Position Overview

Key Responsibilities

Deal Sourcing & Business Development

• Pipeline development: Build and maintain a proprietary pipeline of acquisition targets aligned to Ascend’s growth strategy — service line fit, geography, client base, and cultural fit.
• Outbound BD: Run outbound business development: direct outreach to owners and founders, and relationship-building with M&A intermediaries, brokers, and investment bankers active in the MSP and IT services space.
• External representation: Represent Ascend credibly in early-stage conversations with sellers and their advisors, setting the tone for the relationship before diligence begins.
• Pipeline reporting: Track and prioritize the target list through a structured pipeline, reporting status and momentum to leadership on a regular cadence.

Financial Analysis & Diligence

• Initial screening: Screen prospective targets on revenue quality, margin profile, recurring-revenue mix, and client concentration before committing diligence resources.
• Valuation & modeling: Build and maintain valuation models and deal economics — multiples, synergies, integration cost estimates — to support go/no-go and pricing decisions.
• Diligence coordination: Coordinate financial, legal, and operational due diligence workstreams, working directly with the CFO, legal counsel, and external advisors.
• Deal recommendations: Prepare clear deal summaries and recommendations for leadership review ahead of LOI and closing decisions.

Integration Handoff

• Clean handoff: Partner with the Acquisition Integration function to ensure deal-stage findings — client base, revenue quality, tech stack risk, team structure — transfer cleanly into the post-close integration plan.
• Pre-close planning: Participate in integration planning before close so Day 1 planning reflects what diligence actually found, not just what the deal thesis assumed.
• Institutional knowledge: Maintain a running playbook of lessons learned from each deal to sharpen future target criteria and diligence checklists.

Qualifications

• 3–6 years of experience in corporate development, investment banking, private equity/growth equity, or FP&A, with direct exposure to deal execution.
• Demonstrated financial modeling and valuation skills — comparables, DCF, and deal economics.
• Experience sourcing or evaluating deals directly, not only executing deals originated by others — comfortable operating in an outbound business-development capacity.
• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, or a related field.

Preferred

• Prior M&A experience in MSP, IT services, or broader B2B services.
• CFA, MBA, or equivalent.
• Direct experience working with sell-side advisors, brokers, or investment banks.
• Exposure to post-merger integration, not just deal execution.

What Success Looks Like

• A qualified, actively managed pipeline with visible movement through defined stages.
• A growing share of deals sourced directly rather than arriving inbound.
• Shortening time from first contact to signed LOI as relationships and process mature.
• Integration team consistently rates diligence handoffs as clear, complete, and usable on Day 1.

Reporting & Collaboration

• One Team: We work collaboratively to overcome challenges with humility and respect and do what it takes to find innovative solutions.
• Integrity: We are unquestionably committed to doing the right thing even when it is hard.
• Accountability: We hold ourselves and each other accountable for keeping our commitments to our clients, our communities, and one another.
• Transparency: We create open lines of communication with each other and our clients, fostering relationships founded on candor and trust.