Head of Corporate Development in Chester House, Epsom Ave, Handforth, Cheadle, Greater Manchester, SK9 3DF Flexible/Remote, with required travel to Handforth and Swindon Support Offices

Head of Corporate Development

Location: Flexible/Remote, with required travel to Handforth and Swindon Support Offices

To fulfil our vision of becoming the leading pet care business in the world, we need a strong strategy & transformation capability and are therefore looking to hire a Head of Corporate Development. It is an exciting time at Pets at Home as we are investing to further digitise our business from a position of competitive strength: in our most half year, our like-for-like revenue grew 22.2% (or 28.6% on a 2-year basis) and our omnichannel revenue grew by 21.5% (or 101.4% on a 2-year basis).

About the role

This role will report into our Group Director of Strategy & Transformation and will work closely with our Group Exec, and across our Retail and Vet businesses to deliver our ambitious growth agenda, with a focus on M&A opportunities and forming new external strategic partnerships.

As Head of Corporate Development, you will be responsible for working to refine and deliver Pets at Home’s M&A agenda. The role will work as part of our in-house Group Strategy and Transformation team and will provide you with significant responsibility to lead M&A opportunities across the entire Pets at Home Group. You will have broad exposure to all areas of the business and an opportunity to help drive results on the highest value inorganic opportunities across the business.

About your experience

Your blend of strategy-driven M&A and consumer-focused industry experience will really help ensure you thrive within this role and will enable you to add value from day one within our business.

Sharing a passion for our vision to be the best pet care business in the world, alongside an unwavering commitment to our values and behaviours, your experience and capabilities are likely to include the following:

• Strong strategic thinker – who can proactively identify opportunities for M&A and other external partnerships to our accelerate the delivery of our strategy
• Adapt at practically applying key strategic frameworks that link strategy to M&A (e.g. buy/build/partner)
• Demonstrated deal execution skills – experience across the full deal life cycle –from pipeline management to integration; experience could be via advisory/financial investor/corporate (open to FTSE 350 or high growth private companies), or a combination
• Comfort coordinating in-house deal teams and a range of external advisors
• Track record of driving results – highly motivated, creative, and gritty professional who is able to overcome obstacles to deliver positive results
• Comfort working with and presenting to senior stakeholders, including at a Board level
• Excellent commercial instincts – a strong ‘nose for value’ – meaning the ability to identify the key value creation levers in a deal and the key activities required to pull those levers
• A strong ‘bias to action’ – with a track record of developing and delivering pragmatic, actionable recommendations and plans
• Ability to work effectively across teams and with all levels to drive deal execution – skilled at leading without formal authority
• Clear and up-front communicator – both written and verbal communication are based on facts, have clear recommendations and drive decision-making/action

The following experiences and qualifications are desirable for the role, but non-essential:

• A mix of top quality professional training/experience (at leading strategy consulting firm, investment bank, or Big 4 Corporate Finance division) and in-house experience
• MBA from a leading institution
• Qualified accountant (ACA/CIMA)

We are a fast-paced, innovative and high performing business, with a unique culture based on kindness and respect. Whilst you are likely to be excited by leading strategic M&A activity at a senior level across the organisation, you will equally be comfortable in the detail when required, working with a diverse set of teams to drive forward initiatives.