Value Creation Associate (Investment Associate)

LaTeam Partners; United States; Remote; USD 110,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Lateam Partners seeks a Value Creation Associate to work remotely with a focus on operational efficiency and finance solutions across its portfolio. This full-time, contractor-style role blends deal-driven finance skills with hands-on operating experience to drive tangible value for founder-owned, high-growth companies.

The candidate will lead pricing research, optimize margins, and manage cost-reduction projects while coordinating with portfolio teams and founders to ensure measurable outcomes

Qualifications

• Background in investment banking, M&A, corporate development or private equity with time in consulting or operating roles.
• Experience leading full-cycle transactions from diligence to close.
• Hands-on operating experience improving pricing, margins, or cost structures.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage project work across portfolio companies focused on operational efficiency and finance solutions.
• Perform pricing research, pricing restructures, and run pricing experiments.
• Drive margin expansion and cost-reduction initiatives with measurable impact.
• Oversee procurement, logistics and supply chain cost projects for portfolio firms.
• Develop unit economics models to guide operating decisions.
• Support debt financing processes and capital solutions.

Skills

Deal experience

Financial modeling

M&A diligence

Operating experience

Unit economics

FP&A exposure

Negotiation

Founder credibility

Cross-functional

Pricing optimization

Tools

Excel

PowerPoint

SQL

Job description

Value Creation Associate (Investment Associate)

Location: Remote

Type: Full-time, hired as a contractor

About the client

Our client is a U.S.-based investment firm focused on partnering with founder-owned businesses across the services, manufacturing, and other traditionally underinvested industries. The firm provides minority growth equity investments to established, high-growth companies, working closely with founders and business leaders to support their next stage of expansion. Its approach combines investment expertise with hands-on operational experience, leveraging a network of entrepreneurs and industry operators to help businesses scale, modernize, and achieve sustainable long-term growth.

About the Value Creation team

We are operators first, and we work hands-on, fingers-off: we bring data, examples and real work product, push for speed, and leave decisions to the founder. Our work is organized around six pillars:

• Go-to-Market (Revenue)


• Operational Efficiency


• Finance & Capital Solutions (incl. Exit)


• Talent / Org


• Community / Network

Position Overview

This is a full-time role on the Value Creation team, focused on the Operational Efficiency and Finance & Capital Solutions pillars. The work is done almost entirely for and with our portfolio companies, and it is project-based: we prioritize the companies and projects where we can add the most value or generate the most revenue, so the work shifts as needs change across the portfolio.

Typical projects include:

• Pricing: leads pricing research, restructures pricing and runs pricing experiments with portfolio companies.


• Operational efficiency: finds and runs projects that improve throughput, workflows and cost to serve.


• Margin and cost: runs margin expansion and cost-reduction projects, each with an agreed baseline and measured impact.


• Supply chain and procurement: leads procurement, logistics and supply chain cost projects.


• Funnel performance: diagnoses udgetión and funnel issues and runs projects to fix them.


• Vendor selection: helps founders choose and negotiate with critical vendors.


• Benchmarks: builds industry-specific operating and P&L benchmarks across the portfolio.


• Portfolio financials: owns monthly actuals, udget vs. Actuals and results-to-plan reporting.


• Unit economics: builds and maintains unit economics models that guide operating decisions.


• Capital solutions: runs debt and non-dilutive financing processes.


• M&A and exit: supports M&A diligence and integration, and prepares companies for exit.


• Organizational strategy: provides input on critical hires, org design and compensation.

What We're Looking For

We are looking for a blend of two backgrounds: transaction-grade finance skills from deal work, and hands-on consulting or operating experience that turns analysis into results inside a business.

• Background: investment banking, M&A, corporate development or private equity experience, combined with time in management consulting, an operating role, chief of staff or BizOps.


• Transaction experience: has led full-cycle transactions across industries and deal types, from diligence and financial modeling through negotiation and closing.


• Operating experience: has worked inside or alongside an operating business and improved pricing, margins, cost or process with measurable results.


• Project leadership: can scope an operating project, set the baseline, lead it with a founder's team and measure the result.


• Finance skills: strong modeling, fluent in three-statement financials and unit economics, with FP&A or interim-CFO-style exposure a plus.


• Founder credibility: earns trust quickly with founders and their teams, and can deliver hard feedback with empathy.


• Range: can manage work across many companies at once and track every project to closure.