M&A Deal Origination Associate

Location: St. Louis, MO (in-person preferred; open to hybrid or remote) Position Type: Full-Time, Permanent Level: Deal Origination Associate (advancement to Senior Associate and Vice President by performance) Reports To: Managing Partner

ABOUT ALPHACURRENT PARTNERS

AlphaCurrent Partners is a buy-side M&A origination and advisory firm focused on proprietary deal sourcing for lower middle market private equity clients. We operate exclusively across essential, non-discretionary, and mission-critical industries: B2B services, industrial and infrastructure, and non-discretionary consumer services. Our founding team brings decades of senior-level M&A experience and a track record spanning 500+ transactions and $3.5B+ in enterprise value. Our edge is proprietary, off-market deal flow, and the quality of the research and outreach that produces it. We are a small, ambitious team that would rather build the better way than inherit the old one. We are deliberately AI-forward, building proprietary tools and workflows that most firms in our market have not. We pair institutional-grade data platforms with frontier AI, including Claude, across sourcing, automation, and internal operations. We have the energy and upside of a startup, with the discipline and resources of a team that has built and closed deals at scale before.

THE ROLE

This is an outbound sales role, and it is the engine of how we win. Our research team builds warm, thesis-aligned target lists tied to live private equity mandates. Your job is to reach the owners on those lists, open real conversations, understand their goals, and introduce the right ones to our clients. You are the bridge between a qualified list and a closed introduction, and the quality of what reaches our clients runs through you. Earnings are uncapped: strong producers are on track for $500,000 and up, and top originators have a clear path beyond $1,000,000 . The work is direct and relentless. You will make 100+ outbound calls a day to business owners, founders, and executives, qualify genuine interest against each client's criteria, and develop pre-vetted, well-understood opportunities for our clients. This is a phone-first seat for someone who is energized, not drained, by being on the front lines of the conversation. AlphaCurrent operates through two core teams: Research and Origination. Research identifies and qualifies companies; Origination engages business owners directly to confirm fit and develop opportunities. Both are equally important to how we win. This position sits firmly within Origination, the team that turns qualified research into real deals. You are not cold-prospecting into the dark or building your own lists. You are working warm, criteria-aligned targets and turning them into the introductions that become transactions. You are not expected to arrive knowing our method. The people who thrive here are relentless, coachable, and competitive, and they learn our way of working before they carry a senior title. We give you the lists, the tools, and the playbook. What you bring is the drive to work them harder and smarter than anyone else.

WHO WE’RE LOOKING FOR

We hire selectively and hold a high bar for drive, communication, and follow-through. The right person is a hunter who can build genuine rapport with a privately held business owner and speak credibly about a serious buyer. In return, you get direct exposure to live private equity mandates, warm lists instead of cold guesswork, real ownership of your results, and uncapped upside in direct proportion to what you produce. We care about who is on the team. No egos and no prima donnas. We work with people who are genuinely glad to be here and who win the right way, with honesty and respect for the owners we talk to.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Run a high-volume, call-led outreach cadence to business owners, founders, and executives on warm, thesis-aligned target lists prepared by our research team: 100+ outbound calls a day, supported by email, LinkedIn, and follow-up texts to reach owners and keep conversations moving. Open and lead genuine conversations: understand each owner's goals, timing, and willingness to engage with a serious buyer. Qualify interest and fit against each client's specific investment criteria before anything advances. Be transparent about who we represent and why we are reaching out, and build trust from the first call. Write clear, sharp outreach to founders and CEOs that earns a response and a conversation. Deal Development & Handoff Develop qualified opportunities into pre-vetted introductions between business owners and our private equity clients. Build authentic relationships with owners over time. The best opportunities are often with owners who are not ready today, so you stay in touch and earn the conversation when the timing is right. Give the client a clear, accurate picture of each business and owner. Manage the handoff and stay close to opportunities as they progress toward a transaction. Maintain accurate activity and pipeline data in our CRM (i.e. Salesforce) and trackers. Track your outreach, conversations, and conversion against daily, weekly and monthly targets. Keep your pipeline clean, current, and honest. Tools & Edge Use the institutional-grade data platforms and frontier AI tools we provide to research owners, sharpen your outreach, and work your list faster and more effectively than a traditional cold-calling seat. Our tools make the job more efficient, so more of your time goes into live conversations. Performance & Growth Hit and exceed aggressive daily, weekly, and monthly activity and qualified-opportunity targets. Work with the founding partners to sharpen messaging and improve conversion. As you produce and master our method, earn greater ownership, larger mandates, and advancement to Senior Associate and Vice President.

HOW WE HIRE

Everyone starts as a Deal Origination Associate. Title and territory expand as fast as your results do: as you master our method and build a track record of closed introductions, you advance to Senior Associate and Vice President. We hire and title to capability and performance, not to a resume. This holds even if you arrive with senior sales experience. This role is specific, and you learn our way of working before you carry a senior title. If you already know how to sell, you will move up quickly, but you will learn our method first. The path up is uncapped and earned.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Communication . Full professional fluency in English, with exceptional verbal communication and a confident, credible phone presence. You are comfortable cold calling and at ease speaking with both business owners and senior executives. Emotional intelligence . You read people well and listen more than you pitch. You stay composed and professional in any scenario, and you handle sensitive conversations with owners about their life's work with genuine empathy and judgment. Drive . Relentless work ethic, self-discipline, and competitiveness. You are energized by targets, comfortable being measured on results, and ruthless with your time. Resilience . You handle high call volume and rejection without losing momentum or warmth. Coachability . You learn fast, take feedback well, and run a proven process before improvising. Organization . Strong organizational and time-management skills, with the ability to manage a high-volume pipeline against deadlines in a fast-paced environment. Integrity . You represent the firm and our clients honestly, and you are transparent with owners about who we are and why we are calling. Education . Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience and demonstrated ability. Credentials are valued but not decisive. We hire for capability.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

One to three years in sales, business development, or financial services, with a track record of high-volume outbound and hitting targets. Experience speaking with or selling to business owners, founders, or executives. Familiarity with CRM systems and outreach tools. Interest in M&A, private equity, and the lower middle market. Prior exposure is a plus but not required; we teach the M&A and private equity context. Strong recent graduates and early-career candidates with exceptional drive and communication are welcome.

COMPENSATION

Competitive base salary set by experience, plus uncapped variable compensation tied to every deal you help bring to close. You are paid in direct proportion to what you produce. There is no cap, and no ceiling by title. Our research team hands you warm, thesis-aligned target lists built against live private equity mandates, so your hours go into the conversations that move deals, not into building lists from scratch. The earnings compound as your book matures: strong producers are on track for $500,000 and up, and our top originators have a clear path beyond $1,000,000, a level very few people in any profession ever reach. Earnings like that reflect real production: consistently closing at a high volume across multiple client mandates. We pay at the very top of our market, deliberately, because we are building a small team of exceptional producers. Plenty of firms talk about upside. Far fewer are built to pay it. We are.

HOW TO APPLY

Please send a resume and a brief note on your interest to View email address on click.appcast.io. AlphaCurrent Partners is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any legally protected status. #J-18808-Ljbffr AlphaCurrent Partners