Associate Director, Corporate Strategy & Development (all genders)

<h2><strong>The role</strong></h2> <p>As an <strong>Associate Director, Corporate Strategy & Development</strong>, you will be a senior member of a small, AI enabled team of highly driven and committed individuals, reporting to the Director Corporate Strategy & Development. This is a high-exposure role, acting as the strategic and analytical engine for our most important decisions in a team that reports <strong>directly to the Group CEO</strong>.</p> <p>This role balances corporate development / M&A with corporate strategy. You <strong>lead projects across both areas</strong> as the day-to-day owner and guide a small number of more junior colleagues and internal functional experts. You operate with <strong>minimal direction</strong> and take projects from a vague problem statement to a CEO-ready recommendation. You also <strong>stay hands-on</strong>, personally building the models and analysis and preparing the executive-level outputs that drive investment and strategy decisions.</p> <h2><strong>What you’ll do</strong></h2> <ul> <li><strong>M&A Strategy:</strong> Lead M&A projects end to end (owning small and mid-sized transactions independently and partnering with the Director on the largest, transformational deals), from target screening and valuation through due diligence, negotiation preparation, and post-deal integration. Run deal teams day to day, coordinate external advisors and act as the lead with target management teams or their advisors. You are not just a process manager but can form and defend a point of view on whether and why a deal makes strategic sense and present it directly to senior leadership.</li> <li><strong>Portfolio Optimization:</strong> Lead the strategic analysis and recommendations for key portfolio decisions, including potential geo-expansions, new vertical or brand launches or divestments.</li> <li><strong>Corporate Strategy</strong><strong>:</strong> Contribute to the development of the Group's mid-term strategy by driving the process, owning the underlying analysis, strategic synthesis, and preparation of strategic documents.</li> <li><strong>Capital Allocation:</strong> Own and develop analytical frameworks and models to support strategic budget allocation and ROI analysis.</li> <li><strong>Business Unit Strategy:</strong> Act as a senior internal consultant, supporting our key business units across geographies on a project-by-project basis to develop their mid-term strategies and solve their most complex challenges.</li> </ul> <h2><strong>What you’ll bring</strong></h2> <ul> <li><strong>Experience:</strong> <strong>6+ years</strong> of high-performance experience from a top-tier Management Consulting firm, Investment Banking, or a comparable in-house Strategy / Corporate Development team. This includes leading projects or deal teams with minimal supervision.</li> <li><strong>Process and deal leadership:</strong> You have led complex, multi-stakeholder processes to a deadline, coordinating internal functions and external advisors and managing senior counterparties such as target or client management te