Director, M&A Origination

CSC Generation•Los Angeles, CA

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

Acquisitions are how CSC Generation grows, making the front end of the deal pipeline one of the most consequential functions in the company. As Director, M&A Origination, you will build and own the acquisition funnel—sourcing proprietary opportunities, cultivating intermediary relationships, and putting actionable deals in front of the investment team that we would never have seen otherwise. In your first 6–12 months, success means a living, data-driven pipeline with measurable coverage across our target markets, a growing network of bankers and advisors who call you first, and at least one proprietary opportunity advancing toward close. You will work in partnership with our existing Director of Origination, dividing coverage across channels and categories while reporting directly into senior leadership. This is a lean team. You will own a lot, move fast, and make decisions with full end-to-end responsibility.

Requirements

6–10 years in private equity, investment banking, or a comparable principal-investing environment with business development or deal origination as a major component of the role.
Demonstrable track record of sourcing transactions that closed—proprietary or limited-process deals you personally found, cultivated, and advanced.
Established relationships across bankers, brokers, lenders, and advisors in the middle market, with the standing to open doors on your own name.
Investing acumen sufficient to size a business, read a capital structure, and form a view on whether an opportunity is worth pursuing.
Proven ability to build a funnel from scratch—constructing the target universe, segmenting it, running outreach, and sustaining relationships across long cultivation cycles.
Fluency with sourcing and CRM platforms (DealCloud, Grata, Sourcescrub, Affinity, Apollo, or equivalents) and genuine comfort using AI tooling to extend coverage.
Comfort managing a pipeline quantitatively—coverage, conversion, and activity metrics—rather than from memory.
High ownership mindset with willingness to travel regularly to targets, lenders, advisors, and key industry events.

Nice To Haves

Experience in consumer, retail, ecommerce, or multi-unit businesses.
Exposure to carve-outs, distressed, or special-situation investing.

Responsibilities

Build and maintain the acquisition funnel end to end—map the universe of target companies across our focus markets, keep coverage current, and ensure no relevant business transacts without CSC knowing about it.
Segment the target universe, run structured outreach cadences, and sustain relationships across multi-year cultivation cycles.
Maintain pipeline discipline and reporting—coverage, conversion, activity, and relationship status—so the entire team can see the state of the market without asking.
Originate proprietary opportunities by engaging directly with owners, founders, and management teams before a formal process exists.
Own and expand the intermediary network across investment banks, brokers, lenders, specialty-finance firms, and restructuring advisors so CSC is the first call when an asset comes to market.
Leverage modern sourcing platforms (DealCloud, Grata, Sourcescrub, Affinity, Apollo, or equivalents) and AI tooling to extend coverage beyond what manual effort alone can reach.
Screen opportunities against investment criteria, build the initial commercial case, and make a clear recommendation on whether to pursue or pass.
Remain the relationship owner through close on deals you originate—step into the deal process wherever you add leverage while keeping origination as your primary focus.
Represent CSC credibly with owners, boards, and advisors—articulate what we do with acquired businesses, how we treat teams, and why our offers hold.
Manage referral and external advisor networks so sourcing capacity scales faster than headcount.