Director, Corporate Development

Hearst•New York, NY

About The Position

Hearst Health is seeking a Director, Corporate Development to serve as a senior deal lead and strategic partner to the Head of Strategy & Corporate Development. As the second and most senior professional joining the function, you will have significant ownership across corporate development—from identifying and evaluating opportunities to quarterbacking active transactions and helping shape portfolio-level strategy. This is a long-term investment mandate. Hearst Health owns its businesses permanently and evaluates opportunities through the lens of 10+ years of compounding value rather than a traditional five-year investment horizon. Success means identifying a focused set of high-impact opportunities, staying connected to the right deal flow, prioritizing rigorously, and developing a clear point of view on which opportunities merit investment for both strategic and financial reasons. The role operates in two complementary modes: leading active deal evaluations and building deep sector knowledge between transactions. Over time, the Director will also have the opportunity to build the case for and lead a junior corporate development hire as the function grows.

Requirements

Significant experience in strategy, corporate development, management consulting, private equity, or a similarly rigorous environment, with demonstrated ability to lead complex end-to-end workstreams or transactions with limited oversight.
Strong business and investment judgment, including the ability to form, articulate, and defend an independent perspective rather than simply present analysis.
Excellent project leadership skills and the ability to manage multiple stakeholders, advisors, workstreams, and deadlines through complex deal processes.
Executive presence and communication skills, with the ability to build credibility with senior bankers, management teams, operating executives, and corporate leadership.
Strong financial modeling skills and fluency in Excel and PowerPoint.
Intellectual curiosity and the ability to develop meaningful expertise in unfamiliar sectors quickly.
A self-directed, collaborative approach and comfort operating in an environment where depth, selectivity, and quality of judgment matter more than transaction volume.

Nice To Haves

Experience developed through a leading management consultancy, private equity firm, corporate development team, or comparable strategy and investment environment.
Exposure to healthcare, healthcare IT, information services, or software businesses.
Experience evaluating opportunities through both strategic and financial lenses and connecting individual investments to broader portfolio strategy.

Responsibilities

Lead active deal evaluations by owning workplans, data room coordination, diligence tracking, timelines, and cross-functional and advisor management from evaluation through closing.
Develop investment recommendations as the first pen on investment theses, financial models, investment committee memos, and board and management presentations.
Form and defend an independent point of view on opportunities using qualitative and strategic considerations—including structural market position, durable competitive advantage, demand durability, and fit with Hearst Health—alongside financial analysis.
Generate evidence logs, document findings and pass rationales, and create summary memos of key takeaways to build and maintain a searchable proprietary insight library.
Partner with management teams of Hearst Health operating businesses to understand their businesses, product roadmaps, strategic priorities, and the markets in which they operate—translating these insights into market analyses that inform strategic direction.
Perform comprehensive market research and competitor analysis to deliver insights that shape strategy, deal sourcing, and opportunity assessment.
Connect opportunities to portfolio strategy by identifying adjacencies, capability gaps, and inorganic growth themes across Hearst Health's six businesses.
Build sector expertise between deal cycles through expert networks, banker relationships, industry conferences, management meetings, and analysis of early-stage and venture activity.
Develop and maintain a disciplined sourcing pipeline with a ranked, auditable view of potential platform and tuck-in opportunities, while continuously improving screening and diligence processes.
Build trusted external and internal relationships with bankers, management teams, advisors, Hearst Health operating company leaders, and Hearst leadership.
Strengthen the corporate development function by building automation and agents leveraging AI tools, improving processes, and, as needs evolve, building the business case for recruiting, onboarding, and managing a junior corporate development professional.