Post-Quarter Life Crisis Break, Want to Break into Corp Dev in US from Canada

Cross-posted on the Corp Dev forum as well

Hi all,

I was a Canadian M&A banker for 3.5 years (left after 1.5 years as an associate) at the Big 5 banks (TD, RBC, CIBC, etc.), with a top 3 undergrad degree in business administration (Queens, Ivey). I was just on a career break for 6 months, and now just coming back into the job search grind.

I am hoping to leave Canada (currently a country I don't see a future in) and move to the US for a few years, ideally hoping to secure a job in Corporate Development. 

I have a few questions that I would really appreciate some answers to, feel free to answer any one of them if you have the insights:

(More specific to Canadian readers here, immigration-related):

1. I will need to find a job that will work with me to get a TN visa at the end of the day. When I apply online, do I select Yes / No to the work authorization question? How have fellow Canadians answered when this question was asked? I have read on WSO that some people just say Yes to not be filtered out automatically; if you do this, when and how do you eventually break the news to the company?

2. What category does a Corporate Development worker use for TN? Economist? Is it a far stretch? If I get a job at a tech company as a corp dev associate, how is it possible that they would have an economist? Just thinking about this from a CBP / USCIS officer's POV

3. Does anyone know how to find "Sponsorship-friendly" firms from a Corp Dev perspective? Can I assume F50 companies are all like this? F100? I've thought about just looking at companies and seeing if they have employees who graduated from Canadian schools (my way of roughly identifying Canadians)

 (General Corp Dev questions):

4. Given my 3.5 years of IB M&A experience, what level in Corp Dev should I be aiming for? Associate, Manager, Director? Frankly clueless about hierarchy in this industry, I know the titles are not so consistent

5. I want to focus on corp development roles, but I'm industry-agnostic. How can I start a search? I feel like it's not as simple as IB recruiting, where you already know the companies you want to target. There could be thousands of companies that have corp dev groups in the US.. Do I just search for connections that work in the field first, and also just apply to job postings online?

6. Does anyone know recruiters that have a Corp Dev focus? I have only seen Glocap mentioned

7. What geography is good to target? Ideally, I want to focus on California / Florida if on-site (how prevalent is remote Corp Dev jobs?) 

8. More general, how is the current job market for Corp Dev? What's the WLB at your work and if you don't mind sharing, salary range?

Thanks for reading, appreciate any insights!