About Salt & Soil Capital

Salt & Soil Capital is a Calgary-based investment firm that acquires, operates, and holds high-quality businesses from retiring owners across Western Canada. We were founded by two Harvard MBAs with backgrounds at McKinsey and as operating CEOs. We invest with a long-term mindset, working closely with founders and management teams to support sustainable growth, operational improvement, and thoughtful succession.

Our first acquisition was a BC-based manufacturer and distributor of architectural LED lighting products that has served designers, contractors, and commercial builders across Western Canada for over a decade. We are actively building the platform from there.

The Salt & Soil name reflects who we are: salt of the earth people who are willing to get their hands dirty, show up consistently, and think long term. Our work spans a range of industries and business models, with a focus on fundamentals and hands-on involvement rather than financial engineering. 

The Role

We are looking for one Analyst graduating in Spring 2026 from a business, engineering, economics, or other analytically rigorous program. This is a remote, Canada-wide role that involves working directly with Salt & Soil’s Managing Directors, the CEOs of our portfolio companies, and business owners across Canada on all aspects of M&A and portfolio company operations.

We do not believe in a sweatshop model of hordes of interns doing meaningless work in exchange for 15 mins / week of ‘senior exposure’. We invest deeply in a single person and expect a lot in return. The role is designed for someone who has the ‘triple threat’ of a) genuine curiosity and methodical problem solving, b) the determination to stick with hard tasks when the path is unclear, and c) the humility to ask the non-obvious question and connect with a wide range of people. In return, you will be brought into conversations typically reserved for MDs, given work that is genuinely high priority for the firm, and supported in building a real, practical foundation in private equity.

Think of the role as part PE analyst: building and stress-testing LBO models, running diligence, assessing industry dynamics, and part MBB business analyst: where you are handed a complex problem that requires structuring, research, clear communication, and an implementation plan. We also incorporate AI heavily into our research and workflows and expect you to do the same.

Our outgoing Analyst built the CRM systems we use to run outbound sourcing today, flew out to Langley to help count inventory with the MDs on our first acquisition, and gets on the phone directly with business owners across the Prairies. That is the kind of work this role involves.

What You’ll Work On

Investment & Deal Analysis

• Analyze acquisition targets across industries and business models (e.g., identifying the top 10 privately owned millwork companies in Alberta)
• Build and review financial models, operating forecasts, and return scenarios (e.g., modelling how a 5% increase in input costs with flat revenue growth affects debt repayment on a leveraged acquisition)
• Conduct market, competitive, and industry research (e.g., mapping the decision-making chain for aluminum-clad windows from architect specification through to distributor and installer)
• Develop and stress-test investment theses, downside cases, and key risks (e.g., if a key customer walks, a key employee leaves, and margins compress simultaneously, does this millwork company still work?)
• Support commercial, financial, and operational due diligence (e.g., re-normalizing the earnings of an owner-operated HVAC company where personal expenses have been run through the business for several years)

Deal Sourcing & Evaluation

• Own and maintain deal sourcing pipelines and CRM tracking, including outbound outreach to privately held businesses that are not listed for sale (e.g., identifying and contacting the owners of 30 independent concrete contractors in Western Canada to understand ownership succession timelines)
• Read and quickly assess confidential information memorandums (CIMs) to determine which opportunities warrant deeper work (e.g. reviewing a CIM for a specialty chemicals distributor and within 20 minutes developing 5 major questions you have to inform valuation)
• Support end-to-end deal execution, including coordinating the financial document flow needed for Quality of Earnings advisors to complete their analysis (e.g., collecting three years of monthly financial statements, customer lists, and payroll records from a target company and organizing them for diligence providers)
• Prepare investment summaries and internal screening materials (e.g., producing an investment brief summarizing the business model, key risks, and indicative valuation for a $20M revenue industrial services company)
• Participate in investment thesis discussions and risk assessments alongside the MDs (e.g., discussing whether a local machinery repair provider’s reliance on oil sands turnaround cycles creates concerning earnings volatility)
• Manage our external deal sourcing team and speak directly with business owners to gather information and build relationships (e.g. speaking with the owner of a second-generation steel fabrication business to understand retirement plans, growth constraints, and openness to selling)

Investor & Transaction Materials

• Prepare materials for investment committee reviews and investor presentations (e.g., building a slide summarizing market size, growth drivers, and competitive positioning for a potential acquisition in the clothing products distribution sector)
• Support transaction documentation and data room organization (e.g. structuring a virtual data room with financials, legal contracts, and operational information to support lender and investor diligence)
• Assist with regulatory and compliance requirements as needed (e.g. compiling investor accreditation documentation and maintaining organized records for transaction closing)

Portfolio Company & Operator Support

• Work directly with portfolio company leadership on operational and strategic projects (e.g., helping a CEO build a sales pipeline tracker or work through a pricing decision)
• Assist with post-acquisition integration and operational analysis (e.g., comparing inventory levels across SKUs to determine over/understock items)
• Provide ad-hoc financial, strategic, and analytical support to management teams as priorities evolve (e.g., building a simple dashboard tracking monthly revenue, sales backlog, and cash flow for the management team)

Who We’re Looking For – Make this match ‘triple threat’

We are seeking a Spring 2026 graduate from a business, engineering, economics, finance, or other analytically rigorous program. Prior exposure to finance, consulting, or operations is helpful but not required. What we care more about:

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills — able to break down an unfamiliar industry, identify its key players, estimate a market size from limited data, and understand why a company’s margins differ from its peers
• Comfort with financial statements and models — or a demonstrated ability and genuine eagerness to develop that fluency quickly
• Ability to synthesize complex information clearly — for example, being able to describe in 30 seconds whether a company is worth pursuing and why
• High attention to detail — the kind that catches a number that doesn’t reconcile across two sources, or notices a missing assumption that quietly changes the whole model
• Genuine curiosity about how businesses work — an interest in understanding operations, customers, competitive dynamics, and what actually drives value over time
• Self-direction and reliability in a remote environment — managing research projects independently, meeting deadlines without constant oversight, and proactively raising obstacles before they become problems
• Comfort forming and revising views under uncertainty — building an initial perspective from limited public information, then updating it clearly as financial statements, customer data, and diligence findings become available
• Professional judgment and discretion — handling confidential information about private businesses and their owners with appropriate care
• Deep humility and genuine initiative — the willingness to ask the question nobody else asked, admit what you don’t know, and take ownership of outcomes rather than just tasks

Structure & Location

• Remote role, open to candidates located anywhere in Canada. Co-locating in Calgary is preferable but not required.
• Some travel required to visit portfolio companies and attend in-person Salt & Soil activities
• Flexible structure with meaningful responsibility from early on and growing ownership of work over time
• Competitive compensation
• One-month overlap with our outgoing Analyst to ensure a thorough handover

Application Process

If this role sounds like the kind of challenge you are genuinely looking for, we would love to hear from you. We have designed the application process to reflect the actual skills required in this work, while being respectful of your time and avoiding unnecessary 20-hour modelling demands before we have had a real conversation.

1. Submission — due April 3, 2026
2. Updated resume (1 page max), titled LastName_FirstName_Resume_SSC.pdf
3. Between submission and the phone screen, find and summarize a privately owned business you believe would be a good candidate for the Salt & Soil acquisition model. The company name must begin with the same letter as your first name. We encourage you to go beyond publicly available data; visit the business in person, call the owner, speak with a customer or supplier. Surprise us with something interesting but obviously respect confidentiality and the time of the owners.
4. Phone screen (week of April 6) — A 30-minute conversation with our current Analyst to discuss your interest in the role and give you a candid picture of what the day-to-day work actually looks like. At this stage, you’ll be asked to submit your one-page summary via email of the private owned business you were assigned in 1b.
5. First MD interview (week of April 13) — A 60-minute virtual interview with one of Salt & Soil’s Managing Directors covering your background, motivations, and how you approach real problems and hypothetical situations that come up in deal work
6. Case assignment (week of April 20) — A practical exercise built around the company you chose in your written submission, covering two of the most common activities in this role:
7. Company research: You will be asked to answer 5–7 outside-in questions about your target company — covering key risks, market dynamics, customer base, and competitive position — and present your findings in a way that is clear and easy to act on
8. Financial model: You will receive a standard acquisition model and be asked to populate it with your own assumptions for the target company. We are less focused on the specific numbers and more interested in understanding how you think through a problem, where you apply judgment, and how you communicate uncertainty
9. Final MD interview (week of April 27) — You will present your case assignment and discuss your findings, followed by a broader conversation about Salt & Soil, the role, and your longer-term goals
10. Decision: May 1, 2026
11. Start date: June 1, 2026

If you have questions before applying, feel free to reach out to owen@saltandsoil.ca.