Principal Merger & Acquisition Integration

Why UKG

At UKG, your work matters. The code you ship, the decisions you make, and the care you show a customer all add up to real impact. Today, tens of millions of workers start and end their days with our workforce operating platform, helping people get paid, grow in their careers, and shape the future of their industries. We never stop learning, challenging the norm, and pushing for better, celebrating wins along the way. Here, you'll get real flexibility, dependable benefits, and a team that succeeds together. Because at UKG, your work matters—and so do you.

About The Role

As a Principal Merger & Acquisition Integration at UKG, you will be responsible for managing the planning and execution of post-merger integration for assigned acquisitions. The ideal candidate is an execution-focused professional with experience in M&A integration and cross-functional projects in a SaaS-based environment. Consulting industry experience working on M&A Integration or Program Management leading transformational projects is strongly preferred.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead integration planning activities, engaging with functional leaders across the organization.
• Define key value drivers & KPIs, integration priorities, and milestones in partnership with functional leaders and by leveraging due diligence findings.
• Build out and manage integration plans using project management tools (e.g., Smartsheet, MS Project). Leverage AI tools as appropriate.
• Maintain governance over integration status reporting, risk mitigation, decision tracking, and stakeholder updates.
• Lead cross-functional teams and help drive issues to closure.
• Support monitoring of acquisition performance against plan, including preparation of quarterly summary reports.
• Support ad-hoc projects and analyses as required.

Operational Excellence and Continuous Improvement

• Enhance existing integration playbook and tooling framework.
• Facilitate feedback surveys with acquisition integration participants (UKG team, acquired businesses, etc.) and run feedback loops to evolve integration practices.

Required Qualification

• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Strategy, Finance, or a related field; MBA preferred.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in top-tier consulting, corporate strategy, corporate development, or M&A integration leadership.
• 5+ years of direct post-merger integration experience, leading complex, enterprise-scale M&A or business transformation initiatives.
• Proven ability to independently lead end-to-end integration engagements, driving cross-functional workstreams and delivering results with executive visibility.
• Strong experience in go-to-market, sales operating models/rules of engagement, marketing, HR alignment, and technology integration (enterprise/SaaS environment preferred).
• Executive-level communication and presentation skills with experience influencing senior leadership.
• Strong financial acumen, including P&L understanding, synergy tracking, and value realization.
• Proficiency in structured program management disciplines and tools (e.g., MS Project, Smartsheet, Excel, PowerPoint).

Preferred Qualifications

• M&A lifecycle expertise—deal rationale through integration and value tracking.
• Background in SaaS or enterprise software industry in organizations the size of UKG or larger, is highly preferred.
• Familiarity with operating in a global and heavily matrixed operating environment.

Key Competencies

• Executive Presence: Confident communicator, ability to engage at different levels of the organization, challenge assumptions and push through priorities.
• Analytical Thinking: Comfortable with ambiguity and synthesizing data into actionable insights.
• Bias for Action: Operates with urgency, proactivity, and a continuous improvement mindset.
• Embrace Change: Ability to operate in a fast-paced environment and embrace new tools.
• Multi-tasker: Ability to run multiple projects simultaneously.

Key skills/competency

• M&A Integration Management
• Cross-functional Leadership
• Program Management
• Due Diligence & Value Realization
• SaaS Business Acumen
• Go-to-Market Strategy
• Financial Acumen (P&L, Synergy)
• Executive Communication
• Risk Mitigation & Governance
• Project Management Tools (Smartsheet, MS Project)