Department : Private Equity Performance Improvement (PEPI)

Alvarez and Marsal's dedicated PEPI professionals work with Investors and their portfolio companies to provide independent analysis and end to end services across the investment life cycle to deliver results regardless of the economic cycle.

Through our PEPI practice, Alvarez & Marsal (A&M) offers assistance to private equity owned portfolio companies working directly with company management. A&M's involvement reassures all stakeholders the company is taking important steps to address its problems & maximise its value.

Purpose of the role:

Alvarez & Marsal's Private Equity Performance Improvement (PEPI) business is rapidly growing its high performance European team. To continue our success and to support our ambitious growth plans for the future, we are currently looking for a Senior Associate to join our Madrid team in Spain.

This is a fantastic opportunity for you to use your outstanding financial acumen, operational capabilities and problem-solving skills to become an integral part of our successful 'hands-on' team. As a valued member of the A&M Pan-European PEPI team based in Madrid, you will be working on high-impact projects throughout Europe and across the entire private equity life cycle, from pre-acquisition support (operational due diligence, carve-out, merger integration), to transformation, performance improvement and operational turnaround/restructuring, through to supporting the exit.

As a Senior Associate, you will be working closely with Senior Directors and Managing Directors in a flat team structure. You will likely lead key work streams and benefit from constant exposure to the senior members of the team and client, and gain 'on-the-job' learning and development, leveraging on their substantial experience. As well as validating and executing on operations-focused problem solving and transformation activities on our clients' projects & portfolio companies. You will also have the chance to contribute to business development activities, discuss and suggest the development of innovative offerings for our market and considerably nurture and enlarge your professional network as well.

Responsibilities:

• Be an active part of the teams supporting private equity firms and their portfolio companies in their pre-acquisition and performance improvement activities;


• Analyse historical company performance to identify key trends and red flags; including financial metrics (P&L, CFS, BS), operational metrics and analysing heavy data sets using pivot tables;


• Perform benchmarking of financial and operational metrics to identify areas of potential underperformance;


• Identify and validate performance improvement initiatives; create implementation plans and lead implementation of initiatives alongside company management;


• Synthesising information after research and analysis into high quality client (financial) reports and recommendations;


• Managing important work streams, including leading/mentoring junior A&M and client staff & owning key business processes to solve client problems;


• Leading meetings with senior PE clients, portfolio company clients and other third parties regarding your workstreams and areas of focus;


• Leading pitch preparation alongside Managing Directors and other senior staff as well as assist in pitches and contributing to business development & marketing activities;


• Producing extensive financial and/or operational modelling analysis e.g. cash flow models & projections;


• Read financial statements and derive immediate conclusions from it (mainly P&L and cash flow statement) whilst linking to operations;


• Identifying resource needs and milestones to project manage & accomplish assigned work by agreed deadlines;


• Begin building own network of contacts/referral sources with professionals/institutions.

Requirements:

Essential:

• A high-grade bachelor's degree (or equivalent/higher) from an accredited top-tier university in engineering, business, or a similar discipline;


• Proven experience within a leading strategy/operational Consulting house is preferable. If not, we require experience from either within Private Equity, Corporate Finance or Operations;


• Strong problem-solving skills and financial background combined with deep understanding of key business and operational drivers;


• Excellent analytical, financial modelling, writing and presentation-building skills; attention to details and striving to produce zero-defect deliverables;


• Fact-based and analytical approach, solution-focused, action-oriented, determined to make a difference and not afraid to challenge the status-quo; self-starter with entrepreneurial flair;


• Familiarity with the private equity lifecycle;


• Ability to prioritise - especially in highly pressured situations;


• High integrity, characterised by the ability to deliver difficult messages;


• Excel modelling skills - structure data within Excel in a way to draw conclusions and support timely decision making with our clients;


• Ability to quickly understand and piece together very vast or very limited amounts of data and to draw certain conclusions/actions from it;


• Native/fluency in both Spanish and English, both verbal and written, is essential;


• Ability to travel at very short notice, 4/5 days a week pan-European, most weeks.

Desirable:

• Additional MSc, MBA or other accounting qualifications highly desirable;


• Preference will go to candidates with relevant work experience within Private Equity;


• Varied cross sector background covering different industries (manufacturing, retail, pharma etc);


• Additional European languages are also very desirable.

Our People:

A&M has defined a culture and values that are perpetuated by the personal qualities of the candidates the firm seeks to recruit. Our employees are action-oriented and are able to work as a team as well as with a high degree of independence when the situation demands it. They are curious, learn quickly and have the capacity to thrive in a fast-paced, challenging and uncertain environment.

Why A&M?

Alvarez & Marsal is a privately held, owner-operated, global advisory partnership best known for its heritage in corporate restructuring. The firm has grown organically over the last decade from a best in class restructuring boutique to one of the fastest growing, independent global professional services firms. The European business now has over 1000 staff in a broad range of professional services including; Corporate Transformation, Transaction Advisory, Corporate and Private Equity Performance Improvement.

Clients call A&M when they need to implement a step-change; sustainable cost reductions and performance improvements that will leave their organizations leaner, stronger and more agile in order to compete in a disrupted environment and fuel future growth. In addition, specific events can trigger the need for an objective perspective of a company's performance, such as missed earning projections, lacklustre topline growth, performance gaps versus competitors or the industry or, financial report restatements or investigations.

Starting with a comprehensive assessment, we identify a portfolio of high impact opportunities to improve EBITDA and cash flow across the enterprise, ranging from quick wins to the 'tough calls' that deliver transformational results. Activities include:

• Comprehensive business assessment


• Quantified EBITDA / cash improvements


• Rapid Results / 100-day improvement plan


• Organizational redesign and management architecture


• Downsizing international business units and operations

We pride ourselves on listening to our clients, understanding their business and combining solutions and implementation to preserve and generate value for our client's businesses. Our goal is to improve cash flow and EBITDA and to provide earnings benefits through hands-on involvement in our clients' operations and transactions.

Diversity & Inclusion

A&M's entrepreneurial culture celebrates independent thinkers and doers who can positively impact our clients and shape our industry. The collaborative environment and engaging work-guided by A&M's core values of Integrity, Quality, Objectivity, Fun, Personal Reward, and Inclusive Diversity-are the main reasons our people love working at A&M. Inclusive Diversity means we embrace diversity and we foster inclusiveness. It runs through how we recruit, develop employees, conduct business, support clients, and partner with vendors. It is the A&M way.

Voluntary Inclusion

It is Alvarez & Marsal's policy to provide and promote equal opportunity in employment, compensation, and other terms and conditions of employment without discrimination because of race, color, sex, sexual orientation, family medical history or genetic information, political affiliation, military service, pregnancy, marital status, family status, religion, national origin, age or disability or any other non-merit based factor in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations.

Unsolicited Resumes from Third-Party Recruiters

Please note that as per A&M policy, we do not accept unsolicited resumes from third-party recruiters unless such recruiters were engaged to provide candidates for a specified opening. Any employment agency, person or entity that submits an unsolicited resume does so with the understanding that A&M will have the right to hire that applicant at its discretion without any fee owed to the submitting employment agency, person or entity.