[Hiring] Associate, Strategic Growth @Ascend Partner Services

Role Description

Ascend is seeking an Associate, Business Development to support the VP, Client Development in designing and operationalizing Ascend’s new business playbook — driving new business growth across the portfolio, enabling CPAs to develop their business development skills and habits, and measuring the impact of those efforts with rigor. This role exists to make growth happen, not just plan it.

The Business Development Associate will work at the intersection of strategy and execution. This position will be deploying playbooks across partner firms, building and maintaining performance reporting systems, designing CPA training and enablement programs, and serving as a trusted partner to Chief Growth Officers and Partner Firm leadership. Success in this role requires winning through influence: building credibility, simplifying complexity, and consistently delivering results without direct line authority.

Key Relationships

• Reports to: VP, Client Development
• Core Collaborators: The Strategic Growth function, including Regional Presidents and Chief Growth Officers, and Ascend’s Head of Professional Development
• Influence Targets (no reporting line): Partner Firm CEOs, BD Champions, Client Relationship Owners (Partners & Managers), and other Partner Firm team members involved in business development

Role Responsibilities

• Drive Execution of the Growth Playbook
  • Support the VP in deploying the new business playbook in new and existing Partner Firms
  • Coordinate BD meeting rhythms, pipeline setup, and goal-setting sessions with Partner Firm leadership in collaboration with Chief Growth Officers
  • Help build and maintain firm-level maturity assessments that calibrate the playbook starting point for each firm
  • Assist in developing and refreshing firm-wide go-to-market strategy materials: ICP, positioning, messaging, and niche identification
  • Build and maintain a repeatable event-as-BD playbook — templates, run-of-show guides, and post-event follow-up systems
  • Track playbook adoption across the portfolio and surface blockers to the VP
  • Support systematic deployment in new Partner Firms and motion to integrate new add-ons
• Keep a Close Eye on the Numbers
  • Track portfolio-wide BD performance against established KPIs, proactively identify risks and trends, and escalate to the VP in time to act.
  • Monitor and report on portfolio-wide BD metrics weekly — tracking each firm’s progress against targets across new business, cross-sell, pipeline health, revenue per client group, and service mix
  • Proactively flag risks — firms trending behind on new business pace, pipeline stalling, ASP slipping, tax mix drifting — before they become bigger problems
  • Escalate early and with context: bring a clear read on what’s off, which firm, by how much, and a hypothesis on why
  • Spot positive trends and bright spots; surface which firms are outperforming and drive understanding of what’s working so it can be replicated
  • Maintain data integrity — ensure accuracy in weekly KPI reporting by following up with firm contacts on missing or inconsistent data
  • Prepare concise performance snapshots for VP use in ELT updates, QBRs, and firm check-ins — clear on status, trajectory, and where attention is needed
  • Support revenue forecast accuracy by keeping a live read on pipeline quality and pacing across firms
• BD Training & Enablement for CPAs
  • Support the design and deployment of a CPA training program that drives meaningful year-over-year improvement in individual participant new business and measurable growth in “Activator” habits.
  • Project-manage the training calendar across Ascend, Firm, Group, and Individual delivery formats
  • Develop training materials (decks, workbooks, facilitator guides) covering sales process, asking great questions, discovery meetings, pitches, fee negotiation, and event/conference success
  • Coordinate with Ascend’s Professional Development team to align training with the Ascend PD Way and reinforce lasting behavior change through ongoing reinforcement, practice, and accountability
  • Collect post-training NPS and participant feedback; produce summary reports and iterate on program design
  • Manage relationships with third-party training vendors and support performance management of those partners
  • Build and maintain the CPA enablement toolkit: templates, checklists, target research guides, and pitch frameworks
  • Support CRM rollout as an enablement tool — helping CPAs become enthusiastic users in their day-to-day BD work

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university
• 2–4 years of experience in a fast-paced environment; background in management consulting, sales strategy, business development, or a high-growth company strongly preferred
• Demonstrated track record of driving results through influence, project management, and cross-functional collaboration

Requirements

• Systems builder and change leader — able to design repeatable processes and influence adoption across a distributed organization without direct authority
• Coach, enabler, and teacher — genuinely enjoys developing others and has a knack for making complex concepts simple and actionable for practitioners
• Data-driven operator — comfortable building and maintaining KPI dashboards, spotting trends in noisy data, and translating numbers into clear narratives for leadership
• Empathy for the CPA — understands the demands of professional services and brings patience, warmth, and credibility when working with Partner Firm teams
• Exceptional organizational skills, strong prioritization instincts, comfortable in high-growth environments where the playbook is still being written, high pace of play, and a bias for action
• Strong written and verbal communication skills — able to produce crisp materials (decks, memos, trackers) and present clearly to both operational and executive audiences
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite (particularly Excel and PowerPoint); familiarity with CRM tools and project management software is a plus

Benefits

• Highly competitive cash and equity bonus compensation package, including attractive benefits.
• Start date is as soon as practicable.

Company Description

At Ascend, we provide a fair and equal employment opportunity for all candidates regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, gender, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, age, marital status, disability, or any other legally protected characteristic. Ascend hires and promotes individuals solely based on qualifications for the position to be filled and business needs.