Head of Corporate Development
Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, CarGurus is the all-in-one platform that’s moving the entire car shopping journey online and guiding customers through each step. This includes everything from selling an old car to financing, purchasing, and delivering a new one. Today, millions of consumers visit cargurus.com each month, and more than 30,000 dealerships use our products. We have a people-first culture that fosters kindness, collaboration, and innovation, while empowering our Gurus with tools and resources to fuel their career growth. Our goal is to give all people—consumers, dealers, and our employees—the power to reach their destination.
Job Description
Role overview
CarGurus is looking for a Corporate Development Director to join our team to participate in the full cycle of M&A deals, including sourcing, diligence, negotiation, and execution.
We are looking for a highly motivated self-starter to help manage sourcing through our deal pipeline, conduct rigorous due diligence efforts, assist with transaction execution, and coordinate post-merger integration efforts. With excellent financial and analytical skills and a down-to Earth business sense, this person will partner closely with leaders across our organization.
This person will have the unique opportunity to help execute CarGurus’ strategic acquisition roadmap, and will be a key member of the Corporate Strategy team. The role will be highly cross-functional and a successful candidate will possess analytical horsepower as well as strong communication and organizational abilities.
What you'll do
- Perform market research, build industry landscapes, and identify and engage with target opportunities
- Partner with leadership across the organization to identify and create M&A strategy that accelerates our corporate strategy and vision
- Build and refine financial models for company valuation purposes, and analyze and interpret financial statements
- Own strategic relationships—launch, manage, optimize and scale existing and new relationships with potential acquisition targets and contact persons
- Work with executives and colleagues, target company management teams and external advisors on a regular basis
- Research and understand new business trends and leverage expert interviews to build insights / recommendations on new business opportunities
- Maintain deal pipeline, track market M&A activity, draft internal updates, and create deal review presentations for VP of Corporate Strategy and select members of the Executive Team
- Actively spend time in market, building relationships with and engaging potential targets, industry peers, existing partners/vendors and customers to inform our corporate development point of view
- Develop and own the achievement of corporate development goals
What you'll bring
- 8-10+ years of professional experience—investment banking, VC/PE, corporate M&A or management consulting (M&A focus) experience preferred
- Proven track record of executing value-driven acquisitions, deal ideation through due diligence
- Strategic / analytical mindset with an ability to think broadly, refine questions, and develop analytical frameworks
- Strong grounding in financial analysis, capital allocation, and valuation methodologies
- Capable of effectively tracking and reporting on deal pipeline
- Experience evaluating build / buy / partner approach to strategic opportunities
- Ability to problem solve and create structure in complex and sometimes ambiguous environments
- Demonstrated success working closely with senior executive leadership, and experience influencing across the organization
- Self-motivated, well-organized and detail-oriented
- Business mindset with experience driving metrics-oriented outcomes
- Innovative mindset, able to identify unconventional opportunities for growth
- Excellent analytical skill set—able to translate quantitative and qualitative inputs into actionable strategic direction
- Possess project management ability to complete deal components, such as managing a cross-functional due-diligence team, under deadline constraints
- Experience and deep understanding of SaaS business models; understanding of the automotive tech landscape preferred
Role overview
CarGurus is looking for a Corporate Development Director to join our team to participate in the full cycle of M&A deals, including sourcing, diligence, negotiation, and execution.
We are looking for a highly motivated self-starter to help manage sourcing through our deal pipeline, conduct rigorous due diligence efforts, assist with transaction execution, and coordinate post-merger integration efforts. With excellent financial and analytical skills and a down-to Earth business sense, this person will partner closely with leaders across our organization.
This person will have the unique opportunity to help execute CarGurus’ strategic acquisition roadmap, and will be a key member of the Corporate Strategy team. The role will be highly cross-functional and a successful candidate will possess analytical horsepower as well as strong communication and organizational abilities.
What you'll do
- Perform market research, build industry landscapes, and identify and engage with target opportunities
- Partner with leadership across the organization to identify and create M&A strategy that accelerates our corporate strategy and vision
- Build and refine financial models for company valuation purposes, and analyze and interpret financial statements
- Own strategic relationships—launch, manage, optimize and scale existing and new relationships with potential acquisition targets and contact persons
- Work with executives and colleagues, target company management teams and external advisors on a regular basis
- Research and understand new business trends and leverage expert interviews to build insights / recommendations on new business opportunities
- Maintain deal pipeline, track market M&A activity, draft internal updates, and create deal review presentations for VP of Corporate Strategy and select members of the Executive Team
- Actively spend time in market, building relationships with and engaging potential targets, industry peers, existing partners/vendors and customers to inform our corporate development point of view
- Develop and own the achievement of corporate development goals
What you'll bring
- 8-10+ years of professional experience—investment banking, VC/PE, corporate M&A or management consulting (M&A focus) experience preferred
- Proven track record of executing value-driven acquisitions, deal ideation through due diligence
- Strategic / analytical mindset with an ability to think broadly, refine questions, and develop analytical frameworks
- Strong grounding in financial analysis, capital allocation, and valuation methodologies
- Capable of effectively tracking and reporting on deal pipeline
- Experience evaluating build / buy / partner approach to strategic opportunities
- Ability to problem solve and create structure in complex and sometimes ambiguous environments
- Demonstrated success working closely with senior executive leadership, and experience influencing across the organization
- Self-motivated, well-organized and detail-oriented
- Business mindset with experience driving metrics-oriented outcomes
- Innovative mindset, able to identify unconventional opportunities for growth
- Excellent analytical skill set—able to translate quantitative and qualitative inputs into actionable strategic direction
- Possess project management ability to complete deal components, such as managing a cross-functional due-diligence team, under deadline constraints
- Experience and deep understanding of SaaS business models; understanding of the automotive tech landscape preferred
