Head of Corporate Development
fieldnation · Minnesota · remote
What you'll get to do:
- Partner with company leadership to translate strategic priorities into concrete acquisition criteria — target segment, geography, capability gaps, and deal size.
- Build and continuously refresh a target database, tracking strategic fit, estimated size, ownership structure, and readiness signals for each prospect.
- Develop and maintain relationships with investment bankers, M&A advisors, and industry contacts to generate proprietary deal flow ahead of a formal process.
- Conduct ongoing market and competitive research to identify opportunities — technology tuck-ins, provider-network expansion, complementary platforms, or geographic expansion.
- Apply a consistent screening framework to both proactively sourced targets and inbound approaches, so opportunities are compared on the same basis.
- Build and maintain financial models for prospective transactions, including DCF, comparable company, precedent transaction, and returns/accretion analysis.
- Develop preliminary valuation ranges and deal economics early, before significant diligence resources are committed to a target.
- Stress-test key assumptions — synergy realization, retention, integration cost, working capital impact — and flag where a deal's economics depend on optimistic assumptions.
- Translate financial analysis into a clear, defensible investment case that can withstand board- and sponsor-level scrutiny.
- Own the end-to-end due diligence process — financial, operational, legal, and commercial — coordinating outside advisors (accountants, counsel, consultants) alongside internal stakeholders.
- Identify and quantify key risks and potential deal-breakers early in a process rather than late.
- Lead negotiation of transaction terms — price, structure, representations and warranties, earn-outs, indemnification — in close partnership with Legal and Finance.
- Manage the full transaction timeline and workstream dependencies, keeping a deal moving without sacrificing diligence rigor.
- Prepare clear, decision-ready materials for the executive team, investment committee, and board: market landscape, deal rationale, financial case, key risks, and recommendation.
- Present and defend the analysis directly to senior leadership and the board, including handling detailed questions and pushback on assumptions.
- Keep stakeholders informed at each stage of a live deal, surfacing changes in risk, economics, or timeline as they emerge rather than at the end of a process.
- Build integration plans with clear milestones, owners, and success metrics before a deal closes, not after.
- Partner with functional leaders across Finance, Product, Engineering, People, and GTM to execute the integration plan and resolve issues as they surface.
- Track acquired-business performance against the original underwritten case on a defined cadence, and proactively flag material variances.
- Document lessons learned from each transaction to sharpen future target criteria, deal structures, and diligence focus areas.
You might be a good fit if you have:
- 7–12+ years of experience in investment banking, private equity, or corporate development, with direct, full-cycle deal experience — sourcing through integration, not diligence alone.
- Advanced financial modeling skills: DCF, comparable transactions, precedent transactions, returns/LBO-style analysis.
- Track record structuring and closing transactions, including direct ownership of diligence workstreams and deal terms.
- Demonstrated ability to operate as a trusted partner to C-suite executives and, ideally, a PE sponsor or board.
- Excellent written and verbal communication; able to distill complex financial analysis into clear board- and executive-ready materials.
- Bachelor's degree required.
- Prior experience in a PE-backed or founder-led company, particularly one that has executed multiple bolt-on or platform acquisitions.
- Experience in marketplace, SaaS, or services businesses.
- MBA or equivalent advanced degree.
- Experience building or scaling a corporate development function from an individual-contributor seat.
Why we think you'll love it here:
- Unlimited paid time off
- Annual vacation bonus - yes, we’ll pay you a bonus to take paid time off!
- Individualized growth + development plans
- Strong values around work/life balance
- Community involvement opportunities
- Competitive benefits: medical, dental, vision, paid parental leave + 401K
- Exposure to cutting-edge technologies to solve meaningful problems