Senior Associate - Private Equity - Special Situations

The platform The firm invests opportunistically wherever a standard capital structure solution is unavailable 0 balance sheet stress, operational underperformance, StaRUG and insolvency processes, carve-outs of non-core divisions, succession and shareholder disputes, and growth-hungry companies that cannot access conventional funding. Current sector emphasis sits on energy transition, traditional and digital infrastructure, healthcare and chemicals, but nothing is off the table. Equity is the preference, though the firm can write any layer of the capital structure. Cheques typically run EUR 20–50m in the stabilisation phase, with capacity up to several hundred million for the right situation, targeting majority positions and two to four transactions a year in the DACH market. The classic hold is two-phase: restructure over two to three years, then fund growth. The team is under ten people with a decade of shared history and extremely short decision lines. There is no analyst layer beneath you and no committee to hide behind. The role • Screening and assessing inbound and proprietary situations across sectors • Building operating and LBO models, liquidity and cash flow forecasts, and restructuring scenario analysis • Running commercial, financial, tax and legal diligence workstreams with advisers • Capital structure analysis, valuation across the waterfall and structuring of equity and debt instruments • Preparing investment papers and presenting to the Managing Partner and the anchor investor • Working alongside lenders, insolvency administrators, CROs, management teams and existing shareholders • Hands-on portfolio work post-close: liquidity monitoring, reporting, KPI tracking, refinancing and exit preparation Background required • Roughly 3–5 years post-graduate experience in private equity, special situations, restructuring advisory, distressed debt, leveraged finance, debt advisory or transaction-focused corporate finance • Strong modelling and analytical ability — cash flow and capital structure work, not just entry-exit LBO mechanics • Some exposure to stressed, distressed or complex situations is a clear advantage; German restructuring or insolvency process experience is a strong plus • Fluent German and English, both to business standard — non-negotiable for this market • Excellent academics from a strong German or international university • Comfortable in a flat, lean structure where you own the work end to end and pick up the phone yourself • Pragmatic, commercially minded and unbothered by messy situations, incomplete information and difficult stakeholders