Associate (Private Equity)

Council Capital is a healthcare-focused private equity firm based in Nashville, Tennessee, managing over $350 million in committed capital.

We invest in lower middle market healthcare companies where we see the potential to scale purpose and performance. Our investments span control and minority positions in businesses with enterprise values between $10 million and $100 million.

What sets us apart is the Council Model—a proven framework that surrounds founders and leadership teams with a powerful combination of support: our CEO Council of seasoned operators, our Strategic Healthcare Investors who bring real-world insight and access, and our internal Value Creation Team, focused on enabling growth through talent, systems, and strategy.

At Council Capital, we’re not just backing companies—we’re helping build enduring businesses that improve lives and shape the future of healthcare.

The Associate role is not just a support role built around modeling requests. You will find deals, underwrite them, and help support them—you will leave the firm better equipped than you found it. The work splits three ways.

Where your time goes & What that means

40% Business Development Support mid-level-led themes on development and outreach, and own thesis segments of your own: the memo, the target list, and the live outreach, with mid-level approval before anything goes out. Business development is a 40% minimum. When execution is light, your time shifts heavier to sourcing.

40% Diligence and Execution Models, IC memos, and supporting analysis on live deals. You are responsible for analyzing new opportunities and supporting mid-levels in diligence workstreams end-to-end, including third-party providers and the timeline.

20% Portfolio Support Portfolio companies as assigned, alongside mid-levels and Partners, joining boards as an observer. Waterfalls, board materials, and reporting with variances flagged before management raises them.

What you will own:

- A quarterly to semi-annual deep dive on a thesis segment, from the memo through the target list through conversations with owners and intermediaries. This might be a segment of a theme a mid-level is driving, or a smaller-scale theme of your own.

- The financial model on live deals: pressure-testing, scenario analysis, building where required, and defending your work when a Partner starts asking questions.

- Operating analysis on targets beyond financial modeling: KPI trends, HR and retention trends, sales and marketing trends, cost trends, and more.

- Support mid-levels in diligence workstreams end-to-end, including third-party providers and the timeline—not just the output.

- IC memos, portfolio updates, and board materials that are ready to circulate after mid-level review.

- Reporting and performance tracking for portfolio companies you support, with variances flagged before management raises them.

What you bring

Required

- Pre-MBA; two to five years of high-performing, early-career experience in a highly analytical field.

- Strong analytical and Excel skills. You should be able to pull apart a financial model, find what is wrong, and defend a view on what drives the business. We care more about how you evaluate a business than whether you follow a banker’s template.

- Evidence that you have owned an analytical workstream rather than executed pieces of someone else's.

- Willingness to pick up the phone—a meaningful share of this job is talking to owners and intermediaries who did not ask to hear from you.

- Comfort committing to a multi-year path.

- Based in Nashville, with the ability to travel up to 20%.

PREFERRED BUT NOT REQUIRED

- Healthcare exposure. Payers, reimbursement, and provider economics are learnable, and we will teach them, but a head start helps.

- Lower middle market or middle market transaction experience, where the data is incomplete and the seller is often the founder.

Council Capital and our portfolio companies are committed to building high-performing teams by hiring the best talent—period.

We believe in putting the right people in the right seats, regardless of background, and we’re always looking for individuals who bring fresh thinking, grit, and a drive to make a difference.

Thank you for considering a role with one of our companies. We’re excited to learn more about you.