Director of Corporate Development

The Director of Corporate Development reports to the CFO and owns the company's inorganic growth agenda, including acquisition pipeline management, strategic alliances, joint ventures, and major commercial partnerships. The role also partners with the CFO on long-term strategy and debt/equity financing.

The role focuses on disciplined sourcing and screening of targets, ensuring every opportunity is evaluated for strategic fit, financial return, integration complexity, and counterparty risk. Targets are typically tuck-in software and hosting-adjacent businesses in the USD $1 million to $5 million enterprise value range, funded from operating cash flow. The goal is 1 to 2 closed transactions per year, with a pipeline of roughly 3 qualified opportunities under active review at any time.

Work is fully remote with flexible hours.

Responsibilities:

Origination

• Build and maintain a pipeline of acquisition targets aligned to strategic priorities through market mapping, competitive landscape monitoring, and thesis-driven target identification.
• Cultivate relationships with investment bankers, brokers, and industry advisors to identify relevant opportunities early.
• Conduct direct outreach and early-stage relationship development with founders and owners of prospective targets.
• Maintain disciplined pipeline records, including passed opportunities and rationale for each decision.

Screening and Evaluation

• Design and apply a standardized screening and scoring methodology for every opportunity, covering strategic fit, financial thresholds, technology/product considerations, integration complexity, and counterparty risk.
• Prepare concise initial evaluations of screened targets, including costs, returns, assumptions, and risk analysis.
• Build valuation and deal models for targets under consideration, including scenario and sensitivity analysis, synergy assessment, and financing considerations.
• Coordinate financial due diligence and partner with Legal, Technology, and functional leaders on cross-functional diligence workstreams.
• Lead counterparty diligence on target leadership, including reference checks, background verification, litigation review, and assessment of post-close alignment.
• Translate counterparty findings into deal structure, including retention terms, earnout design, indemnification, and escrow recommendations.
• Support deal structuring and negotiation, and prepare leadership and board materials for investment decisions.
• Track completed transactions against original deal thesis and report variances honestly.

Acquisition Budgeting and Financial Planning

• Build full transaction budgets for each deal, including purchase consideration, advisory fees, financing costs, and working capital requirements.
• Build integration budgets with synergy realization and integration cost phasing over the post-close period.
• Incorporate acquisition impacts into the company's forecast and annual operating plan.
• Support capital allocation analysis across competing uses of cash.

Integration Coordination

• Own the post-close integration plan for acquired companies, including the 100-day plan and workstream coordination.
• Lead financial integration of acquired entities, including reporting onboarding, budget incorporation, and systems transition.
• Track realized synergies and integration costs against the deal model.

Strategic Alliances, Joint Ventures, and Commercial Partnerships

• Identify and structure strategic alliances and joint ventures, presenting them to leadership on the same scoring basis as acquisitions.
• Evaluate and structure joint ventures, including economics, governance, contribution and exit terms, and financial models.
• Lead financial and commercial evaluation of major distribution, supply, and OEM agreements.
• Maintain the partnership pipeline alongside the acquisition pipeline.

Long-Term Strategy

• Partner with the CEO, CFO, and CPO to maintain the company's 3-to-5-year growth blueprint, refreshed annually.
• Translate the blueprint into strategic priorities for acquisition and partnership pipelines.

Capital Formation

• Support the CFO in raising debt or equity, including financial model and use-of-proceeds analysis, lender and investor materials, and coordination of counsel and advisers.
• Maintain relationships with lenders and prospective investors.

Corporate Development Function Building

• Establish playbooks, screening criteria, deal templates, and pipeline infrastructure.
• Hire, coach, and develop team members as the function grows.