Assistant Director - M&A Analytics - EY Parthenon, Birmingham

The opportunity

At EY-Parthenon, our unique combination of transformative strategy, transactions, tax and corporate finance delivers real-world value – solutions that work in practice, not just on paper. Benefiting from EY’s full spectrum of services, we’ve reimagined strategic consulting to work in a world of increasing complexity. With deep functional and sector expertise, paired with innovative AI-powered technology and an investor mindset, we partner with CEOs, boards, private equity and governments every step of the way. Join the fastest growing and most innovative deal analytics team in the UK.

EY-Parthenon’s Transaction Analytics team helps clients use data to make better decisions at critical moments in the deal lifecycle. We work with private equity investors, corporates, management teams and other advisers on buy-side, sell-side, vendor assistance and exit readiness engagements. Our work sits at the intersection of M&A, financial due diligence, commercial insight and advanced analytics. Our core work is delivered during the exciting and high-speed phases of an M&A process. We use data and analytics to assess a target company’s financial performance, business projections and key value drivers, identifying opportunities, risks, sensitivities and potential mitigations that can influence transaction outcomes.

The Transaction Analytics team works closely with Financial Due Diligence, Corporate Finance, Strategy, Tax and sector specialists to provide deeper insights, challenge value drivers and bring innovative digital capabilities to live deal situations. Our work includes building reconciled data cubes, dynamic databooks and dashboards that support vendor due diligence, commercial due diligence, information memoranda, management presentations and bidder Q&A.

At Assistant Director level, this is also a leadership opportunity: you will play a central role in growing the Birmingham Transaction Analytics team, developing people, building client relationships and shaping our regional go-to-market proposition.

Your key responsibilities:

• Lead Transaction Analytics engagements and workstreams across a range of sectors and transaction situations.
• Shape analytics scope, approach, timelines and deliverables with Partners, Directors, clients and other EY workstreams.
• Lead senior client conversations with management teams, CFOs, private equity deal teams, corporate clients and other advisers.
• Oversee the creation of reconciled data cubes, dynamic databooks, dashboards and visual outputs that support due diligence, equity-story development and bidder Q&A.
• Use analytics to test value drivers, evidence growth stories, identify risks and challenge transaction assumptions.
• Project manage teams across multiple engagements, ensuring quality, timeliness, risk management and commercial relevance of outputs.
• Build, coach and mentor junior team members, helping develop the Birmingham Transaction Analytics capability.
• Develop internal and external networks across Transaction Diligence, Corporate Finance, Strategy, Tax, sector teams and the wider EY-Parthenon platform.
• Contribute to business development, proposals, credentials, key accounts, recruitment and go-to-market initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to expand the role of analytics across the transaction lifecycle and help develop reusable tools, assets and methodologies.

Skills and attributes for success:

• Strong financial and commercial acumen, with the ability to understand client challenges and link analysis to transaction value.
• Ability to define analytical approaches, challenge assumptions and focus teams on the questions that matter most in a deal context.
• Ability to gather, verify and assess information to formulate clear conclusions and advice.
• Demonstrable experience planning, preparing and reviewing client deliverables including visualisations, written reports, presentations and senior stakeholder materials.
• Strong attention to detail with a logical, structured and methodical approach.
• Strong leadership, coaching and team management skills.
• Ability to communicate complex analytical findings clearly to clients, investors, banks and non-technical stakeholders.
• Business development mindset, with the ability to build trusted relationships and identify opportunities for additional client value.
• Entrepreneurial mindset and desire to help grow a regional Transaction Analytics platform.

To qualify for the role, you must have:

• Strong commercial experience and/or relevant industry, analytics, finance, transaction or financial due diligence experience.
• Experience leading teams and managing workstreams in a fast-paced, client-facing environment.
• Understanding of data manipulation, integration and visualisation tools such as Excel, Alteryx, Power BI and Python.
• Experience coaching, mentoring and developing team members.
• Extensive stakeholder and client communication experience.
• A passion for providing high quality service and practical advice to clients.

Ideally, you’ll also have:

• Experience leading analytics, transaction, financial due diligence, corporate finance, strategy or consulting engagements.
• Experience with advanced analytics languages or tooling such as Python, SQL, R, Alteryx, Power BI.
• Experience shaping proposals, contributing to business development or building client relationships.
• Experience working across multiple service lines and sectors in high-paced transaction environments.
• A strong understanding of how analytics can create value throughout the transaction lifecycle.

What we look for:

We are looking for a commercially minded analytics leader who can operate as a trusted adviser to clients and senior EY teams. You will be motivated by building teams, developing people, winning work and using data to improve the quality of transaction decisions.

What we offer:

We will fuel your ambition and potential with future-focused skills development that equips you with state-of-the-art methodologies and technology-enabled solutions. With more than 25,000 people in 150 countries, you will join an inclusive and empowering culture that values your uniqueness, prioritises your wellbeing, and immerses you in the diverse thinking and cross-cultural experiences necessary to help deliver impact to clients across the globe and to help build a better working world.