M&A Associate

Reports to the Head of M&A

Hybrid, 3 to 5 days a week in the New York City office

OTE: $175k to $250k

ABOUT EMERGENCE

Emergence buys technology companies and keeps them. We don't flip them. The founders and leadership teams who run each company stay in charge, and we provide shared systems, standards, and support to make their jobs easier. We currently own multiple companies across 3 verticals, and we're growing fast. We measure ourselves by one thing: every company should grow faster after it joins us than it did before. We hire people who are humble, driven, and picky about the quality of their own work.

THE ROLE

Own the investment execution process end to end, from first look through close, on majority buyout transactions in enterprise software. Emergence acquires and scales category-defining software businesses, organized into focused thematic portfolios with deep domain expertise and proven operational playbooks. Investing at Emergence requires both operational and financial skill sets, both of which drive alpha over the long term.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Lead financial and operational due diligence on acquisition targets, owning the workstream from kickoff to IC

• Qualify net new opportunities, assess fit into Emergence thesis, drive new thematic portfolio efforts

• Build comprehensive financial models covering unit economics, SaaS KPIs, valuation, and operating leverage

• Run quality of earnings analyses and ensure financial fidelity across growth assets (revenue) and working capital (cash generators)

• Push confirmatory due diligence (FDD, CDD, Ops, Legal, Tax, Tech, etc.)

• Write and present Investment Committee memos with clear diligence findings and a defensible point of view

• Assess and synthesize deal terms and majority buyout structures, identifying risks in negotiated positions

• Collaborate with legal, finance, and operations teams to drive clean deal execution and post-close integration planning

• Develop retention analyses and customer cohort work to evaluate pipeline health of acquisition targets

WHAT YOU BRING

• You have pushed a deal opportunity forward from the bottom up

• You have run a data room without being told what to look for.

• You have pushed back on a deal and explained why with numbers.

• You write things once, and they are right. No AI slop.

• You pull problems toward yourself instead of waiting for someone to assign them.

• You have changed your view on a business because the data said something different, and you said so out loud.

AND, FOR THIS ROLE

MUST HAVE

• 2 to 4 years in private equity, growth equity, or investment banking, with direct deal execution exposure

• Has run a full diligence process and contributed directly to a closed transaction

• Deep understanding of enterprise software and SaaS business models, and can assess a business independently

• Strong financial modeling skills across LBO, DCF, and SaaS-specific KPI frameworks

• Can write a clear, concise IC memo that stands on its own without being walked through

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience with majority buyout structuring and complex transaction terms

• Prior exposure to post-acquisition integration planning and operational underwriting

• Software-focused PE or growth equity background

WHAT WE OFFER

• Competitive base with bonus and meaningful carry participation

• Direct ownership of deal execution, with exposure to the full lifecycle from sourcing through close and post-acquisition integration

HOW WE HIRE

You will meet with our leadership team (Head of M&A, your direct manager; Chief Human Resources Officer, a key stakeholder; and our Operating Partners). After completing the interview, we will reach out to a few people you worked with to learn how best to partner with you as we embark on this journey together. Along the way, you will do a few short exercises, such as learning a new topic and teaching it back, and working through a realistic deal scenario. We design them to show how you think and to test what working together really feels like. We will tell you what to expect before each step.