Individual owner of the documentation-to-testing chain; the accountable custodian of every FSD and its data.

Core Responsibility : The responsibilities below follow the exact workflow this role must run, end to end:

1. Receive the GST knowledge download from the CEO on each GST form/return and absorb it fully.
2. Document that knowledge and go deep into the subject — researching and resolving every rule, condition and edge case — until a complete Functional Specification Document (FSD) is prepared.
3. Explain the prepared FSD to the tech team’s Business Analyst clearly and completely.
4. Ensure no explanation, assumption or build goes beyond what is documented in the FSD. Any gap surfaced during explanation is taken back into the document, not handled verbally.
5. Produce the next (build-ready) version of the FSD incorporating those resolutions, to be handed to development.
6. Finalise the UI/UX in parallel and obtain approval before development proceeds.
7. Prepare test data and plan internal testing after each release. As this is a GST compliance product, testing verifies that compliance data flows into the correct bucket — not unit or functional testing. The test is whether the right data lands in the right place per GST rules.
8. Own all documents produced, and store every data set and shared artifact in a clean, organised, retrievable manner.
9. Keep email and written communication crisp, precise and on-record.
10. Run the project and the team with discipline, ownership and full accountability for delivery.

What Success Looks Like:

•  Documentation integrity: Every GST rule from the knowledge download is captured in the FSD; nothing critical lives only in conversation.

•  No scope drift: The built product matches the FSD. Deviations are caught at explanation stage and documented, never allowed through informally.

•  Compliance-correct testing: Test data proves that compliance data reaches the correct bucket under GST rules, across valid, invalid, encoded and edge cases.

•  Clean records: All FSDs, versions, approvals and data sets are stored elegantly and can be retrieved instantly. Communication is crisp and on-record.

•  Reliable delivery: The project and team run on documentation and discipline rather than on the CEO’s constant involvement.

Required Skills & Experience:

•  GST domain depth: Strong, working command of GST returns and compliance — outward/inward supplies, ITC, reconciliation against the GST portal, and the filing logic of forms such as GSTR-1, 3B and 6. A Chartered Accountant or an indirect-tax specialist is the natural fit.

•  Functional documentation: Demonstrated ability to convert domain knowledge into a rigorous FSD — rules, conditions, edge cases and data flows written unambiguously.

•  Working with tech teams: Able to brief a BA and hold the line that build must not exceed documented scope. Comfortable at the business–technology interface without needing to code.

•  Test-data & compliance testing: Able to design compliance-focused test data and test plans that verify correct data-bucket mapping, not merely software function.

•  Excel & data handling: Fast and accurate with Excel and structured data — essential for building test sets and organising records.

•  Documentation discipline: Naturally organised: version control, clean storage, crisp written communication.

Attributes and Temperament:

This role only works with the right temperament. The successful candidate is:

•  Documentation-first by instinct — believes nothing is agreed until it is written.

•  Rigorous and precise, willing to go deep into a rule until it is fully resolved rather than left ambiguous.

•  Firm at the FSD boundary — able to hold the tech team to documented scope without conceding to informal changes.

•  Organised and crisp in communication, on email and in records.

•  Committed and accountable - takes full ownership of the project and team, and runs both with discipline. Reliability and follow-through matter as much as technical skill.

Key Deliverables:

•  Complete FSD for each GST form, versioned (initial and build-ready).

•  FSD walkthrough to the tech BA, with a documented resolution of every gap raised.

•  Approved UI/UX for each module before development.

•  Compliance test-data sets and internal test plans per release.

•  A clean, organised, retrievable repository of all documents, data and approvals.