Sr Director of Corporate Development and M&A

Overview

Senior Corporate Development and M&A Director - News Corp

Recognized as the No. 1 site trusted by real estate professionals, ® has been at the forefront of online real estate for over 25 years, connecting buyers, sellers, and renters with trusted insights and expert guidance to find their perfect home. Through its robust suite of tools, ® not only makes a significant impact on the real estate industry at large, but for consumers, navigating the biggest purchase they will make in their life, by providing a user experience that is easy to use, easy to understand, and most of all, easy to make decisions.

Join us on our mission to empower more people to find their way home by breaking barriers to entry, making the right connections, and building confidence through expert guidance.

Location:

Austin, TX or New York, NY (In-Office minimum 3x/week)

At , our mission is to make buying, selling, renting, and living in homes easier and more rewarding for everyone. We have the unique opportunity to make a positive impact by helping people with their biggest life decisions. There’s never been a better time to be at  We’re growing. We’re excited. And we’re more inspired than ever to help people find their own place in the world to call home.

We are seeking a Senior Corporate Development and M&A Director to build and lead ’s deal-making engine across strategic partnerships, investments, and M&A. Reporting to the SVP Finance and Operations, this leader will serve as the end-to-end Deal Lead, driving strategy, sourcing, evaluation, financial modeling, diligence, negotiations, and integration planning.

This role partners closely with the CEO, CFO, Executive Leadership Team, and News Corp stakeholders and is responsible for creating a consistent, repeatable Corporate Development capability that informs strategic decisions and supports our annual Budget, Outlooks, and LRP planning cycles.

• Deal Origination and Strategy
• Build market maps, whitespace analyses, and thesis-driven sourcing aligned with ’s long-term strategy.
• Identify, prioritize, and originate partnership and M&A opportunities, establishing a repeatable sourcing engine.
• Engage internal business leaders to refine acquisition criteria and evaluate potential targets.
• Evaluation, Modeling, and Diligence
• Own all aspects of deal modeling including standalone business cases, scenario analysis, synergy modeling, integration costs, and accretion / dilution.
• Lead cross-functional due diligence across Product, Tech, Analytics, Marketing, Finance, Sales, HR, Legal, and Operations.
• Pressure-test business cases, challenge assumptions, and ensure deal logic is grounded in commercial reality.
• Negotiation and Deal Leadership
• Serve as lead negotiator on structure, term sheets, earn-outs, risk allocation, and closing mechanics.
• Drive the “art and science” of negotiation: strategic positioning, anchor setting, issue prioritization, and cross-party alignment.
• Act as the primary point of contact with target leadership and advisors.
• Integration and Value Realization
• Collaborate with executives and functional owners to design Day 1 through Year 1 integration plans.
• Define synergy capture, KPIs, and post-close governance mechanisms.
• Executive Communication and Governance
• Develop ELT and News Corp CEO/CFO materials including deal rationale, valuation, ROI, risks, and recommendations.
• Establish Corporate Development frameworks, templates, scorecards, and governance used across the enterprise.
• Prepare management presentations and external pitch materials.

A successful candidate will thrive in a fast-paced environment and possess a blend of technical, operational and leadership skills. She/he has a bias-for-action based upon rigorous data analysis and business critical thinking skills. This leader is highly strategic while remaining hands-on and collaborative. Additional requirements include:

• 15 years experience or MBA and minimum of 12+ years experience across Corporate Development, Investment Banking, Private Equity, or VC with demonstrated end-to-end closed deal ownership.
• Deep modeling capability including full 3-statement models, valuation,…