People Programs, M&A Lead

About the role

Anthropic is seeking a senior M&A People Program Manager to own the People side of our M&A program end-to-end. The People PMO is a nimble team of organizational architects who take the company's most pressing people and culture challenges from 0 to 1 and we need a senior operator who doesn't just run deals but also defines how this company does the People side of M&A.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the People-side M&A program end-to-end: strategy, operating model, standards, and outcomes across all deals, from earliest deal discussions through 90-day integration and retro.
• Act as Corp Dev's strategic counterpart on People matters: Inform deal structure, timelines, retention strategy, entity decisions, and people-cost implications early enough to shape outcomes, not just react to them.
• Set the long term direction for the program: where we invest in infrastructure, what we standardize, and how the function should evolve.
• Leading the most complex deals: Serve as the People-side DRI for our largest and most complex acquisitions — multi-entity or international deals, larger teams, concurrent transactions, and situations with significant retention or sentiment risk.
• Sequence interdependent workstreams (immigration, offers, entity setup, onboarding, benefits, internal comms) correctly under compressed timelines, and keep the acquiree experience strong even when plans change.
• Anticipate downstream risk from upstream deal decisions and raise flags early — with options and trade-offs, not just problems.
• Direction-setting and quality across the program: Set the standards, templates, and decision frameworks that all People-side M&A work follows, in partnership with the existing team.
• Build the infrastructure that doesn't exist yet — intake processes, diligence checklists, integration tracking, retention frameworks, post-close retros — and make it durable enough that it scales beyond your personal involvement.
• Identify recurring failure modes across deals and implement upstream fixes; institutionalize learnings so the playbook genuinely improves with every transaction.
• Use Claude and automation thoughtfully to scale the program (tracking, drafting, checklist generation) so the team's capacity grows faster than headcount.

Minimum Requirements

• Experience across program management, HR/People operations, and M&A integration, including direct ownership of People workstreams across multiple transactions — not just participation in one.
• Operated as a true partner to Corp Dev or a deal team: you've influenced deal structure, timing, or retention decisions, not only executed the People plan that followed them.
• Can hold a portfolio of work — multiple deals, multiple workstreams per deal — and sequence interdependencies correctly (immigration before offers; entity verification before onboarding) without letting details drop.
• Know how to set direction and standards for work you don't personally execute, and keep the bar high with people who don't report to you.
• Exceptionally organized and calm under pressure, and communicate clearly and directly when timelines are tight or information is incomplete.
• Build programs and systems that outlast you — playbooks, frameworks, and processes that others adopt and run without you in the room.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10+ years across M&A integration, program management, and/or HR/People operations, with ownership and scope that has grown deal over deal.
• Stood up an M&A People integration function or playbook from scratch at a fast-growing technology company.
• Led People integration for international or multi-entity acquisitions, including immigration, employment legal, and entity-setup coordination.
• Managed several concurrent transactions, or a deal pipeline, rather than a single deal at a time.
• Experience guiding or mentoring other program managers, or leading pods/working teams without formal management authority.
• Worked closely enough with Corp Dev to be trusted in target-facing conversations (management meetings, retention discussions, close-day communications).

Pay

$310,000—$380,000 USD