Associate

Company Overview

There’s a better way to work in finance—and more specifically, a better way to unlock value potential in private equity-backed portfolio companies. Working at the intersection of sponsors and management teams across every stage of the investment lifecycle, our team provides hands-on, execution-oriented support to elevate the office of the CFO.

So, what does it mean to work at Accordion? It means joining 1,400+ finance & technology experts in a high-growth, collaborative, and agile environment while changing the way portfolio companies drive value. It also means making your mark on Accordion’s future.

With the London office launching our European footprint, London-based Accordionites will have a unique opportunity to flex their entrepreneurial muscles to drive our business forward in the European market whilst working with colleagues who think like owners.

Accordion is headquartered in New York City with 10 offices around the globe. Come join us as we build something great, together.

Transaction Execution Services 

At Accordion, we focus on the full spectrum of M&A execution: from financial modeling, valuation and analytical support to serving in a bolt-on corporate development capacity. From quarterbacking current deals to developing playbooks and best practices for a robust acquisition strategy, from the fund level to the portfolio level, from platforms to add-ons to carve outs, “no job is too small, no fee is too big.”

In addition to analyzing the financial and operational data, we help quantify current and future value creation opportunities, enabling investors to easily understand the trapped value within the business.

This role can be based in our London office. Ideal candidates should be local to the desired location, with the flexibility to work remotely 1-2 days a week, blending the best of both worlds for efficiency and collaboration.

What You'll Do

As an Associate on a lean, cross-functional team, you will work collaboratively with a diverse set of colleagues to assist clients in a variety of transaction-related projects focused on helping to prepare companies for a sale and support them throughout the deal process (working alongside CFOs and other executives). You will: 

• Work with company management, private equity deal and operating teams, investment bankers, and other third parties to support the development of an equity story and other go-to-market materials
• Utilize both excel and business intelligence tools (PowerBI, Power Query, Power Pivot, Tableau, etc.) to develop a variety of granular financial, operational, and business segment analysis (profitability, trending, etc.)
• Analyze, quantify, and validate deal-related assumptions including synergies, add-backs, and pro-forma financials
• Manage and / or support the development and population of an investor-ready data room
• Work with CFOs and their teams, respond to due diligence and other deal related questions from either financial (private equity) or strategic (corporate) buyers
• Regularly and extensively travel across Europe to work with clients in the relevant jurisdictions

You will also be assisting private equity firms and their portfolio companies on a variety of corporate development activities, such as: 

• Project manage the end-to-end process for add-on acquisitions
• Perform a variety of due diligence activities
• Develop financial analysis including deal, merger, and synergy models
• Prepare deal memorandum and other documents for key stakeholders
• Execute merger integration planning and post-merger execution services
  

The following representative engagements are emblematic of the type of work you’ll do as an Associate at Accordion.

Sell-Side Readiness: A PE-owned SaaS company required sale preparation and related transaction support. Accordion has been engaged to take a leadership role alongside the CFO in the sell-side process by preparing key analytical deliverables. These deliverables include historical financial reporting, financial and operational KPIs, a 5-year financial projection model, and other key analytical materials. The Accordion team will:

• Serve as an extension of the CFO’s office to support a sale by coordinating and responding to requests from investment banks, the executive team and Sponsor during the preparation process, and to potential buyers during the sales process
• Leverage business intelligence tools to collect and consolidate all data (transactional, operational, and financial) from a variety of production and financial systems
• Create a detailed, bottoms-up 5-year financial projection model (down to the segment, geography, product type level) that is used to highlight key business performance value drivers and support the desired valuation
• Analyze the historical performance of the business and prepare financial and operational schedules, including: historical trending Income Statement and Balance Sheet; detailed analysis on revenue (price, volume), operating expenses, and margin by segment/geography; key financial and operating KPIs (ARR, MRR, churn, retention, CLTV, customer acquisition cost, etc.) by business line, geography, and product type; full customer analysis for each business line
• Manage the population of the data room, including all supporting documentation and analyses from different departments throughout the firm

Corporate Development Support: A private equity firm has been making a series of add-on acquisitions across their portfolio. The deal teams are stretched and look to Accordion for outsourced corporate development leadership to manage portfolio company add-on acquisition deal processes and support financial analysis and associated presentations. The Accordion team will:

• Perform qualitative & quantitative analysis to support evaluation of targets based on fit with corporate strategy and financial criteria
• Provide financial modeling support for building preliminary valuation model
• Conduct target management interviews
• Work with the management team to develop financial baselines
• Perform high-level synergy analysis identifying initial synergy targets
• Support development of investment case
• Prepare investment cases and associated deal memorandum

You Have:

• Bachelor's degree in business, finance, accounting, or economics; Master’s degree (MBA, Master's in Finance, etc.) is preferred
• Minimum 4 years of experience at a top tier private equity firm, investment bank, consulting firm, or within a corporate development group
• Strong quantitative skills, exceptional organizational skills, and a keen eye for detail
• Strong ability to leverage Excel to manage, simplify, analyze, and present large and complex datasets
• Exceptional financial modeling and data analysis skills
• Relevant experience to prepare reports, presentations, and memos to put your thoughts into writing in a clear, succinct, and comprehensive manner
• Ability to demonstrate good judgement, take initiative, and seek guidance when needed in order to advance your projects
  

You Are:

• A self-starter with a strong work ethic
• A leader of others; you lead by example
• A strong team player, able to work with team members across all levels
• Able to effectively communicate complex issues and solutions, and raise issues to senior team members when necessary
• Comfortable managing projects with multiple complex workstreams while also focused on your single workstream (you are managing and doing).
• Excited to be part of a growing team, with a focus on driving future growth
• Full of entrepreneurial spirit and comfortable in a fluid, flat organization
• Knowledgeable about the relationship between Private Equity sponsors and their portfolio companies
• Passionate about delivering exceptional client service
• Someone who enjoys mentoring others and doing meaningful work
• Willing to get your hands dirty in the details of a project while simultaneously seeing the whole picture

Accordion is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills.  We do not discriminate on the basis of race, colour, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical​​​ condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or ​expression, military status, or any other status protected under law.

Please note that as per Accordion policy, we do not accept unsolicited resumes from third-party recruiters unless such recruiters are engaged to provide candidates for a specified opening and in alignment with our inclusive diversity values. Any employment agency, person or entity that submits an unsolicited resume does so with the understanding that Accordion will have the right to hire that applicant at its discretion without any fee owed to the submitting employment agency, person or entity.

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