Strategic Leader, Private Equity Relations & Engagement

Role Overview

Reporting to the Global Private Equity Practice Leader, you will be responsible for building and driving engagements with Zscaler’s strategic Private Equity (PE) Partners. The Zscaler PE360 Program works with our PE Partners to drive cyber resiliency, improve EBITDA, mitigate risk and accelerate value creation in their portfolio companies through secure digital transformation, leveraging the Zscaler Zero Trust platform and the broader ecosystem.

In this role, you will serve as the Single Point of Contact for our PE Partners into Zscaler, who’s responsible for building and managing PE firm relationships, commercially negotiating on behalf of the portfolio, ensuring governance, and monitoring the success of our PE partners' portfolio companies. As a strategic partner, you will originate new opportunities and influence sales cycles through a value selling approach that considers the specific transformation needs per portfolio company. You will mobilize the “Best of Zscaler” product specialists, solution engineers, account teams, and industry experts to help non-technical stakeholders understand how technology can impact their investment thesis.

Responsibilities

Strategic Relationship Management

• Establish and maintain strong relationships with strategic Private Equity Partners, acting as the Single Point of Contact into Zscaler for your patch of firms.


• Act as an advocate for the partnership within the Private Equity firm and at Zscaler.


• Manage PE firm stakeholder relationships and understand the intricacies, politics, and strategies required to execute a successful partnership program.


• Define and execute Zscaler’s go-to-market plan for each Private Equity partner with clear success metrics.


• Promote awareness of Zscaler’s Private Equity value propositions internally and externally through speaking and promotional thought leadership events.


• Conduct periodic QBRs with PE partners to enable Zscaler value proposition and share portfolio engagement.

Commercial / Mid Market Execution & Solutions

• Collaborate with Zscaler account teams (e.g. Sales Reps and Sales Engineers) to identify pipeline and pursuit opportunities within Private Equity firms as well as portfolio companies.


• Engage with account teams and PE portfolio companies to ensure customer success and platform adoption


• Lead commercial partnership negotiations, both defining and performing deal structures with respective account teams.


• Understand the Zscaler product suite and be able to develop solutions to accelerate time to value in Private Equity portfolio companies.


• Support our Private Equity Partners across a range of transaction types e.g. add-ons, standard buyouts and/or carveouts.

Value Creation & Operations

• Assist Private Equity Partners and the Business Value team in developing business cases to quantify potential savings, synergies, and value creation opportunities.


• Orchestrate internal and external portfolio performance reviews to assess operational metrics and effectiveness on a recurring basis with leadership.


• Collaborate with alliance and advisory partners involved in advising Private Equity Partners and their portfolio companies.


• Partner with Zscaler’s sales operations team to manage reporting and KPIs within the PE pillar.


• Engage in escalations from PE partners and timely issue resolution to drive superior CSAT

Required Experience

• 7+ years of relevant professional experience in Private Equity, Strategy Consulting, or Investment Banking (aligned with the seniority of the role).


• Extensive experience influencing decisions in the Private Equity market, including specific expertise in working with PE firms and its portfolio companies on buy/sell transactions


• Solid understanding of Private Equity structure, operating model, and relationship with portfolio companies.


• Past experience in Private Equity, Investment Banking or Consulting advising on M&A transactions.


• Must have ability to discuss key investment metrics such as IRR, ROI, TCO, business case development in the context of LBOs.


• Ability to have strategic and value based discussions with C-level executives.


• Prior experience with cost transformations and / or value creation analyses to accelerate time to value and identify EBITDA improvement within portfolio companies.


• Solid understanding of SaaS business model and can operate in a fast paced ‘start-up’ environment.


• Must understand the basics of cyber security e.g. cyber risk management, network security.


• Ability to work autonomously with limited guidance and structure.


• Outstanding communication, strategic, analytical, influencing, and consulting skills, as well as a track record of building and leading sophisticated, multi-disciplinary teams.


• Strong understanding of the sales ecosystem; strategy, methods, cadence, reporting etc. and be proficient in producing accurate forecasts, and business plans while maintaining a focus on team development and growth.


• Degree educated with excellent business/professional English communication skills.

Desired Experience

• Masters of Business Administration or equivalent Masters Degree in Economics, Finance, Accounting or Management from a top institution.


• Top tier consulting firm background, with significant PE, M&A, strategy or digital transformation experience.


• Experience leading an enterprise-wide secure digital transformation in either B2B or B2C.


• Familiarity with cyber security and internet security tools and services.


• Experience in business development in the Private Equity, Venture Capital or M&A industry.


• Relationships across top tier Private Equity firms, domestically and internationally

Travel Requirement/ Conditions

• Remote (US), preferably based in the Northeast US or NYC metro area.


• Occasional travel for PE QBRs, team offsites, partner meetings, or key events (approx. 30% or as needed).

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