TripAdvisor, the world’s largest travel community, enables travelers to unleash the full potential of every trip. With over 570 million reviews and opinions covering the world’s largest selection of travel listings worldwide --- covering 7.3 million accommodations, airlines, attractions, and restaurants ---TripAdvisor provides travelers with the wisdom of the crowds to help them decide where to stay, how to fly, what to do and where to eat. TripAdvisor also compares prices from more than 200 hotel booking sites so travelers can find the lowest price on the hotel that’s right for them. TripAdvisor-branded sites are available in 49 markets, and are home to the world’s largest travel community of 455 million average monthly unique visitors, all looking to get the most out of every trip.

With a trusted global brand, unmatched content and community, global leadership in Restaurants and Experiences, and a new focus on Customer Experience, TripAdvisor has repositioned itself for growth. Complementing this is the company’s strong balance sheet and desire to grow inorganically, building off of an active history of M&A.

The mission of the Corporate Development & Strategy team is to catalyze this great opportunity. To accelerate the growth of the biggest online destination in travel, be an agent of change and innovation throughout the organization and contribute meaningfully to TripAdvisor’s corporate strategy.

The Corporate Development & Strategy team’s responsibility is global in scope and spans all product lines and business units, making the team an interesting, challenging and valuable place to be within TripAdvisor. We are a small group of highly skilled, ambitious team players with diverse experience and a passion for building the best traveler experience globally.

The Associate Director of Corporate Development & Strategy will further this mission by driving opportunities that generate material improvements to TripAdvisor’s business - whether financial, customer, market or product-oriented. At its core, the role involves growth idea generation, opportunity sourcing, business case development and presenting, deal process leadership and integration support & guidance. More broadly, the Associate Director will be a trusted partner to our business units in working through their expansion plans, while also helping make the Corporate Development function world class. Externally, the Associate Director will help maintain a highly positive reputation for TripAdvisor through their interactions with target company management, in addition to entrepreneurs, investment banks, and other players in our ecosystem.

To be successful in this role you will:

• Develop a detailed understanding of TripAdvisor’s business and customers well as the online travel market, ecosystem of players, business models and key innovation areas
• Partner closely with BU and TripAdvisor senior leadership toguide build / buy / partner decisions and identify M&A opportunities; in addition to being a thought leader around “out of the box opportunities”
• Leverage personal, company and industry networks/contacts to proactively identify and engage prospective targets
• Efficiently qualify partner / buy opportunities considering corporate strategy, product & financial requirements
• Build and deliver highly compelling business cases and rationale for opportunities to gain organizational support and resourcing
• Support M&A initiatives holistically from idea through integration/launch and organize projects and lead cross-functional teams supporting M&A initiatives
• Help drive prioritization of opportunities and bring in new corporate and business development best practices and processes to make TripAdvisor’s M&A capability world class
• Maintain and share knowledge of global market conditions, competition, and opportunities

Additionally, you will possess the following characteristics:

• A very high degree of integrity, trustworthiness and corporate responsibility
• Strong analytical capabilities in terms of building P&Ls, valuation methodologies, deal structuring, and advanced business modelling using MBA-level financial / valuation analysis and key internet, mobile, commerce and media analytics
• Clear, credible and convincing communications ability to a wide variety of audiences, through both verbal, written (slides, memos) and graphical means
• Strong ROI focus and business judgment; supporting your positions with solid rationale backed by evidence and data
• Curiosity, creativity and ability to see value by combining assets, capabilities
• Determination, resilience, and positivity in the face of obstacles or challenges and an ability to execute with grace
• A proven team player; participation and achievement in team-based sports / activities a strong plus

And desired background:

• 3-5 years of experience in Corporate Development strongly preferred with additional experience in investment banking, private equity or consulting. Longer tenure at a top tier bank, PE firm or consulting firm with M&A exposure will also be considered. Strategic business development or similar commercial deal experience a plus, as is product management or marketing experience/exposure
• Strong preference towards experience in information technology sector, ideally in media and / or ecommerce-based companies but other tech / tech-enabled companies will be considered.
• BS/BA required, MBA from top school highly desirable

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