Mergers & Acquisitions Project Manager

About the Role

As the Mergers & Acquisitions Project Manager, you will support the company’s acquisition strategy and integration activities. Reporting to the Vice President of Strategic Growth & Integration, this position will support the full acquisition lifecycle—from pipeline development and initial target evaluation through due diligence, closing, and post-acquisition integration. This is a hands-on project management role responsible for establishing and maintaining the work plans, schedules, meeting cadences, trackers, and cross-functional coordination necessary to keep acquisition and integration activities organized, accountable, and moving toward key milestones. The successful candidate will be highly organized, responsive, and comfortable managing multiple priorities and confidential information in a fast-paced environment. This role will work closely with senior leadership, acquisition targets, external advisors, and functional leaders across Core States to support a consistent and scalable acquisition program.

Responsibilities

• Acquisition Pipeline Development and Target Evaluation: Research and identify potential acquisition targets that align with Core States’ strategic priorities; maintain and update the acquisition pipeline; support outreach efforts; review confidential information memoranda, financial statements, management presentations, organizational information, and other materials; develop an informed understanding of each target firm; identify key opportunities, risks, trends, information gaps, and follow-up questions; prepare target company summaries, presentation materials, and decision-support materials; track acquisition activity, pipeline metrics, and progress against corporate development goals.
• Transaction & Due Diligence Project Management: Coordinate acquisition diligence and review across multiple workflows; organize and review information received from acquisition targets; develop and maintain diligence request lists, data rooms, document trackers, issue logs, decision logs, and closing checklists; coordinate calendars and meeting schedules, prepare agendas and materials, document action items, monitor completion of assigned tasks, and follow up; assist in preparing internal acquisition approval materials and presentations; ensure material diligence findings, decisions, and potential integration implications are clearly documented and incorporated into transaction and integration planning.
• Integration Project Management and Program Development: Coordinate the development and execution of acquisition integration plans; maintain integration work plans, milestone schedules, risk logs, and action-item trackers; coordinate with functional workstream leaders to monitor progress, identify dependencies, and escalate potential delays or risks; facilitate recurring integration meetings, document decisions and action items, and follow up; assist with coordination of communications related to acquisitions and integrations; track integration goals, commitments, synergies, and other measures of transaction success; continuously improve Core States’ acquisition and integration playbooks, templates, tools, processes, and reporting cadence; prepare recurring reports and dashboards covering acquisition pipeline activity, transaction status, integration progress, key risks, and value-creation initiative; contribute to the continued development of a consistent and scalable corporate development and integration function; participate in integration meetings and travel to acquired company locations as needed.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business administration, project management, finance, economics, or a related field.
• 3-5 years of experience coordinating complex, cross-functional projects in business operations, project management, corporate development, integration, consulting, professional services, private equity, transaction advisory, or a related business environment is preferred.
• Working knowledge of financial