Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Corporate Development Coordinator

🎯 Role Definition

The Corporate Development Coordinator supports the corporate development and strategy team by coordinating transaction processes, performing financial and market analysis, managing due diligence logistics, and preparing materials for senior leadership and board-level decision-making. This role acts as the central operational and analytical resource for identifying acquisition targets, executing deals, tracking integration milestones, and maintaining an accurate pipeline of strategic initiatives. Ideal candidates are analytically rigorous, highly organized, and effective communicators who can manage multiple workstreams in fast-paced, cross-functional environments.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Financial Analyst (FP&A)
Strategy Analyst or Business Analyst
Investment Banking or Consulting Analyst

Advancement To:

Corporate Development Manager
M&A Associate / Senior Associate
Head of Corporate Development / Director of Strategy

Lateral Moves:

Corporate Strategy / Strategic Planning
Business Development or Partnerships
FP&A or Treasury

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead end-to-end logistical coordination for mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and minority investments, ensuring timelines, materials, and approvals are tracked and stakeholder responsibilities are clear for each phase of the transaction.
Prepare, maintain, and update detailed financial models, valuation analyses (DCF, precedent transactions, comparable companies), and scenario analyses to support transaction decision-making and sensitivity testing by senior leadership.
Conduct comprehensive financial due diligence, including reviewing historical and pro forma financial statements, identifying key drivers and risks, reconciling accounts, and summarizing findings in clear memoranda for deal teams.
Draft and design high-quality presentation decks, investment teasers, management presentations, and board packages that clearly summarize opportunity rationale, financial impact, integration considerations, and recommended next steps.
Source, aggregate, and synthesize market research, competitive landscape assessments, TAM / SAM / SOM estimates, and industry trend analysis to identify potential acquisition targets and inform valuation assumptions.
Manage virtual data rooms and confidentiality processes: prepare diligence documentation, organize Q&A logs, control access permissions, and ensure secure and compliant information sharing with counterparties and advisors.
Coordinate with external advisors (investment banks, legal counsel, accounting firms, tax advisors, consultants) to assign deliverables, reconcile findings, and integrate external analyses into the internal deal book and timelines.
Run transaction comparables and deal multiples analyses, documenting methodology and source data to support valuation negotiation and offer structuring.
Monitor and maintain the corporate development pipeline and CRM: track target status, probability assumptions, expected close dates, and financial projections to provide an accurate view of opportunity flow to the leadership team.
Execute target screening and initial outreach support, including drafting outreach messages, maintaining contact logs, and summarizing seller feedback to prioritize opportunities.
Prepare integration playbooks, post-close plans, and milestone trackers in collaboration with operations, HR, IT, and finance teams to ensure timely capture of synergies and operational alignment post-transaction.
Support the drafting and review of non-binding offers, term sheets, purchase agreements, and related transaction documents in coordination with legal and senior deal leads to ensure commercial terms reflect strategic objectives.
Build and maintain repeatable templates and process checklists (model templates, close checklists, diligence trackers, board memo templates) to increase the efficiency and scalability of the corporate development function.
Conduct buyer / partner diligence simulations and sensitivity tests to stress-test price, structure, and integration scenarios and advise on downside mitigation and contingency plans.
Prepare and present weekly or monthly status reports and executive summaries for senior leadership, clearly summarizing active opportunities, risks, financial impacts, and recommended actions.
Coordinate cross-functional workshops and working groups for target diligence and integration planning, capturing decisions, action items, owners, and deadlines in a centralized action tracker.
Facilitate financial and operational data requests to business units and external parties, ensuring timely, complete, and auditable delivery of materials needed for valuation and due diligence processes.
Track and analyze synergy capture, cost savings, and revenue uplift post-close, producing variance analysis and recommendations to accelerate value realization from completed transactions.
Maintain confidentiality and compliance with regulatory, privacy, and anti-trust processes, escalating issues and coordinating mitigation actions with legal and compliance teams when required.
Assist in structuring and modeling complex deal components including earn-outs, escrows, seller financing, minority investments, and joint venture economics to support negotiation strategies.
Identify process improvement opportunities within the corporate development function and lead small-scale projects to implement improved workflow, reporting, or analytic capabilities.
Support ad hoc strategic initiatives (e.g., capital allocation optimization, divestiture carve-outs, partnership evaluations) by delivering rapid, high-quality analysis and coordination.

Secondary Functions

Maintain and reconcile transaction budgets and expense tracking for advisors, internal travel, and deal-related costs, ensuring accurate reporting to finance and procurement.
Provide administrative and calendar support for the corporate development team including meeting coordination with internal stakeholders, external advisors, and management review sessions.
Contribute to the organization’s data strategy for M&A by proposing data capture standards and metadata for targets, deals, and integration milestones.
Develop and maintain knowledge repositories (post-mortem reports, deal lessons learned) to inform future deal execution and reduce repeated inefficiencies.
Assist with internal communications and change management materials tied to acquisitions, integrations, and major strategic initiatives to ensure alignment across functions.
Support ad-hoc pricing, commercial diligence, and customer segmentation analysis to validate revenue synergies and product-market fit during evaluation phases.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Advanced Microsoft Excel (financial modeling, pivot tables, advanced formulas) and experience building integrated three-statement models.
Valuation techniques and tools: DCF, comparable company analysis, precedent transactions, LBO basics, and scenario/sensitivity modeling.
Strong PowerPoint skills for building executive and board-level presentations with clear narrative and supporting exhibits.
Experience with data rooms (e.g., Intralinks, Datasite) and document management best practices for secure diligence workflows.
Familiarity with accounting principles (GAAP or IFRS), standalone and pro forma adjustments, and financial statement reconciliation.
Experience using transaction pipeline and CRM tools (e.g., Salesforce) to track targets and deal flows.
Basic SQL or data querying skills preferred for pulling and validating transaction or customer data (helps with commercial diligence).
Knowledge of legal and commercial terms common in M&A documents (term sheets, purchase agreements, NDAs) and the ability to summarize implications for business stakeholders.
Experience with market research tools and databases (PitchBook, Capital IQ, Bloomberg, FactSet) for target screening and market analysis.
Project management tools and capability (Asana, Jira, Smartsheet, or MS Project) to manage cross-functional workstreams and integration timelines.

Soft Skills

Excellent written and verbal communication with the ability to distill complex analysis into concise, persuasive executive summaries and presentations.
Strong stakeholder management: ability to coordinate across finance, legal, HR, IT, business unit leaders, and external advisors while driving decisions and accountability.
High attention to detail and commitment to quality assurance—able to deliver error-free models and materials under tight deadlines.
Problem-solving orientation and sound commercial judgment; able to balance quantitative analysis with qualitative strategic considerations.
Ability to prioritize multiple competing requests, manage ambiguity, and adapt to changing deal dynamics.
Team player mindset with a proactive, can-do attitude and willingness to take ownership of tasks to closure.
Confidentiality and integrity when handling sensitive transaction information and negotiations.
Time management and organization skills to keep numerous transactional workstreams on track simultaneously.
Presentation and facilitation skills to lead diligence meetings, update calls, and executive reviews.
Emotional intelligence and resilience to work through high-pressure, deal-driven environments.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Master’s degree (MBA or specialized Master’s in Finance) or professional credentials (CFA, CPA) preferred for senior coordinator roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Finance
Accounting
Economics
Business Administration / Strategy
Corporate Finance / Financial Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

1–4 years of relevant experience.

Preferred:

2–5 years of experience in corporate development, investment banking, private equity, management consulting, corporate strategy, or strategy/transaction advisory roles.
Demonstrated experience supporting M&A deal execution, financial modeling, due diligence coordination, and preparing materials for senior leadership or boards.