Senior Associate

Senior Associate, M&A Advisory

Candor Advisors|Remote (Southern California based)|Full time

Growth path to Vice President

Candor Advisors is a boutique M&A advisory firm that works on one side of the table only: we represent founders and owners who are selling. We do not represent buyers, we do not raise funds for private equity, and we do not carry the conflicts that come with doing both. Our mission is simple: guiding founders to better outcomes.

“Better outcome” does not always mean an auction to the highest strategic or private equity bidder. For a founder, the right answer might be a sale to a strategic acquirer, a majority or minority recapitalization with a financial sponsor, a management buyout, a sale to a family member or key employees, an ESOP, or in some cases the decision not to sell yet.

We put every credible path on the table, run the numbers on each, and let the founder choose with clear eyes. That is unusual in our industry, and it is the core of how we work.

The firm was founded in 2020 by a Managing Partner with more than 30 years in investment banking and over $1 billion in completed transactions. We are small, distributed, and deliberately nimble: a U.S. deal team, a dedicated research and modeling team, and a marketing partner, all working remotely with a home base in Southern California.

Candor Advisors is a boutique M&A advisory firm that works on one side of the table only: we represent founders and owners who are selling. We do not represent buyers, we do not raise funds for private equity, and we do not carry the conflicts that come with doing both. Our mission is simple: guiding founders to better outcomes.

“Better outcome” does not always mean an auction to the highest strategic or private equity bidder. For a founder, the right answer might be a sale to a strategic acquirer, a majority or minority recapitalization with a financial sponsor, a management buyout, a sale to a family member or key employees, an ESOP, or in some cases the decision not to sell yet.

We put every credible path on the table, run the numbers on each, and let the founder choose with clear eyes. That is unusual in our industry, and it is the core of how we work.

The firm was founded in 2020 by a Managing Partner with more than 30 years in investment banking and over $1 billion in completed transactions. We are small, distributed, and deliberately nimble: a U.S. deal team, a dedicated research and modeling team, and a marketing partner, all working remotely with a home base in Southern California.

We are adding a Senior Associate to the deal team. This is a second-chair role on live sell-side engagements and an ownership role over the machinery that makes those engagements run. You will work directly with the Managing Partner on every mandate, sit in on founder and buyer conversations, and be accountable for the quality of the analysis and materials that reach clients and buyers.

Day to day, you will work alongside an experienced associate and coordinate a dedicated offshore research and modeling team. Together, the three of you support the Managing Partner across several client engagements running at the same time, each at a different stage: one in exit-readiness planning, another in market with buyers, another in diligence toward closing. Keeping that portfolio moving, with nothing dropped and quality held constant, is the heart of the job.

The firm generates more qualified deal flow than it can currently execute. This role exists so we can take on more of it without diluting the quality of the work. For the right person, the role scales into a Vice President seat with broader client responsibility as the firm grows.

• Deal analysis. Build and own financial analysis on live deals: normalized and adjusted EBITDA, quality of earnings style reviews, working capital analysis, three-statement models, valuation and returns analysis, and transaction scenario modeling across sale, recapitalization, and internal transfer structures.
• Materials. Draft and quality-control confidential information memorandums, management presentations, buyer lists, teasers, and process letters.
• Offshore team coordination. Scope, assign, and review the work of our offshore research and modeling team: research briefs, buyer universe builds, first-draft models and CIM sections. Set standards, give clear feedback, and manage time-zone handoffs so work moves overnight and is ready for review each morning.
• Team…