About the Role
Dune Advisors is seeking an experienced Associate Director to lead complex carve-out, integration, separation, and divestment engagements. This role offers the opportunity to influence outcomes, implement change, and shape the future of a growing firm by acting as a trusted advisor to senior clients and leading high-performing teams.
Responsibilities
- Lead the planning and delivery of complex carve-out, integration, separation, and divestment engagements from assessment through to implementation.
- Conduct operational due diligence, assessing stand-alone costs, separation complexity, operational risks, value creation opportunities, and implementation requirements.
- Evaluate transactions from an operational perspective, linking to financial, commercial, and value creation considerations.
- Assess the pre-deal carve-out situation, including perimeter definition, operating model implications, cost, complexity, dependencies, and key risks.
- Lead Day One readiness planning, covering operational, people, process, technology, governance, and stakeholder requirements.
- Lead post-acquisition implementation of carve-outs and integrations, including Day One execution, TSA management, TSA exit planning, and transition to the standalone or integrated organisation.
- Develop Day 100 plans, defining milestones, owners, interdependencies, and delivery governance.
- Understand the current-state organisation and design the future-state operating model, including run costs, expected synergies, benefits, and cost savings.
- Identify, articulate, and manage interdependencies across all aspects of the deal, including functions, workstreams, systems, processes, people, and third parties.
- Research, assess, and recommend practical solutions to separation and integration issues that span multiple functions, bringing relevant business and industry insight.
- Drive delivery at pace, including execution within accelerated 100-day timelines where required.
- Provide senior oversight across the engagement team, ensuring high-quality delivery and an effective client experience.
- Take overall responsibility for the content, quality, and delivery of all work products.
- Ensure each engagement is delivered by the right team, with clear roles, responsibilities, and ways of working, to the highest standard and within budget.
- Act as a trusted advisor to clients, tailoring advice to their transaction context, business priorities, and organisational realities.
- Build and leverage internal and external relationships to support business development and deepen client relationships.
- Use client relationships to generate insight into client issues, priorities, and opportunities.
- Identify opportunities within existing accounts, grow account value, and originate new opportunities through your network.
- Support proposals, contributing to the successful sale of new engagements.
- Contribute to the continuous development of Dune Advisors’ propositions, ensuring our content, knowledge, and methods reflect market trends and client needs.
- Support the development of processes and initiatives that are key to scaling the business, including frameworks, tools, templates, and thought leadership.
- Help build Dune Advisors’ Transactions practice by codifying best practice and strengthening our delivery approach.
- Coach and develop consultants and managers, providing direction, feedback, and support.
- Support strategic hiring and team-building activities.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university; MBA preferred.
- Significant management consulting experience, ideally with recent experience in a top-tier strategy, transactions, or transformation advisory firm.
- Deep hands-on experience leading buy-side and sell-side carve-outs, separations, integrations, and divestments across the full deal lifecycle, from diligence and perimeter definition through to Day One readiness, TSA exit, and standalone operation.
- Proven track record of leading complex carve-out programmes, including defining the business perimeter, mapping operational dependencies, assessing stranded cost and one-off separation costs, and shaping the future-state operating model.
- Strong experience structuring Transitional Service Agreements, including service catalogues, service levels, pricing and charging mechanisms, governance, reporting, dispute resolution, exit criteria, and transition timelines.
- Practical experience executing TSAs after close, including managing service performance, issue escalation, dependency tracking, exit planning, service migration, and handover to the standalone or integrated organisation.
- Ability to lead functional separation planning across areas such as IT, Finance, HR, Procurement, Supply Chain, Operations, Legal, Commercial, Facilities, and third-party services.
- Strong understanding of Day One readiness, including critical path planning, decision logs, cutover planning, risk management, communications, people impacts, and operational continuity.
- Experience translating deal thesis, synergy targets, cost savings, and value creation opportunities into actionable implementation plans with clear milestones, owners, benefits, and governance.
- Ability to move beyond PMO reporting to actively resolve complex operational, financial, and organisational issues that arise during carve-out and integration execution.
- Strong analytical skills, with the ability to assess financial and operational data, identify value and risk, and convert insight into clear recommendations for senior stakeholders.
- Confident engaging with C-suite executives, deal teams, and functional leaders, and able to communicate complex separation and TSA issues clearly and commercially.
- Strong people manager, able to lead cross-functional and often global engagement teams, develop consultants, and create a high-performance delivery culture.
- Practical, hands-on delivery mindset with the ability to work at pace in ambiguous, high-pressure deal environments.
Skills
- Strategic advisory
- Transformation
- M&A support
- Carve-out
- Integration
- Separation
- Divestment
- Operational due diligence
- Day One readiness
- TSA management
- Day 100 planning
- Standalone transition
- Operating model design
- Business development
- Client relationship management
- Team leadership
- Consultant coaching and development
Location
- London
- UK
- Europe
Work Type
- Hybrid
- Office-based (3 days/week)
- Travel required
Experience Level
- Associate Director
- Significant management consulting experience
- Recent experience in a top-tier strategy, transactions or transformation advisory firm
- Deep hands-on experience leading buy-side and sell-side carve-outs, separations, integrations and divestments
Education Level
- Bachelor’s degree
- MBA preferred
Benefits
- Hybrid working
- Competitive compensation
- Competitive benefits
- Fast progression
About the Company
- Dune Advisors is a boutique management consultancy specialising in strategic advisory, transformation and M&A support for clients across Life Sciences, Consumer Products, Manufacturing and Infrastructure sectors.
- Based in London, we work closely with large global organisations to deliver high-impact change through strategy, design and implementation.
- As we continue to grow, we are expanding our Transactions capability.
