Senior Associate, M&A Business Development in London

As an operating group of Constellation Software (TSX: CSU.TO), Vela acquires, manages, and builds vertical market software companies with a buy and hold forever mandate. Our long-term vision fosters an environment of continuous strategic investment in our businesses - their products, brands, and people - enabling them to be clear leaders in their industries.

With over one hundred transactions in 2025, we’re looking for a top-performing business development professional to join Vela’s M&A deal origination team. This individual will be responsible for sourcing, qualifying, nurturing, and managing a pipeline of acquisition opportunities. The ideal candidate will balance salesmanship and drive for business development with the financial acumen to co-ordinate and facilitate critical aspects of the M&A transaction lifecycle in a C-level facing role. They should be internally motivated, creative, entrepreneurial, and have a record of surpassing targets in a deal sourcing environment.

Responsibilities:

• Identify, engage, and qualify potential M&A company targets and opportunities aligning with the group’s strategic and financial criteria.
• Establish, build, and maintain successful relationships with CEOs, business owners, senior executives, brokers, PE & VC funds, and other stakeholders through meaningful dialogue as well as nurture attractive M&A opportunities to help progress targets through the deal sourcing pipeline.
• Add new prospects to our proprietary database of industry contacts.
• Track activities and maintain relevant information in CRM.
• Review company materials on an opportunity basis.
• Conduct assessments of target industry and competitive landscape, identifying key industry trends, emerging players, and associated opportunities for growth.

Work Experience/Profile:

• 3+ years of relevant experience in M&A sourcing, SaaS business development, enterprise sales, investor relations, or entrepreneurship/start-up.
• Ability to speak other languages (highly considered).
• Exceptional business sense, a strong inherent drive to work autonomously and think independently in a high-performance entrepreneurial environment.
• Proficiency in deal sourcing and cold outreach (cold-calling, e-mail, and other relevant outreach channels).
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills with exemplary relationship and rapport building skills.
• Self-starter with an ability to take ownership and initiative to drive projects to completion and a high degree of intellectual curiosity, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Solid understanding of company financial information and analysis of historical performance.
• Advanced time management, attention to detail, organizational, strategic thinking, and analytical skills.
• Adaptable and flexible, able to respond to changing work priorities, pressure, and demands.
• Experience in asset heavy industrial sector is considered an asset.
• Able to travel on an as needed basis.