Head of M&A

Summary

Join Thrive, a leading IT managed services provider, as their Head of M&A! This remote role, with travel for meetings, involves driving Thrive’s M&A strategy and execution. You will build and lead a team responsible for identifying, sourcing, vetting, and executing acquisitions across the US. This critical role supports Thrive’s aggressive growth goals. The ideal candidate possesses a strong network, proven sourcing abilities, deep transaction experience, and relentless motivation. You will be the face of the acquisition effort, building relationships with founder CEOs and leading a team executing acquisitions. This role reports directly to the CEO and involves extensive collaboration with executive leadership.

Requirements

• 10+ years’ experience in corporate development or a closely related / relevant field such as investment banking or private equity
• Experience executing the full M&A lifecycle from sourcing through post-merger integration
• Demonstrated success building a robust corporate development program at a highly acquisitive professional services or technology organization
• Ability to balance strategic perspective with hands-on capabilities
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills
• Ability to work independently as well as collaborate with the broader team, including functional leaders across the business (e.g., sales, operations, engineering)
• Excellent organizational, process management, and problem solving/decision making skills
• Highly self-motivated and goal-oriented with a strong sense of ownership

Responsibilities

• Coordinate closely with senior business leaders, investors and the board to refine the company’s M&A strategy that is in line with the organization’s long-range goals
• Drive effective identification, prioritization, and diligence of potential acquisition targets
• Source and cultivate new acquisition opportunities by targeting IT services and managed service providers (MSPs) across key U.S. markets, focusing on Thrive’s ideal acquisition profile
• Develop and maintain relationships with bankers, brokers, consultants, and industry advisors, including buy-side referral partners
• Lead outbound origination campaigns that “sell” potential targets on Thrive’s value proposition; attend and coordinate Thrive’s presence at key industry conferences to generate deal flow
• Lead accountable pipeline management from the top to the bottom of the funnel supported by KPIs and aligned across marketing and the CRM system
• Lead team of internal and external professionals responsible for due diligence, underwriting/valuation, financing, legal negotiations, and transaction execution; especially for larger acquisitions, responsibilities to be in partnership with senior leaders, Berkshire Partners and Court Square Capital Partners
• Collaborate with functional department leaders to validate strategic rationale, assess synergy potential, and develop detailed integration plans
• Provide M&A progress reviews and transaction updates to the senior business leaders, Berkshire Partners and Court Square Capital Partners

Preferred Qualifications

Specific experience within IT services (e.g., MSP, MSSP, cloud) or SaaS is a plus though not required. However, all candidates must have a strong ability to come up the curve on industry trends and competitive landscape and demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships