Strategy Consultant/ Management Consultant (Mergers & Acquisitions) ; New York

We’re Hiring: Consultant — Strategy & Transactions (Environmental Services)

Location: Albany, New York, |  Experience: 1–4 years  |  Type: Full-time

About Espalier.ai

Espalier.ai is a decision-intelligence firm for environmental services. We serve private equity sponsors, their portfolio companies, and corporate strategics across the Sustainable Infrastructure economy — Waste, Water, Energy, and Digital Infrastructure — running executive engagements on commercial reset, cross-sell, growth strategy, and M&A intelligence, powered by our own analytics. We operate without a traditional consulting pyramid.

The Role

We’re hiring a Consultant to deliver strategy engagements for private equity firms and corporate clients in the Environmental Services sector — biosolids, hazardous waste, liquid waste, food waste and organics, and solid waste and recycling.

You’ll work closely with an Engagement Manager, who owns the client relationship, while you own the analytical engine: structuring the problem, building the fact base with our India-based analytics team, running the analysis, and turning it into recommendations that deal partners, operating partners, and C-suite executives act on.

What You’ll Own

• Market sizing, segmentation, competitive landscaping, and customer/volume analysis across the environmental services value chain.
• Commercial due diligence and growth strategy workstreams for PE sponsors evaluating platforms and add-ons.
• Acquisition target universes, screening logic, target profiles, and market maps.
• Datasets built from filings, permits, procurement records, and regulatory databases — and the analysis that turns them into a decision.
• Primary research: expert calls, industry interviews, and channel checks.
• Client-ready PowerPoint, Excel, and dashboard deliverables, and the quality of your workstreams end to end.

What You’ll Bring

• 2–4 years in core strategy consulting — a tier-1 or boutique strategy firm 
• Demonstrated structured problem solving and clear executive communication.
• Exposure to M&A or commercial due diligence — target screening, corporate development, transaction advisory, or investment banking.
• Strong data analytics skills: advanced Excel and comfort building and cleaning datasets. Python, SQL, Power BI, or Tableau a plus.
• Comfort with AI-enabled workflows and with working alongside a remote analytics team.
• Learning velocity and tolerance for ambiguity. Environmental services, waste, water, or industrial infrastructure exposure preferred, not required.
• Bachelor’s in Engineering, Economics, or Business; MBA a plus.

WHY JOIN ESPALIER

Espalier is built for practitioners who want to do the work, not manage through layers. Here is what joining the team means in practice:

• Real ownership from day one —— You will lead workstreams, not support them. Your analysis reaches PE deal partners, operating partners, and C-suite executives — with genuine responsibility for the output and the answer.
• Proprietary data at the core —— Espalier pairs strategy consulting with data assets clients cannot buy off the shelf — custom databases, dashboards, and decision models built to become durable client IP. You will both build and deploy them on live engagements.
• AI-enabled workflows —— Espalier operates at the intersection of industrial expertise, AI, and product innovation. You will work with AI-augmented tools and help shape how they are applied to strategy and transactions work.
• A specialization that compounds —— Environmental Services — biosolids, hazardous and liquid waste, food waste and organics — is among the most active and least picked-over corners of infrastructure M&A. The domain expertise you build here is differentiated, portable, and in sustained demand.
• Founder access and direct mentorship —— Working directly alongside Managing Partner and senior leadership means faster feedback, meaningful input on the firm’s direction, and the kind of career development that layers of management typically filter out.