Director, M&A People Strategy & Integration
Chicago · San Francisco · 7-10 years experience · Posted Oct 12, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 7-10 years experience
- Location
- Chicago · San Francisco
About the role
- We are looking for a strategic, hands-on Director, M&A People Strategy & Integration to lead the human capital lifecycle for our deal pipeline.
- In this high-impact individual contributor role, you will design and execute due diligence and post-merger integration strategies centered on talent, organizational design, compensation, and cultural alignment.
Responsibilities
- Lead HR and talent due diligence across target organizations, analyzing organizational structures, total rewards programs, workforce demographics, employment contracts, and labor compliance risks.
- Evaluate key talent retention risks, leadership team capabilities, organizational design, critical skills gaps, and cultural alignment to inform valuation, deal terms, and integration strategies.
- Partner with Finance to analyze workforce cost structures, including compensation, benefits, harmonization costs, retention packages, severance exposure, and synergy targets.
- Build and maintain scalable People M&A playbooks, defining key deliverables across HR, Legal, Finance, and IT for Day 1 readiness and First 100 Days goals.
- Partner with Legal to manage employment contract transfers, equity roll-overs, restrictive covenants, immigration/visa transfers, works council/labor relations requirements, and employment law compliance.
- Collaborate with TD&I and People Ops to manage HR Information System (HRIS) migrations, identity/access management transitions, payroll cutovers, and benefit vendor consolidations.
- Partner with Total Rewards to design side-by-side benefit maps, compensation alignment structures, equity conversions, and stay/retention bonus programs for acquired employees.
- Partner with Internal Comms and Legal to design Day 1 announcement communications, offer letter rollouts, onboarding experiences, and executive town halls.
- Track, monitor, and support key talent post-close, driving initiatives that preserve company culture and minimize unwanted attrition.
- During lower deal volume periods, you will drive and project-manage strategic, high-visibility initiatives across the broader Total Rewards organization.
Requirements
- 7–10+ years in M&A HR and Talent strategy, People Integration, or M&A Human Capital consulting (Big 4 / strategic advisory), with end-to-end deal lifecycle management.
- Proven ability to drive joint workstreams with Legal, Finance/Payroll, IT, and HR functional leads without direct line management authority.
- Strong fluency in global/domestic employment law fundamentals, compensation/benefits harmonization, equity compensation, and HRIS systems migrations.
- Solid skills in workforce data modeling, salary/benefit side-by-side mapping, and workforce financial synthesis.
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or related field
Preferred qualifications
- Master's or SPHR/SHRM-SCP certification preferred.
Benefits
- health, dental and vision insurance
- 401(k)
- flexible spending account
- paid leave (including PTO and parental leave)
- equity
- bonus
Skills
- HRIS
- Total Rewards
- Due Diligence
- Change Management
- Workforce Data Modeling
