Associate Director - Deal Strategy & Commercial Due Diligence - Media (Strategy Consulting)

Our client, a leading strategy consultancy is seeking a Senior Manager / Associate Director to join and play a leading role, focusing on deal strategy within the media industry as a part of the wider TMT sector, with scope to work on the wider range of services including growth strategy, cost and operational strategy (including economic profitability analysis) and enterprise-wide transformation. You will be the second hire of a newly established team that has plans to grow to fifteen staff in the next 2-3 years, and you will play an instrumental part in helping to shape the growth of this team.

Responsibilities:

• Take a leadership role with the team and to hold a high quality, credible reputation with clients and in the broader market – experience of a range of M&A related projects will be critical, e.g. Commercial DD, M&A Strategy, Value creation, etc.
• Design and run mid-sized to large projects and / or very large, complex workstreams.
• Act as primary client liaison on Firm engagements and act as an 'ambassador' for the firm.
• Produce client-ready deliverables that exceed expectations and require minimal review.
• Develop solutions to complex problems and challenge the thinking of more senior colleagues and clients.
• Help design – and guide junior staff to – execute detailed financial / business models performing complex scenario and sensitivity analysis.
• Provide timely feedback and coaching to other team members.
• Identify go-to-market and marketing opportunities and assume day-to-day responsibility for taking these to clients.
• Maintain active contact with mid-level clients outside of engagement situations.
• Actively seek out leadership opportunities, take responsibility for a selection of internal processes and generally act as a leader in the S&PT and an inspiration to more junior team members.
• Show initiative to identify and drive thought leadership and knowledge management activities.
• Lead on practice development activities to ensure successful delivery of initiatives.
• Take day-to-day responsibility that the firm's risk management frameworks are adhered to.

Work experience required:

• Experience working in a leading strategy consulting business, Big 4 firm or strategy / corporate development team in industry.
• Strong foundational understanding of the value drivers across the Media sector and views on the outlook for this sector.
• Experience of leading mid-sized and large projects: designing work plans, team structures and then managing these to (i) excellent client output and (ii) strong project economics.
• This should include an extensive coverage of recent M&A transactions, eg CDD, VDD, M&A Strategy or Value Creation projects in the Media sector.
• Evidence of taking responsibility for designing proposals, scopes and pricing for mid-sized and large consulting assignments.
• Ability to work effectively and collaboratively with team members and broader (internal and external) stakeholders.
• Strong track record of building followership among more junior staff members.
• Pro-active role in business development activity, designing client ready pitches, generating differentiated insights and holding personal client relationships.
• Non-client facing roles in driving practice forward in areas such as team management, training, technical tool development, liaison with service suppliers etc.

Technical skills required:

• Strong academic track record.
• Evidence of strong problem-solving & analytical capabilities.
• Structured thinking skills combined with creativity.
• Ability to evaluate complex challenges and deliver insightful recommendations that can be practically executed.
• Ability review and assess large volumes of technical data and distil the key strategic insights.
• Strong numerical capabilities combined with sound commercial acumen.
• Ability to build complex financial models that support our recommendations to clients.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Other language skills would be a strong bonus.

We have a briefing with the hiring partner on Wednesday 20th August so will be able to inform successful candidates as to more about the team and the role following this.

Successful applicants will be contacted within 24-48 hours.

Cambridge Credentials: adding people….adding value