The Sr. Director, Corporate Development will work with business unit leadership in the Web and Enterprise Divisions to help devise growth strategies, and lead and execute strategic transactions. The Sr. Director will serve as a trusted advisor and work with the appropriate business stakeholders to define, assess, champion and quarterback execution for various transaction types, including acquisitions, strategic investments, divestitures and other complex transactions. This leader will be responsible for developing and achieving project objectives and performance metrics during each stage, including strategy development, transaction execution and integration. This leader will lead large, complex teams through often ambiguous and rapidly moving situations. This role reports into the SVP of Corporate Development.
You will be responsible for developing a pipeline of potential transaction opportunities that would achieve Divisional strategic objectives. This will entail preparing analyses of new or existing market segments and identifying and evaluating business opportunities. You will also be responsible for leading due diligence and preparing financial models for candidate companies to confirm the acquisition business case. You will be expected to handle correspondence with external parties, including senior management and investors from acquisition candidates. You will be expected to devise suitable deal structures, lead negotiations, plan integration with the integration management lead, and collaborate with business and functional leaders to integrate the business.
You will present status updates to the Corporate Development team and Akamai senior leadership. You will be accountable for the decisions and results of all of the M&A and investment projects you lead. Accordingly, you will be expected to objectively assess — and at times challenge — all information, assumptions and activities during the development, due diligence, proposal and execution of your projects. This will require tact and diplomacy when challenging senior internal colleagues and external counterparts with different views and objectives.
To qualify for this position, you must demonstrate evidence of extensive transaction experience and negotiating skills in a leadership role. Strong domain knowledge in Web Development and Enterprise Security as well as other cloud-based technologies and related companies would position you for greater success. You will be expected to already have durable relationships with entrepreneurs, investors, bankers and other key stakeholders in relevant segments, as well as the ability to build more ecosystem relationships. Also essential to your success will be an ability to effectively influence third parties and construct mutually-agreeable solutions. You must be action-and-results oriented, constantly questioning the status quo and championing the best commercial moves with speed, passion and collaboration.
About The Team
Akamai’s Corporate Development team is responsible for developing M&A strategy, evaluating and executing the Company’s strategic transactions and managing integrations.
Responsibilities
- Collaborate with business unit leadership across the Web and Enterprise Divisions and other key team members to identify and executive strategic transactions that achieve growth priorities
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- Identify candidate companies with whom Akamai can execute strategic transactions, and prepare and present proposals to senior leadership
- Assist in the coaching and development of junior team members
- With full accountability to decisions, results and transaction performance, lead all aspects of your projects, including-
- Developing a pipeline of potential new acquisition opportunities, and approach candidates for preliminary information gathering
- Leading cross-functional teams to conduct thorough evaluations of new opportunities
- Narrowing options to a fact-based and analytically sound recommendation (including context-setting, rationale and valuation)
- Quarterbacking and overseeing every major aspect of deal execution — provide the drive, passion, enthusiasm, and focus to propose and advocate the right deal, and push hard to get it done
- Develop effective deal structures, risk mitigation and negotiating strategies that align with Akamai’s objectives and requirements
- Solely lead due diligence activities and prove (or disprove) our acquisition hypotheses (in conjunction with other Akamai team members) by leading our external and internal deal teams, driving the evaluation process and timeline, and proposing timely recommendations based on thorough and complete reviews. Your work product will form the basis for a structured discussion with Executive Leadership and the Board
- Solely lead the negotiation process to reach agreement on key terms and completion of legal agreements
- Regularly communicate project status with key internal stakeholders, including preparation of opportunity assessments and summaries for executive audiences (in conjunction with the Legal function)
- Work with the integration team and business leadership to define key project milestones
Required Education & Experience
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- Education- BA/BS degree; MBA and/or an advanced technical degree is a plus
- 12+ years of relevant professional experience, with a strong preference for a combination of M&A, Corporate Development, Business Development and or/Product Management within the technology space
- 5+ years of M&A experience leading acquisition transactions
- 3+ years of experience in Corporate Development
- Professional experience in the technology and/or software industries
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Additional Qualifications
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- Strong track record of leading successfully completed acquisitions
- Strategic thinking. Ability to translate business objectives and priorities to goals and measurement. Translate strategy into actionable plans. Articulate the strategic rationale for deals
- Executive presence with exceptional communication, presentation and negotiation skills
- Proven capability of influence and impact with senior leadership interactions
- Strong business acumen, as well as financial statement analysis and financial/valuation modeling skills to effectively evaluate opportunities
- A collaborative team player with strong interpersonal skills who can credibly communicate with and relate to people at all levels in the organization. A track record of building successful, strong relationships
- Ability to influence and lead resources that may or may not be in a direct reporting line and work independently across multiple groups to resolve conflicting priorities
- A low-ego mindset and collaborative approach that is solutions-oriented
- Results driven, ability to drive projects to completion. Flexible and adaptable to time sensitive situations
- Understanding of sales, marketing and business operations
- Strong project and process management skills
- Several years of Cloud-relevant experience and/or prior background in a top tier venture capital, investment banking, or strategy consulting firm focused on enterprise software is a plus
- Experience with the acquisition integration process, including phases, activities and required teams
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If interested, please apply here.
