M&A Transaction Leader

Job Description

VP, Strategic Acquisitions | Cambridge Investment Research, Inc.

The Tone:
This is a full-time, hybrid role at Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., located in Fairfield, IA or Phoenix, AZ. Cambridge is a growth-focused independent broker-dealer with nearly 45 years of experience, supporting over 4,000 independent financial advisors with industry-leading tools, compliance, and transition services. This role is essential for orchestrating complex M&A transactions from strategy through integration, ensuring the company continues to expand and enhance its offerings to its advisor community. The successful candidate will drive efficiency, manage risks, and ensure that value creation objectives are consistently achieved across all M&A initiatives.

The TL;DR
• Role: Senior Leader
• Type: Full-time
• Location: Hybrid, Fairfield, IA or Phoenix, AZ
• Pay: $130000–$170000 yearly
• Team: This role serves as the central “quarterback” across all internal functional teams.
• Mission: Owns the end-to-end execution of M&A transactions, ensuring seamless alignment from strategy through integration planning and value creation.

What You’ll Actually Do
• Coordinate: Provide enterprise-level coordination for all active M&A initiatives, ensuring strategic alignment, facilitative execution, and cross-functional accountability.
• Execute: Drive end-to-end transaction execution by setting and managing timelines, milestones, and decision gates from due diligence through pre- and post-closing of transactions.
• Mitigate: Proactively identify and mitigate risks, bottlenecks, and dependencies throughout the entire transaction lifecycle.
• Lead: Lead and coordinate activities across various internal workstreams, including Transition, Compliance, Finance, Legal, HR, IT, and Marketing.
• Advise: Serve as a trusted advisor to executive leadership, providing concise and actionable updates on transaction status, key risks, trade-offs, and necessary decisions.

The Must-Haves
• Background: Bachelor’s degree, complemented by 10+ years of experience in practice management, business development, investment sales, consulting, or a related field.
• Experience: Proven track record of successfully leading complex, cross-functional projects and transactions, with deep knowledge of the full M&A lifecycle. Ability to influence and align stakeholders across multiple broker-dealer and RIA functions.
• Skills: Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, paired with outstanding communication and executive presentation abilities.
• Bonus: MBA or other advanced degree.