Job description
Open to qualified candidates anywhere within the United States - remote role with travel for meetings.
Company Description
Thrive is an IT managed services provider (“MSP”) and managed security services provider (“MSSP”) that offers NextGen outsourced IT and cybersecurity services to mid-market, small enterprise, and sophisticated SMB clientele across the US and internally. Headquartered in Foxborough, Massachusetts, Thrive serves over 2,000 across multiple industries, including financial services, healthcare, professional services, and government. With 15 acquisitions since 2020, Thrive has grown into one of the leading global technology outsourcing firms and in 2024 was again named to CRN’s Managed Service Provider 500 list, which recognizes the top technology providers and consultants in the MSP space. Thrive delivers exceptional high-touch service through its subject matter experts and global 24x7x365 SOC, NOC, and centralized services teams.
Position Overview:
The Head of M&A will be responsible for driving Thrive’s M&A strategy and execution. This individual will build and lead a team that is responsible for identifying, sourcing, vetting, and executing new acquisitions across the US. This role is critical to supporting Thrive’s aggressive M&A growth goals. An ideal candidate will bring a strong network, proven sourcing ability, deep transaction experience and process management capability, and relentless motivation to continue building the leading MSP/MSSP in the country. The candidate should be comfortable building an attractive pipeline of M&A opportunities and leading a team that will execute a mix of tuck-in and transformational acquisitions.
As the face of the acquisition effort, the candidate will be a presence at conferences, industry events, and peer group forums. This person must be a genuine relationship builder who can cultivate meaningful connections with founder CEOs and empathize with the personal nature those founders often have with their companies and employees.
The Head of Corporate Development will report directly to the Chief Executive Officer and work extensively across executive leadership, cross-functional partners and existing business unit partners as an essential member of a high-impact team supporting all stages of the evaluation and investment process. The candidate must be comfortable working with senior stakeholders, as this role has significant exposure to executive leadership, including the business unit leaders, CEO, CFO, and investors.
Key Responsibilities:
Coordinate closely with senior business leaders, investors and the board to refine the company’s M&A strategy that is in line with the organization’s long-range goals.
Drive effective identification, prioritization, and diligence of potential acquisition targets.
Source and cultivate new acquisition opportunities by targeting IT services and managed service providers (MSPs) across key U.S. markets, focusing on Thrive’s ideal acquisition profile.
Develop and maintain relationships with bankers, brokers, consultants, and industry advisors, including buy-side referral partners.
Lead outbound origination campaigns that “sell” potential targets on Thrive’s value proposition; attend and coordinate Thrive’s presence at key industry conferences to generate deal flow
Lead accountable pipeline management from the top to the bottom of the funnel supported by KPIs and aligned across marketing and the CRM system.
Lead team of internal and external professionals responsible for due diligence,
underwriting/valuation, financing, legal negotiations, and transaction execution; especially for larger acquisitions, responsibilities to be in partnership with senior leaders, Berkshire Partners and Court Square Capital Partners.
Collaborate with functional department leaders to validate strategic rationale, assess synergy potential, and develop detailed integration plans
Provide M&A progress reviews and transaction updates to the senior business leaders, Berkshire Partners and Court Square Capital Partners.
Professional Experience & Qualifications
This person must be a team player who values and demonstrates the Thrive core values. Further, candidates must have demonstrated the ability to conduct robust quantitative and qualitative investment analysis against a dynamic market environment backdrop. Specific experience should include the following:
10+ years’ experience in corporate development or a closely related / relevant field such as investment banking or private equity.
Experience executing the full M&A lifecycle from sourcing through post-merger integration.
Demonstrated success building a robust corporate development program at a highly acquisitive professional services or technology organization.
Specific experience within IT services (e.g., MSP, MSSP, cloud) or SaaS is a plus though not required. However, all candidates must have a strong ability to come up the curve on industry trends and competitive landscape and demonstrated ability to build trusted relationships.
Ability to balance strategic perspective with hands-on capabilities.
Excellent communication, negotiation, and relationship-building skills.
Ability to work independently as well as collaborate with the broader team, including functional leaders across the business (e.g., sales, operations, engineering)
Excellent organizational, process management, and problem solving/decision making skills.
Highly self-motivated and goal-oriented with a strong sense of ownership.
Leadership & Management Behavioral Competencies:
The successful candidate must be a high-energy individual with hands-on orientation and strong sense of ownership. The Head of Corporate Development will possess strong partnership and team skills and be smart, collaborative, hard-working, detail-oriented – balanced with humility and genuine curiosity. An ideal candidate will possess dynamic strategic and analytical skills and have a “roll-up- your-sleeves” attitude. S/he will be committed to growth and results at Thrive and operate with high integrity and independence. Specifically, the ideal candidate is:
Player/Coach. Experienced individual contributor with a record of outperformance and the ability to build and develop a high-performing team.
Entrepreneurial. A spirit and passion for a fast-paced, growing environment; a “grinder” who is not afraid to do any job and who enjoys getting his or her hands dirty. He/she must have the ability to recognize emerging opportunities, “paint the picture” of what can be achieved, rally resources to align with the vision, and drive exceptional execution and business results.
Team Player. Work effectively in a team-based organization but can collaborate specifically with the CEO and others cross-functionally, exercise influence at senior levels, and build alignment around goals and objectives; readily build consensus; achieve agreement on key initiatives and priorities. Build a trusting working relationship with peers and other constituents.
Self-Starter. Ability to take clear direction and run with it. Comfortable operating with latitude. Move quickly to accomplish goals, but not at the expense of cross organizational collaboration.
Communicative. Excellent oral and written communication skills and possess the ability to present his/ her ideas in a clear, concise, and compelling fashion.
