About the Client: Our Client is an evergreen holding company that acquires and operates proven vertical-market software businesses with meaningful long-term growth potential. The company compounds value over decades, not quarters, and partners with founders to build enduring category leaders across HR tech, fleet telematics, asset management, e-health, document management, and other mission-critical software verticals.

About the Role: The Corporate Development Manager (CDM) is a senior origination and people-leadership role responsible for building durable acquisition pipelines across the client’s priority verticals.

You will own market coverage, outbound strategy, founder engagement, and relationship development for a defined set of verticals and high-priority accounts. The CDM will lead and develop a Toronto-based team of 5+ Corporate Development Associates, while also serving as a hands-on individual contributor—personally building deep, long-term relationships with the client’s most strategic founder and advisor accounts.

Success in this role comes from combining high-tempo outreach and disciplined operating rhythms with authentic founder credibility—compounding trust over time and consistently producing high-quality, well-qualified opportunities.

Core Responsibilities

1) Origination Strategy & Market Coverage

• Own origination strategy for assigned verticals and priority account lists, aligned with the client’s acquisition theses.

• Define ICPs, personas, account universes, and coverage models (founder-owned, sponsor-owned, carve-outs).

• Design and run multi-touch outreach programs (email, phone, LinkedIn, events, conferences, in-person) tailored to founder audiences.

• Build long-term nurture programs (content, check-ins, founder events) that compound trust and readiness over time.

• Translate market learning into sharper targeting, messaging, and segmentation.

2) Team Leadership & People Management (Toronto Hub)

• Directly manage, coach, and performance-manage 5+ Corporate Development Associates, with responsibility to scale the team over time.

• Set clear expectations on activity quality, messaging standards, discovery fundamentals, and qualification discipline.

• Run weekly 1:1s, pipeline reviews, call coaching, and skill-building sessions; deliver direct, high-candour feedback.

• Partner with the Head of Corporate Development and the People team on hiring profiles, onboarding, and career progression paths.

• Build a culture grounded in accountability, learning, and continuous improvement.

3) Individual Contributor – Priority Relationships

• Personally own and develop relationships with the client’s highest-priority founder and advisor accounts.

• Act as a senior client representative in founder conversations, building credibility, trust, and long-term alignment.

• Lead complex discovery conversations focused on founder goals, succession, growth constraints, and partnership fit.

• Maintain momentum and engagement over long relationship arcs, positioning Solen as the preferred partner.

• Develop “why the company” narratives tailored to priority accounts based on their context, objectives, and constraints.

4) Pipeline Management, Metrics & Operating Rigour

• Own pipeline health and reporting for your team: coverage, outreach, connects, first meetings, qualified opportunities, and progression.

• Enforce CRM rigour and data quality as a non-negotiable operating standard (hygiene, stage definitions, required fields).

• Run structured weekly and monthly reviews focused on conversion, quality, and learning—not just volume.

• Surface insights on objections, market signals, and winning talk tracks; institutionalise learnings through playbooks.

5) Cross-Functional Partnership

• Align with internal stakeholders on vertical priorities, messaging, qualification standards, and handoff criteria.

• Coordinate timely, structured handoffs of qualified opportunities once mutual fit and readiness thresholds are met.

• Provide market feedback loops to refine theses, positioning, and outreach programs.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• 5+ years in corporate development, PE origination, B2B SaaS enterprise sales/new-logo, or sourcing roles.
• Proven experience managing and developing junior-to-mid-level teams in an outbound, metrics-driven environment.
• Strong individual contributor instincts with demonstrated ability to build senior-level founder relationships.
• Systems-oriented operator who values process, scorecards, operating cadence, and continuous improvement.
• High integrity, low ego, strong executive presence; comfortable in ambiguity and energised by building.
• Experience in vertical-market software, PE-backed platforms, or consolidators strongly preferred.