Senior Associate, M&A Origination

Job description

CSC Generation is the AI-native holding company re-engineering omnichannel retail. We acquire iconic brands and transform them with Genesis, our operating platform combining a Data Fabric, Automation Engine, proprietary tools, and shared services to modernize operations, elevate customer experience, and expand margins. With $1B+ in revenue across 13 brands, our portfolio includes Sur La Table, Backcountry, One Kings Lane, and others that serve as real-world innovation labs. **Reports to:** Executive Leadership **Location:** Los Angeles, California - Hybrid Required ### About the Role CSC Generation grows through acquisitions, and this role builds the front end of that engine. As **Senior Associate, M&A Origination**, you will construct the market maps, run the outreach, and open the conversations that turn into completed deals—working directly with senior deal professionals on a small, high-output team. In your first 6–12 months, success means a functioning origination pipeline you built from scratch: target universes mapped, outreach generating real conversations with owners and advisors, and sourced opportunities moving into active deal processes. This is a lean team. You will own a lot, move fast, and make decisions with full end-to-end responsibility. ### What You'll Do - Build the market maps that drive acquisition strategy—size target markets, identify companies that fit investment criteria, track competitive buyer activity, and produce the target lists and coverage plans the team works against for both new categories and bolt-on acquisitions. - Develop a defensible point of view on your sectors by conducting primary industry research on market trends, consolidation dynamics, buyer activity, and clearing multiples. - Build and maintain the target universe that everything else runs on—construct and enrich company profiles, keep ownership and financing detail current, and ensure the team operates from a complete and accurate picture. - Run outreach at volume and with judgment—open conversations with owners, founders, and management teams before a formal process exists to get CSC in front of businesses early. - Support coverage of the banker, broker, lender, and advisor network—maintain the relationship map, prepare for meetings, run follow-up, and ensure nothing goes cold. - Screen inbound and sourced opportunities against investment criteria and build the initial commercial case—market context, seller motivation, indicative valuation, and key risks—so the team can decide quickly whether to engage. - Stay with opportunities you source as they go live—support the deal team through diligence and deal documents, contributing until close. - Own pipeline hygiene, reporting, and tooling—keep the CRM accurate, publish coverage and conversion metrics, and build automations and AI workflows that let a small team cover a large market. ### Required Qualifications - 3–6 years in investment banking, private equity, corporate development, or transaction advisory with meaningful exposure to deal sourcing or business development. - Demonstrated ability to generate activity—outreach you have run, relationships you have opened, or a pipeline you have helped build. - Solid financial literacy: ability to size a business, read a P&L and capital structure, and build a credible first-pass commercial case. - Strong research skills—able to build a market map from scratch, identify non-obvious targets, and assemble accurate ownership and financing profiles. - Fluency with sourcing and CRM platforms (DealCloud, Grata, Sourcescrub, Affinity, Apollo, or equivalents) and genuine comfort using AI tooling to extend coverage. - Comfort working quantitatively on coverage, conversion, and activity metrics, with the rigor to keep a pipeline clean without being asked. - High ownership mindset—you will be measured on the pipeline you build and the deals that close from it. - Willingness to travel regularly to targets, lenders, advisors, and key industry events. ### Preferred Qualifications - Experience in consumer, retail, ecommerce, or multi-unit businesses. - Exposure to carve-outs, distressed, or special-situations transactions. ### Why Join The people who do best here are builders. They take ownership, move fast, and want to see the direct impact of their work. - **Cross-Functional Impact:** You will drive the front end of CSC's acquisition engine—your market maps, outreach, and sourced conversations directly shape which brands join the portfolio next. - **AI-First Skill Building:** Get hands-on with advanced AI tooling, automation workflows, and modern sourcing platforms that set you apart in any deal-making career. - **End-to-End Ownership:** Own the origination function from market mapping through first conversations to deal close, with the autonomy to shape how this capability scales. - **Competitive Benefits:** Paid time off policies, 401(k) match, medical/dental/vision and a variety of supplemental policies, and employee discounts across our portfolio of brands. ### Interview Process 1. **Recruiter Screen** - A 30-minute conversation with our recruiting team to align on the role, your background, and what you are looking for. 2. **Sourcing Challenge** - A short take-home exercise so we can understand how you build a funnel and approach execution. 3. **Hiring Manager Interview** - Deep-dive conversation with Corporate Development leadership focused on your sourcing track record, approach to outreach, and deal origination experience. 4. **In-Person Interview** - We'd like to meet you at our Los Angeles office. Details and logistics will be arranged with your recruiter. 5. **Reference Checks** - Conducted in parallel with the final stages where possible. 6. **Offer** - We move quickly for the right candidate. *Interview process is subject to change. Any updates will be communicated promptly and clearly.*