Corporate Finance Researcher - Financial & Professional Services

Grant Thornton UK; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading advisory firm in Greater London is seeking a Corporate Finance Researcher to join its team. The role involves providing analysis for pitches and proposals within the financial and professional services sector. Candidates should have a degree or equivalent experience and some background in corporate finance. This position offers flexibility and promotes a culture of inclusivity, allowing employees to balance work and life effectively. It's a chance to drive strategic growth and gain insight into a dynamic sector.

Benefits

Flexible working options

Inclusive culture

Opportunity for personal development

Qualifications

• Degree level education or equivalent work experience.
• Experience in corporate finance or mergers & acquisitions.
• Strong business analysis capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Provide high-quality analysis for pitches and proposals.
• Identify commercial opportunities and oversee thought leadership.
• Maintain sector knowledge management.

Skills

Business analysis

Commercial awareness

Intrapersonal skills

Tenacity

Education

Degree or equivalent work experience

Tools

Bureau Van Dijk

Mergermarket

CapIQ

Job description

At Grant Thornton we do things differently - looking to the future, driving ambitious growth and pioneering positive change in our industry. Providing audit, tax and advisory services, we empower clients through strategic insight, curiosity, and genuine partnership. And we empower our people with real opportunity, an inclusive culture and work life balance. A true alternative.

With over 5,000 people in the UK, and a presence in 150 global markets, we're on an ambitious journey, from great to exceptional, and we need the best people to help us achieve our potential. And with that comes the opportunity to help redefine what our industry looks like, and what you want from your career.

NEW GROUND WON’T BREAK ITSELF.

Every day our teams help people in businesses and communities to do what is right and achieve their goals.

We believe we’re best positioned to make a meaningful impact on the economy. Every day, we provide a diverse range of organisations with the kind of business and financial advice it takes to do this. Our ideas and insights empower our clients to make big decisions about the future and unlock sustainable growth. With a relentless focus on quality and integrity, we help businesses, communities, and our people flourish.

We’re happy to talk flexible working and consider reduced hours and job shares, we’ll support you to balance your work and life.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a driven individual with an experienced and diverse background in corporate research, market research or business development. You will be working in our corporate finance team providing support for our financial & professional services (primarily insurance, wealth, accounting & legal services and specialty finance) focused transaction execution team. You will play a pivotal role in the delivery of client work providing research for pitches and proposals.

The Financial & Professional Services Researcher is a key role in the corporate finance sector team, providing direction and drive. Specific responsibilities include providing support and high-quality analysis for pitches, proposals and the generation of new work, identifying and acting on commercial opportunities, overseeing thought leadership, maintaining sector knowledge management and raising the profile of the team both internally and externally. You will help the team win new business through value‑added research and sector insight, with a particular focus on managing our internal databases of participants operating within our focus sub-sectors and researching and consolidating our analysis of transactions in these sub-sectors.

*please note that this is not a transaction execution role, but a key operational and analytical role working closely with the deal execution team.*

A look into the role

As a Corporate Finance Researcher within our Corporate Finance team you will:

• Be part of a sector researcher team of seven (with your colleagues covering healthcare, business support services, consumer, industrials and TMT) and reporting into the head sector research.
• Work closely with your team of financial & professional services sector focused corporate financiers. Key to this role is the ability to work closely with your sector team and pivotally, with the Partner who heads up the sector. To be effective in this role you will need to influence both Partners and senior team members as well as your peers.
• Develop a strong knowledge of the financial & professional services sector, and also have an understanding of the importance of knowledge management, business development, marketing and events. You will need to be able to pull all these strands together for the sector team in collaboration with your marketing and business development colleagues.
• You will work with the Partner sector lead to set the strategy for the sector. As such we will be looking for strong communication and organisational skills and an ability to get the job done. This is an opportunity to help drive the profile and strategy of the sector team, thus directly contributing to the growth and success of the team.

Knowing you're right for us

Joining us as a Researcher, the minimum criteria you’ll need is to have:

• Educated to degree level or equivalent work experience
• Experience gained within a corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions or similar environment
• Good business analysis experience
• Excellent commercial awareness and ability to be involved in client‑facing activities

It would be great if you had some of the following skills, but don’t worry if you don’t tick every box, we’ll help you develop along the way:

• Have a keen interest in the financial & professional services sector as a whole, or one of the sub‑sectors on which we focus
• Have tenacity, resilience and a capability to drive projects through to completion
• Strong intrapersonal skills
• Existing knowledge and experience of research tools (Bureau Van Dijk, Mergermarket, CapIQ,)

Knowing we’re right for you

Embracing uniqueness, the culture at Grant Thornton thrives on the contributions of all our people, we never settle for what is easy, we look beyond to deliver the right thing, for everyone. Building an inclusive culture, where we value difference and respect our colleagues helps our people to perform at the best of their ability and realise their potential.

Our open and accessible culture means you’ll interact with leaders who are interested in you and everything you bring to our firm. The things that set you apart, we value them. That’s why we give you the freedom to bring your whole self to work and pursue your passions inside and outside of work.

Beyond the job

Life is more than work. The things you do, and the people you’re with outside of work matter, that’s why we’re happy to look at flexible working options for all our roles, and we’ll always do our best to keep your work and life in balance.

The impact you can make here will go far beyond your day job. From secondments, to fundraising for local charities, or investing in entrepreneurs in the developing world, you’ll be giving back to society. It’s that drive to do the right thing that runs through our every move, grounded in our firm’s values – purposefully driven, actively curious and candid but kind.

We’re looking for people who want to contribute, spark fresh ideas and go beyond expectations. People who want to be able to proudly do what’s right, for the firm, our clients, our people and themselves. It’s how it should be.