Private Equity Associate

About the role

The Private Equity Associate is a high-ownership deal execution role responsible for leading the full due diligence process across Solen’s active acquisition pipeline. You will own diligence end-to-end—from LOI through close—serving as the central operator who scopes workstreams, manages internal teams and third-party advisors, synthesizes findings, and translates a data room into a clear, defensible point of view for the investment committee.

Responsibilities

• Own the full due diligence process across live transactions, including commercial, financial, operational, technology, legal, tax, and HR workstreams.
• Select, scope, and manage external advisors (QoE, consulting, legal, tech, insurance) with rigor on cost, quality, and timeline.
• Synthesize hundreds of pages of diligence output into a sharp investment thesis, key risks, and a defensible recommendation—owner-grade, not academic.
• Build and maintain detailed financial models from a blank sheet; pressure-test management projections against diligence findings.
• Lead working capital, net debt, and quality-of-earnings analyses in partnership with QoE providers; develop a clear point of view on adjustments.
• Translate diligence findings into bid mechanics: purchase price, structure, earnouts, escrows, and reps & warranties positioning.
• Maintain valuation rigor across cases tied to specific operating drivers.
• Draft IC memos, deal updates, and board materials that translate complex diligence into the three things that actually matter for the decision.
• Maintain a single source of truth for deal status, open items, and decisions across the deal team.
• Communicate clearly and directly with senior leadership—surface risks early, frame trade-offs cleanly, and bring recommendations, not just analysis.
• Carefully coordinate across internal stakeholders (corporate development, finance, legal, portfolio operations) and external counterparties (sellers, bankers, lenders, advisors) to keep deals on timeline.
• Support negotiation of LOIs, purchase agreements, disclosure schedules, and ancillary documents alongside legal counsel.
• Partner tightly with corporate development on opportunity evaluation, target screening, and management meetings.
• Own structured post-close transition handoff to integration and portfolio operations teams—diligence findings, value creation hypotheses, open risks, and Day-1 priorities.
• Provide feedback loops that sharpen Solen’s diligence playbooks, scorecards, and execution standards over time.

Requirements

• 2 years of investment banking experience.
• Demonstrated ownership of executed transactions.
• Mastery of financial modeling; able to build from a blank sheet without a template.
• Strong command of accounting and QoE concepts, including working capital normalization and net debt mechanics.
• Excellent written communication—can turn a messy data room into a tight, decision-grade memo.
• High integrity, low ego, strong executive presence; comfortable in ambiguity and energized by ownership.
• Bachelor’s degree with a strong academic record; concentration in finance, accounting, economics, or a quantitative field preferred.
• Based in or willing to relocate to New York City.
• Strongly Preferred Exposure to vertical-market software, B2B SaaS, or other recurring-revenue businesses.
• Experience working directly with private equity sponsors, evergreen holding companies, or software consolidators.

Qualifications

• Highly organized and detail-oriented.
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Passion for private equity and software industry.

Skills

• Financial modeling and analysis.
• Due diligence and risk assessment.
• Deal structuring and negotiation.
• Team coordination and project management.
• Written and verbal communication.

Benefits

• Opportunity to lead deal execution within an evergreen software compounder with a long-duration ownership model.
• High-ownership role with meaningful influence on capital deployment and acquisition outcomes.
• Direct exposure to senior deal leadership and a clear path to broader investing responsibility.
• Competitive compensation and benefits package.

Pay

Competitive compensation and benefits package.

Schedule

Full-time.

Solen-isms (How We Operate)

• Ownership Mindset: We own the mission. We don't wait to be told. We lead, fix, and build as if it were ours. When problems arise, we run toward them, not away.
• Benchmark to Best: We seek out excellence. We measure ourselves against the best and adapt quickly, always looking for the edge that moves us forward.
• Openly Self-Critical: Leaders go first: they surface their misses early, ask for direct feedback, and turn “game film” into better decisions and better systems.
• Disagree & Commit: Leaders disagree openly and constructively, regardless of title or tenure, because truth is how we avoid bureaucracy and benchmark to best.
• Figureitoutiveness: Embracing challenges, fostering growth, and taking initiative, leaders thrive on hard work and high failure tolerance.
• Mutual Elevation: Committed to growth, elevating teams, developing future leaders, and removing barriers to mastery and joy.
• Learn-it-alls: Learn-it-alls, not know-it-alls, embracing failure as part of growth and progress.
• Pioneering: Pioneering driven by opportunity, using first principles thinking and unbound by tradition or rules.
• Will to Win: Leaders relentlessly pursue potential, reject mediocrity, and get what they tolerate.
• Dialectical: We learn through conversation. We ask, listen, question, and evolve — valuing disagreement as a tool for alignment and deeper understanding.
• Frugality: Achieving more with less, focusing on quality, long-term value, and company-wide responsibility.
• Candor: We communicate with integrity, transparency, and respect in all conversations.
• Kaizen: Kaizen is continuous improvement as a way of life. Leaders make hundreds of small upgrades that compound, turning lessons into standards and standards into durable systems.