Investment Banking Associate – M&A

Company Description
Saintrose Capital is a technology-driven boutique investment bank advising business owners, project sponsors and fund managers across the United States and Europe. On the M&A side, we represent owners of profitable, founder-owned businesses when they sell: we prepare the deal, identify and reach the buyers most likely to value the company highly, and run a competitive process designed to maximize valuation and terms. We work for the seller, never the buyer. Alongside M&A, we raise equity and debt for energy, digital infrastructure and real estate projects, and provide capital solutions to fund managers. AI is embedded across our buyer research, targeting, materials, outreach, and internal workflows; it is how we operate, not something bolted on. By combining hands-on dealmaking experience with a data-first methodology, we give our clients broader buyer coverage than a process built on one banker's contact list.
Role Description
This is a remote, performance-based M&A Associate role with uncapped earnings potential. Rather than a fixed salary, the Associate receives a direct cut of the advisory fees on every sale they help close at uncapped percentage economics. Closed deal value is your P&L. Bigger companies, bigger checks, bigger book. This is built for analysts who are ready to step up, run live sell-side mandates, and be paid like a dealmaker rather than a desk hire.
As an M&A Associate, you will run multiple sell-side mandates in parallel as the day-to-day lead. The partner in charge of each deal owns the mandate: they set the strategy, build the buyer list and run the email outreach to buyers. You drive everything around it, and you are the face of Saintrose to every owner and buyer you speak to. Your responsibilities span four core areas:
Owner intake & qualification: Respond to business owners who reply to our outreach, call them quickly, qualify them, and book the right ones onto the partner's calendar. You start by supporting origination and, as you prove yourself, grow into managing it.
Client management & deal execution: Once an owner signs, be their single point of contact across the full sale lifecycle (deal preparation, buyer outreach, competitive process, due diligence, negotiation, close). Collect the financials and information you need from the owner, normalize the numbers, and build the materials: teaser, CIM, management presentation and data room.
Buyer engagement: Support the partner in running the sale process: call the private equity firms, family offices and strategic acquirers who respond to our outreach, pitch the acquisition, manage NDAs and data room access, set up management meetings, and help keep enough credible buyers in play to create real competitive tension.
Pipeline & process management: Keep the CRM live, send owners regular process updates, and track every buyer from first call to IOI and LOI. Dead time kills deals; momentum is your job.
Qualifications
1-3 years of experience as an analyst in sell-side M&A, investment banking, business brokerage, private equity, corporate development, or transaction advisory
Confident on the phone with both sides of the table: you can put a founder at ease, qualify them without interrogating them, and pitch a deal to a PE partner the same morning
Strong positioning instinct. You understand how to package a business for sale, build the story around why a buyer should care, and produce buyer-facing materials (teasers, CIMs, management presentations) that get a serious buyer to sign the NDA
Working knowledge of the Lower Middle Market: deal sizes, buyer archetypes (PE platforms and add-ons, independent sponsors, search funds, family offices, strategics), and deal structures (cash at close, earnouts, seller notes, rollover equity)
Sharp analytical judgment: you can read a P&L, normalize EBITDA, defend every add-back to a skeptical buyer, and compare offers on more than headline price
Strong financial modeling skills and the ability to build and interrogate valuation, LBO, and cash flow models from scratch
Self-starter mentality: you operate with urgency, own outcomes, and can run multiple deals and dozens of buyer conversations in parallel without hand-holding
Hungry, commercially minded, and motivated by performance-based compensation. You want to eat what you kill.
Bachelor's degree in Finance, Economics, Business, or a related field (FINRA Series 79/63, CFA, Master's, or equivalent credentials a plus)
What you get
Uncapped income tied directly to the sales you help close. A real path from analyst to dealmaker economics.
End-to-end ownership of live sell-side mandates as the primary owner contact from day one
Direct exposure to founders, private equity firms, family offices and strategic acquirers across multiple live deals in parallel
Remote, global, meritocratic. Your output is the only thing that gates your progression.

Work arrangement
Yes