Director, Corporate Development

Who are we?

Sidewalk Labs is an urban innovation company working to make cities more sustainable and affordable for all. We create products, invest in new companies, and help plan innovative places around the world. Since our founding in 2015, we’ve grown into an organization of over 100 employees based primarily in New York City. Our cross-disciplinary team consists of experts from real estate, urban planning, government, finance, technology, and engineering, among other backgrounds.

We’ve launched innovative companies addressing urban mobility, next-generation infrastructure, and community-based healthcare, and invested in startups working on everything from robotic furniture to new forms of power delivery. We continue to work internally on projects such as factory-made mass timber construction that can improve housing affordability and sustainability, a digital master-planning tool designed to help developers and communities achieve shared objectives, an AI platform designed to help commercial buildings save energy, and a new approach to all-electric neighborhoods.

With the potential to catalyze and scale new models for sustainable and affordable growth, our work is both exciting and complex. We are working to achieve something unprecedented — help us build it!

What is the role?

The Director, Corporate Development is a new role, reporting directly to our CFO, Holly Lim. The overall goal of the role is to proactively identify market opportunities; source, assess, execute on, and manage potential opportunities across acquisitions, investments, commercial partnerships / joint ventures; and source capital for the company’s operating businesses. 

In support of these transaction-related workstreams and to help inform the company’s commercial strategy, the role will develop industry-wide relationships that can create sourcing opportunities, inform product strategy, and stay abreast of the competitive landscape. Other activities include: working closely with and supporting the teams working on new ideas and incubations; and conducting targeted research that includes thematic studies based on the urban innovation landscape, ad hoc research on adjacencies to current investments, and industry trends across urban planning, real estate development, and technology. The role also will lead portfolio management efforts for Sidewalk Labs’ existing investment portfolio, including driving potential follow-on investments and supporting strategic decisions by Sidewalk Labs’ with respect to these companies.

This is a great opportunity for someone who has honed their skill set in identifying, modeling, structuring, and executing transactions and is eager to leverage their technical and management skills on the frontline of innovation.

The Director, Corporate Development will: 

• Develop the team's structure for discovering, analyzing, prioritizing, and executing upon potential investments, partnerships, acquisitions, and other commercial transactions;
• Design and lead “thematic sprints” intended to surface new opportunities in urban innovation that Sidewalk Labs can pursue;
• Create quarterly competitive updates on key markets and investment areas in urban innovation;
• Model out potential future market sizes and returns of asset classes across the urban innovation spectrum;
• Execute on deal structuring, negotiation, due diligence, and integration efforts.

What You Will Achieve

1. After 3 months you will have...
   1. Built a strong network inside of Sidewalk Labs, understand the breadth of our work and our current insights-driven investment model;
   2. Leaned into the urban innovation space and delivered a first competitive analysis demonstrating your foundational understanding of key issues, related solutions, and the individuals and organizations leading these efforts;
   3. Engaged in one or more transactions.
2. After 6 months you will have...
   1. Identified 3+ opportunities we are investing time and resources into exploring because you connected your analyses with our existing products, capabilities, and thematic white space;
   2. Launched a quarterly competitive analysis across the urban innovation landscape, competitor set, and potential themes within the framework that would be worthy of a deep analysis.
3. After 12 months you will have...
   1. Created a holistic resource allocation methodology and developed our rolling 18 - 36 month investment roadmap;
   2. Become an integral part of our strategic pursuit of innovation and incubation opportunities, supporting their market research and technical modeling needs.

What We Expect

• You have strong experience and expertise that enables you to operate independently and develop a range of commercial viewpoints and action plans: 10+ years of experience across Corporate Development, Venture Capital, Private Equity, and/or other roles at the intersection of investing and strategy.
  • Strong experience in research, sourcing, due diligence, modeling, and research (focused on competitive environment and market trends);
  • Deal experience, including great depth on structuring of investments and other partnerships, and closing transactions;
  • Legal background (or deep familiarity with the negotiation of transaction documentation) is a plus.
• You have the abilities and skills required to deliver on your objectives:
  • You drive your research across urban innovation independently, articulate theses on opportunities, and assess potential investment opportunities and acquisitions across existing and future markets;
  • You have a strategic framework approach to investments and can model out future market sizes and returns of asset classes, as well as combinations of products/business;
• You work extremely well with others, also across disciplines,
  • You have experience working collaboratively across functions (Product, Legal, Finance, GTM, and People);
  • You have the ability to build collaborative relationships quickly, listen deeply, and communicate your point of view succinctly.
• You care about our mission of radically improving urban life.
  • We believe in the ability of innovation to improve affordability and sustainability in cities.

We are very excited to hear from you.

Sidewalk Labs is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We actively seek applicants from underrepresented communities. Even if you are not 100% sure you are right for the role, please apply and we will be happy to consider your application. All employment is based on merit and business need, and we respond to each application we receive.