Our client, an employee-owned sourcing and supply chain consultancy, is looking for contract deal-making support to progress a confidential opportunity with a major global retail group. This is not a permanent hire, and it is not a solo mandate it is a defined, timing-sensitive engagement to structure and negotiate a specific commercial deal alongside an established project team, with the strong possibility of further project work if it goes well.
If you have hands-on deal-making experience including M&A, clean room analysis and complex commercial structuring — and are willing to travel to the US for face-to-face negotiation, this is worth a serious look.
Who our client is
Our client works across retail and manufacturing supply chains, building long-term, embedded partnerships with clients rather than running short-term consulting projects. The firm is employee-owned, which shapes how it operates: engagements are relationship-led, and the people doing the work carry a direct stake in getting it right. Their model sits closer to an M&A advisory practice than a traditional consultancy when a deal reaches this stage — deep supply chain economics work under NDA and clean room conditions, then structured negotiation with a client's stakeholders.
The opportunity
Our client is in the early stages of a confidential opportunity with a major global retail group, centred on a specific product category. An initial exploratory phase is already underway, led by a project team comprising a senior commercial lead, an industry expert, a supply chain design expert, the company's CFO, and a long-standing senior advisor.
The next phase — subject to confirmation — requires a different kind of work: structuring the commercial deal, leading face-to-face negotiation with the client's stakeholders, and working through decisions that may include capital investment, make-vs-buy trade-offs, and potential partnership structures.
The existing senior advisor will continue to provide strategic input remotely but isn't available for the sustained on-the-ground presence this phase requires, and the CFO is unavailable to fill the gap directly. That's what this role exists to cover.
This sits within a small project team. You'll be expected to work closely with the group already assembled, not run the deal in isolation.
What our client needs from the right candidate
- 5+ years of hands-on deal-making experience, including M&A
- Willing and able to complete detailed clean room analysis and financial modelling as part of deal preparation
- Willing to travel as needed for face-to-face deal-making discussions with client stakeholders in the US
- Comfortable structuring and negotiating complex commercial deals, including capital investment or make-vs-buy considerations
- Retail, supply chain, or manufacturing sector experience preferred, though strong deal-making judgement from an adjacent sector would be considered
- Able to work independently with limited day-to-day oversight, reporting into the client's CFO
- Comfortable partnering with, and taking input from, an existing senior advisor without requiring their on-site involvement
- Experience managing relationships with external parties — potential investors, partners, and advisors — throughout a deal process
- Willing to sign a non-disclosure agreement — the client's identity remains confidential until an engagement is agreed
Scope of work
In scope
- Co-lead commercial deal structuring for this opportunity
- Lead clean room discussions, due diligence and negotiation directly with the client's stakeholders, on the ground where needed, including required travel
- Complete due diligence and clean room analysis, and build financial models evaluating capital investment, make-vs-buy, and partnership structure considerations as they arise
- Build the financial and commercial case underpinning the deal, working alongside the client's project team
- If required by scope, support the project team to advise on term sheets and contribute to the integration plan
Out of scope
- Ongoing account management once the deal is structured and agreed
Engagement type
- Contract or project-by-project basis not a permanent hire
- Engaged specifically for this deal in the first instance, with the possibility of further project-based work if this goes well
- Timing-sensitive Our client wants to identify and agree terms with the right person now, so they can move immediately once the project is confirmed
Why this role is worth a serious look
Deal structuring mandates like this one are rare precisely because of what they demand: someone who can walk into a clean room, build a credible financial model under time pressure, and then sit across the table from a major retailer's stakeholders and actually close terms. It's a different skillset from the strategic advisory work that got the opportunity this far, and a different skillset again from the account management that follows once terms are agreed — which is deliberately excluded from this brief. If your experience sits in that specific middle ground of hands-on deal execution and commercial negotiation, rather than pure strategy or pure delivery, this is squarely aimed at you.
Our client's employee-owned structure is also worth noting. Engagements here tend to be genuinely collaborative rather than transactional — you'd be working alongside a CFO, a senior advisor and sector specialists who have already put real time into this opportunity, not parachuting into a vacuum. For a contractor who wants meaningful scope without permanent-hire commitment, that combination — small trusted team, high-stakes deal, clear exit once the deal is structured — is a good match for candidates who've previously taken on fractional or project-based commercial roles rather than sat permanently inside one organisation.
Accredited Member of GBC 
Carbon Offset via TreeNation