Director of Corporate Development

CNTXT AI; California (MO); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

CNTXT AI, a UAE-based data & AI company expanding in the United States, seeks a Director of Corporate Development in the San Francisco Bay Area. You will drive M&A, strategic investments, and partnerships, working closely with the CEO and leadership to shape CNTXT AI's growth.

The role demands strong financial acumen, an expansive network, and a hands-on approach to deal execution. You will build a robust pipeline, lead due diligence, structure transactions, and support post-merger integration

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in corporate development, investment banking, private equity, venture capital, strategy, M&A, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating and executing M&A, investments, partnerships, or other strategic transactions.
• Strong financial modeling, valuation, and analytical capabilities.
• Strong understanding of transaction structures and corporate finance.
• Experience conducting commercial and financial due diligence.
• Excellent negotiation and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to develop clear strategic recommendations from complex information.
• Strong executive communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to work directly with founders, CEOs, investors, and senior executives.
• Strong understanding of the US technology ecosystem.

Responsibilities

• Identify acquisition and strategic investment opportunities aligned with CNTXT AI's growth strategy.
• Build and maintain a pipeline of targets across AI, data, robotics, and enterprise software.
• Develop investment theses and strategic rationale for transactions.
• Lead preliminary evaluation and financial analysis for opportunities.
• Coordinate due diligence across commercial, financial, technical, operational, and legal areas.
• Support transaction structuring, negotiations and post-transaction integration when needed.
• Identify strategic partnerships to accelerate CNTXT AI's growth in the US and globally.
• Represent CNTXT AI at industry events and build relationships with founders and executives.

Skills

Corporate Development

Mergers & Acquisitions

Strategic Partnerships

Financial Modeling

Valuation

Negotiation

Executive Communication

Relationship Development

Market Analysis

Job description

CNTXT AI is a UAE-based Data & AI company delivering end-to-end AI solutions and data services built in the region and designed to scale globally.

Our capabilities span AI data collection, annotation and labeling, AI training data, RLHF, robotics and embodied AI data, Voice AI, AI Agents, and enterprise AI applications.

As CNTXT AI expands its presence in the United States, we are looking for a Director of Corporate Development based in the San Francisco Bay Area to identify and execute strategic opportunities that accelerate the company's growth.

About the Role

The Director of Corporate Development will play a key role in CNTXT AI's US and global growth strategy, working directly with the CEO and executive leadership on M&A, strategic investments, partnerships, joint ventures, market expansion, and other corporate development initiatives.

This is a highly execution-oriented role. We are looking for someone who understands the US AI and technology ecosystem, can identify strategic opportunities, build relationships with founders and executives, evaluate transactions, and drive opportunities from initial discussions through execution.

The ideal candidate combines strong financial and analytical capabilities with an established network across the San Francisco Bay Area technology, AI, investment, and startup ecosystem.

Key Responsibilities

M&A and Strategic Transactions

• Identify potential acquisition and strategic investment opportunities aligned with CNTXT AI's growth strategy.
• Build and maintain a pipeline of acquisition targets across AI, data, robotics, Voice AI, enterprise software, and adjacent sectors.
• Develop investment theses and strategic rationale for potential transactions.
• Lead preliminary evaluation of acquisition and investment opportunities.
• Conduct financial analysis, valuation, benchmarking, and transaction modeling.
• Coordinate commercial, financial, technical, operational, and legal due diligence.
• Support transaction structuring and negotiations.
• Work with internal leadership and external advisors through transaction execution.
• Support post-transaction integration planning where required.

Strategic Partnerships

• Identify strategic partnerships that can accelerate CNTXT AI's growth in the United States and globally.
• Develop relationships with AI companies, technology platforms, cloud providers, robotics companies, enterprise technology companies, and other strategic partners.
• Structure partnerships, joint ventures, commercial alliances, and other strategic arrangements.
• Work with commercial and product teams to convert strategic relationships into measurable business opportunities.
• Maintain senior-level relationships with founders, executives, investors, and strategic partners.

US Market Expansion

• Support CNTXT AI's expansion across the United States, with a particular focus on the San Francisco Bay Area.
• Identify new markets, products, partnerships, and inorganic growth opportunities.
• Build relationships across the Silicon Valley AI and technology ecosystem.
• Develop market-entry and expansion strategies for priority business areas.
• Identify opportunities that strengthen CNTXT AI's capabilities, technology, customer access, talent, or geographic presence.
• Build and maintain relationships with AI and foundation model companies, robotics and embodied AI companies, AI data and infrastructure companies, enterprise AI companies, Voice AI companies, cloud and technology platforms, venture capital and growth equity firms, founders and entrepreneurs, investment banks and transaction advisors, and strategic corporate investors.
• Represent CNTXT AI at relevant technology, investment, and industry events across the United States.

Strategic Investments

• Identify minority investment opportunities that provide strategic value to CNTXT AI.
• Evaluate companies, technologies, teams, markets, and business models.
• Develop financial and strategic investment cases.
• Analyze valuation, ownership, dilution, potential returns, and strategic benefits.
• Support negotiations and investment execution.
• Monitor strategic investments and identify opportunities for deeper commercial relationships.

Financial Analysis & Valuation

• Build financial models for acquisitions, investments, joint ventures, and strategic initiatives.
• Conduct company valuations and comparable company analysis.
• Analyze transaction structures and potential financial outcomes.
• Evaluate revenue, margins, growth, market size, customer concentration, and unit economics.
• Develop business cases for major strategic initiatives.
• Present recommendations and analysis to executive leadership.
• Monitor developments across AI, robotics, data infrastructure, enterprise software, and Voice AI.
• Track relevant fundraising, M&A, partnerships, valuations, and competitive activity.
• Identify emerging technologies and companies that could create strategic opportunities for CNTXT AI.
• Maintain a structured landscape of potential acquisition targets, partners, and investment opportunities.
• Provide leadership with actionable market intelligence.
• Manage corporate development opportunities from initial identification through execution.
• Coordinate cross-functional diligence across Finance, Legal, Product, Engineering, AI, Commercial, Operations, and HR.
• Manage external advisors where required.
• Develop transaction timelines and manage key milestones.
• Identify key transaction risks and recommend mitigation strategies.
• Prepare executive and board materials for strategic transactions.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in corporate development, investment banking, private equity, venture capital, strategy, M&A, or a related field.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating and executing M&A, investments, partnerships, or other strategic transactions.
• Strong financial modeling, valuation, and analytical capabilities.
• Strong understanding of transaction structures and corporate finance.
• Experience conducting commercial and financial due diligence.
• Excellent negotiation and stakeholder-management skills.
• Ability to develop clear strategic recommendations from complex information.
• Strong executive communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to work directly with founders, CEOs, investors, and senior executives.
• Strong understanding of the US technology ecosystem.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong network across the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley technology ecosystem.
• Experience within AI, robotics, enterprise technology, SaaS, cloud, data infrastructure, or related sectors.
• Previous experience at a leading technology company, investment bank, private equity firm, venture capital firm, or growth-stage startup.
• Experience executing technology M&A transactions.
• Existing relationships with founders, investors, technology executives, and advisors.
• Experience working with international companies expanding into the United States.
• Understanding of both the US and Middle Eastern technology and investment ecosystems is advantageous.

Core Competencies

• Corporate Development
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Strategic Investments
• Strategic Partnerships
• Valuation
• Deal Structuring
• Negotiation
• Market Analysis
• Executive Communication
• Relationship Development
• Strategic Thinking

What Success Looks Like

• Development of a strong pipeline of strategic opportunities
• Quality of acquisition and investment targets identified
• M&A and investment opportunities progressed and executed
• Expansion of CNTXT AI's network across the US technology ecosystem
• Quality and speed of transaction evaluation
• Strength of financial and strategic analysis
• Successful coordination of due diligence and transaction execution
• Contribution to CNTXT AI's US and global growth strategy
• Strategic and financial value generated through completed transactions

Ideal Candidate

We are looking for someone who combines deal-making ability, financial expertise, strategic thinking, and strong relationships within the US technology ecosystem.

The ideal candidate is comfortable moving between identifying an emerging AI company, meeting its founders, evaluating the strategic opportunity, building the financial case, negotiating a potential transaction, and presenting a recommendation directly to CNTXT AI's executive leadership.

This is a hands-on corporate development role for someone who wants to play a meaningful part in CNTXT AI's expansion across the United States and help shape the company's next stage of global growth.