Associate, Private Equity Secondaries

Description

Role Overview:

We anticipate hiring two professionals for this team and are open to candidates with varying levels of experience. These hires will join HighVista's newly formed Private Equity Secondaries team, working directly with senior investment professionals to identify, evaluate, and execute GP-led transactions in the lower middle market. The role demands a rigorous, entrepreneurial professional who can underwrite complex continuation vehicle structures, build conviction on single-asset deals, and contribute meaningfully to a fast-growing strategy from its early stages.

This is a high-impact role for the level, with broad exposure to deal origination, relationship management, financial modeling, and investment committee processes. The successful candidate will bring prior experience in private equity, investment banking, or secondaries, and will possess a genuine intellectual curiosity for lower middle market businesses and the GP-led ecosystem.

Key Responsibilities:

• Conduct rigorous due diligence on GP-led secondary transactions, including single-asset continuation vehicles 
• Build and maintain detailed financial models to evaluate GP-led opportunities, including bottoms up LBO analyses
• Assess underlying portfolio companies across the GP-led pipeline — performing quality of earnings analyses, market sizing, competitive positioning, management track record evaluations, and operational KPI benchmarking
• Develop and maintain proprietary GP relationship coverage maps, tracking deal history, fund cycles, vintage exposure, and continuation fund candidacy across HighVista's lower middle market sponsor universe
• Prepare investment memoranda, IC presentations, and transaction summaries with clarity and precision, synthesizing quantitative and qualitative findings for senior review
• Assist in managing legal documentation review, including LPA summaries, secondary purchase agreements, representation and warranty terms
• Collaborate with the broader HighVista private equity team to leverage primary fund knowledge, co-investment history, and GP relationships when assessing continuation fund transactions

Requirements

• 3–6 years of relevant investment experience, including private equity, investment banking (M&A / financial sponsors), or a dedicated secondaries investment platform
• Strong preference for candidates with prior exposure to high volume GP-led secondaries transactions, continuation vehicle structuring, or lower middle market buyout investing
• Exceptional financial modeling skills with fluency in LBO models and DCF frameworks; familiarity with NAV analysis and secondary pricing methodologies is a strong plus
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate business quality — sound judgment on competitive dynamics, organic growth potential, management alignment, and downside risk in small-cap and lower middle market contexts
• High degree of intellectual rigor and attention to detail; capable of producing IC-ready work product with minimal supervision
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to present complex investment theses clearly and persuasively
• Collaborative and team-oriented work style; comfortable operating in a flat, entrepreneurial environment with meaningful individual ownership