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Associate, Portfolio Support – Operational Due Diligence

Location: Boston, MA - In office

The Opportunity

Our client is a leading middle-market private equity firm seeking an Associate to join its Portfolio Support team in Boston. This individual will play a key role in evaluating operational improvement and value creation opportunities across prospective investments and existing portfolio companies.

This is a unique opportunity for someone with operational due diligence experience who wants to move closer to the investor and portfolio company environment. The Associate will work alongside investment professionals, senior members of the Portfolio Support team, third-party advisors, and portfolio company executives to assess opportunities pre-close and help translate those findings into actionable value creation initiatives post-close.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Due Diligence

• Support and help drive operational due diligence on prospective investments, evaluating opportunities across areas such as pricing, sales effectiveness, procurement and spend, SG&A and cost optimization, organizational effectiveness, and footprint consolidation.
• Analyze operational and financial data to identify potential value creation opportunities and key areas of risk.
• Manage and coordinate third-party consulting workstreams, synthesizing findings into a clear point of view for investment teams and senior leadership.
• Develop materials and recommendations to support investment decision-making and Investment Committee discussions.
• Partner closely with deal teams and senior Portfolio Support professionals throughout the diligence process.

Value Creation & Portfolio Support

• Translate diligence findings into concrete, prioritized initiatives that can be implemented following an acquisition.
• Support high-impact operational and value creation projects across portfolio companies.
• Work directly with portfolio company executives and management teams to evaluate opportunities and track progress against key initiatives.
• Develop and monitor KPIs to assess portfolio company performance and support data-driven decision-making.
• Prepare executive-level presentations that clearly communicate findings, recommendations, and progress.

Portfolio & Team Initiatives

• Support broader initiatives designed to share best practices and operational expertise across the portfolio.
• Help improve internal processes, reporting, analytics, and workflows across the Portfolio Support organization.
• Identify opportunities to leverage technology, automation, and AI to improve the efficiency and quality of the team's work.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate will have:

• 3–5 years of professional experience with meaningful exposure to operational due diligence, ideally within a consulting, transaction advisory, private equity, or value creation environment.
• Experience evaluating operational value creation opportunities in connection with private equity transactions.
• Exposure to areas such as pricing, revenue enhancement, sales effectiveness, procurement, SG&A optimization, cost reduction, organizational effectiveness, or footprint consolidation.
• Experience working across multiple diligence workstreams and interacting with senior-level clients, executives, investment professionals, or operating partners.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to turn complex information into clear, actionable recommendations.
• Excellent Excel and PowerPoint capabilities and comfort working with data and analytics tools.
• Strong communication and presentation skills with the ability to operate effectively with both investment professionals and portfolio company management teams.
• A high level of intellectual curiosity, ownership, attention to detail, and comfort operating in a fast-paced environment.
• Bachelor's degree with a strong academic record.

Why This Role

This opportunity provides the chance to move beyond an external advisory role and work directly within a sophisticated private equity Portfolio Support organization. The Associate will gain exposure across the investment lifecycle—from assessing operational opportunities during diligence to helping portfolio companies execute against those opportunities following an acquisition.

For someone coming from an operational due diligence or transaction-focused consulting environment, the role offers significant exposure to private equity investors, operating professionals, and senior portfolio company executives while developing a broad toolkit across operational value creation.