Assistant Director, Corporate Development

Northwestern Mutual • Milwaukee, WI

1d • $130,800 - $196,200 • Hybrid

About The Position

Supports the planning, initiation, and execution of business development activities across the organization as a member of the mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships team. The role analyzes and develops business cases for acquisitions and partnerships, leads external research to access benchmarks, builds valuation models, and coordinates cross-departmental team activities.

The Assistant Director works with business leaders to identify opportunities supporting the organization’s multi-year strategy, researches financial services industry trends, and supports transaction negotiations and diligence. The role also builds and maintains relationships with colleagues, senior management, industry contacts, and investment banking partners.

Requirements

• At least 6 years of experience in research, financial analysis, corporate strategy, or banking.
• Significant experience developing valuation models for mergers and acquisitions projects.
• At least a bachelor’s degree in finance, accounting, economics, or a related business field.
• Ability to evaluate and interpret financial data and other technical information.
• Understanding of the financial services industry, insurance, and other financial products.
• Ability to work effectively with senior-level external parties.
• Superior written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to build rapport and gain acceptance at all levels in the Home Office.
• Presentation skills, including the ability to simplify complex information for a broader audience.
• Ability to manage multiple, diverse assignments in a timely and high-quality manner.
• Strong quantitative analysis, business acumen, problem-solving, interpersonal, and critical-thinking skills; ability to examine issues from multiple perspectives and seek process improvements.
• Understanding of market- or customer-specific product use cases, ecosystem dependencies, and competitor offerings; ability to conduct or interpret competitive analysis.
• Ability to understand technical aspects of a program and manage workstream scope, schedules, resources, risks, and dependencies.
• Knowledge of common practices, regulatory considerations, market trends, and the competitive landscape within an industry or sector.

Nice To Haves

• MBA.

Responsibilities

• Develop business cases for acquisitions and partnerships through qualitative and quantitative analyses, and present findings in memos, written presentations, or oral presentations to the business development mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships team and senior business leaders.
• Partner with business leaders to generate and evaluate opportunities to accelerate execution of the organization’s multi-year strategy.
• Research financial services industry trends and synthesize external learnings with knowledge of Northwestern Mutual’s business operations and strategy.
• Monitor financial services industry mergers, acquisitions, and partnership trends for insights and comparative analysis.
• Develop or co-develop valuation models for prospective acquisitions and partnerships using Excel and techniques such as multiples, discounted cash flow, and strategic value.
• Establish and maintain relationships and dialogue with colleagues, senior management, and industry contacts.
• Liaise with investment banking partners focused on potential acquisition opportunities.
• Support transaction teams with negotiation and diligence processes.
• Oversee and take responsibility for larger workstream goals and manage activities spanning the program, including scope, schedules, resourcing, risks, and dependencies.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director