Private Equity Mergers & Acquisitions Strategy & Diligence Manager

About the role

As an M&A Manager in Deloitte’s Private Equity (PE) Strategy & Diligence (S&D) practice, you will lead teams through high-stakes diligences and coach talent while working shoulder-to-shoulder with PE deal teams. You’ll help clients win deals by leading fast diligences and building plans that actually get executed.

Responsibilities

• Manage and deliver small complex strategic engagements or parts of larger engagements that help clients unlock value through inorganic growth and value creation
• Partner with private equity clients as they evaluate their portfolio and engage in buy-side and sell-side inorganic opportunities
• Evaluate portfolio company operations to identify key business issues and deploy innovative value creation solutions
• Evaluate and validate analysis and develop recommendations for the client in the context of the overall engagement
• Manage development and quality review of client deliverables
• Identify opportunities to leverage analytical capabilities in client delivery
• Effectively manage the day-to-day relationships with team and client to ensure exceptional performance
• Participate in business development activities
• Mentor junior staff and perform role of counselor; actively participate in staff recruitment and retention activities; provide leadership and support for delivery teams and staff in local offices
• Support development of eminence and “point-of-view” publications

Qualifications

• Required:
  • 6+ years of M&A or M&A Service Delivery experience, including:
    • Working on engagements for mid-market PE clients and portfolio companies
    • Setting engagement objectives and scope
    • Framing issues and breaking them down into hypotheses to be solved
    • Developing project work plans and coordinating activities between work streams
    • Designing deliverable content that reflects a high standard of analysis
    • Managing cross-functional teams to deliver engagements across all phases of the M&A lifecycle including due diligence, pre-close and post-merger integration
    • Managing service excellence by identifying key client business issues
    • Determining client needs by supplementing the standard assessment techniques and tools with innovative approaches
    • Managing day-to-day interactions with executive clients and sponsors
    • Contributing to business development and the development of proposals
  • Bachelor’s degree and 6+ years in a strategy consulting practice and/or industry experience; alternatively, an MBA with 4+ years relevant work experience is acceptable
  • Limited immigration sponsorship may be available
  • Ability to travel up to 50%, on average, based on the work you do and the clients and industries/sectors you serve
• Preferred:
  • Advanced degree (MBA; PhD; JD; MD; Masters)
  • Experience at a top strategy consulting firm or private equity / M&A Strategy boutique consulting firm
  • Ideal candidates would have spent at least 50% of their time advising PE clients
  • Experience with staff development and eagerness to mentor junior practitioners
  • Strong oral and written communication skills, including presentation skills (MS PowerPoint)

Skills

• Ability to work independently and collaborate as part of a team
• Effective written and verbal communication skills
• Meticulous attention to detail and quality of work product
• Ability to build and sustain professional relationships
• Ability to lead projects or workstreams
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple tasks in a fast-paced and dynamic environment
• Strong interpersonal skills and professional demeanor
• Ability to meet deadlines
• Ability to mentor and provide clear guidance to others

The Team

Our M&A team offers expert guidance to corporate and private equity clients in navigating complex growth and divestiture scenarios. Services encompass M&A strategy and transaction diligence, integration and separation planning and execution, as well as transaction financing. Deloitte’s M&A Strategy & Diligence practice supports corporate and private equity clients end-to-end across mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures—helping shape deal strategy, validate the investment thesis, and improve odds of value realization. The team combines strategic advisory (M&A strategy, deal thesis, growth pathways, buy/build/partner, portfolio rationalization, and buy-/sell-side readiness) with diligence capabilities across commercial and operational lenses to pressure-test forecasts, quantify synergies, and surface value drivers and deal risks that can affect price or structure. The team also provides transaction support through the deal lifecycle (e.g., pre-bid work, target identification support, structuring/financing considerations, vendor assistance/value qualification) and sell-side advisory (positioning and readiness to enhance credibility and reduce disruption).

The PE M&A S&D Team serves as strategic advisors to PE firms as they find ways to enhance investor return through specific activities such as portfolio rationalization analysis, market scans, target identification and screening/scanning, diligence on the buy and sell side, and refining portfolio company operations.