Associate Director Corporate Development

Caterpillar Caterpillar · Industrial · TX

This role is in corporate development, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and divestitures. It involves evaluating opportunities, financial analysis, due diligence, deal structuring, negotiation support, and integration planning. The role partners with business units and strategy teams to assess strategic alternatives and quantify value creation. It is not directly involved in building or deploying AI/ML models.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead and support end-to-end execution across mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and divestiture processes, including opportunity evaluation, financial analysis, due diligence, transaction structuring, deal negotiations, internal approval processes, and integration planning and execution.
  2. Partner with business units and strategy teams to support pipeline development, sourcing, and evaluation of potential mergers and acquisitions opportunities and strategic alternatives.
  3. Build and maintain relationships with sell-side advisors, including investment banks and accounting or consulting firms, to source opportunities and facilitate review of inbound transactions.
  4. Drive and manage cross-functional teams across the enterprise to complete technical, commercial, and financial due diligence on potential targets.
  5. Lead and assist post-close integration planning with business units to help capture strategic and operational value from completed transactions.

Skills

Required

  • Corporate development, mergers and acquisitions, or strategic finance experience
  • Assess transactions from both financial and strategic perspectives
  • Advanced knowledge of finance and accounting practices
  • Cost-benefit analysis
  • Return on investment
  • Financial analysis
  • Financial modeling
  • Evaluating investment risks
  • Applying valuation methods
  • Comparing target performance with competitors
  • Negotiation and influencing capability
  • Presenting cost, benefit, risk, and tradeoff considerations
  • Strategic thinking and judgment
  • Analyzing conflicting inputs
  • Supporting long-term competitiveness
  • Making defensible recommendations
  • Expert-level project management capability
  • High-risk, high-cost, cross-functional initiatives
  • Multiple stakeholders

Nice to have

  • Master of Business Administration
  • Experience working at or with investment banks, accounting firms, and consulting firms in transaction environments
  • Experience with post-close integration planning and execution across business units
  • Experience designing or standardizing diligence frameworks, checklists, or governance processes for complex transactions
  • Additional depth in financial modeling, statement analysis, valuation, analytical thinking, industry knowledge, and mergers and acquisitions

What the JD emphasized

  • strong judgment
  • strategic thinking
  • influencing skills
  • Advanced knowledge of finance and accounting practices
  • Demonstrated experience evaluating investment risks
  • Strong negotiation and influencing capability
  • Excellent strategic thinking and judgment
  • Expert-level project management capability