Principal People Team Business Partner - M&A / Strategy

About the role

Position Overview: We are seeking a high-velocity, strategic People M&A Leader to own the human side of our mergers and acquisitions end-to-end. In this role, you will be the single designated point person (DRI) and strategic counterpart to our Corporate Development team. You will own the People lifecycle for all deals—from early-stage confirmatory due diligence through post-close integration. Acting as the ultimate "Hub to the Spokes," you will translate deal rationale into practical execution strategies, coordinating fluidly across Recruiting, Total Rewards, People Operations, Workplace Immigration, and Employment Legal. This is a builder role for someone who thrives under compressed timelines, loves creating order out of ambiguity, and is obsessed with delivering a world-class onboarding experience for newly acquired teams.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary People team representative alongside Corporate Development and Legal from deal kickoff through close.
• Evaluate technical talent density and provide critical input into deal structures, focus areas for retention pools, and offer letters.
• Partner with finance and legal to analyze equity structures, ensuring seamless alignment on equity rollover mechanics and cash/stock retention incentives.
• Mobilize and quarterback cross-functional People teams (Recruiting, Comp, People Ops, Immigration, Payroll) to ensure workstreams are perfectly sequenced.
• Build the infrastructure, checklists, and automated workflows that don't exist yet to scale our M&A engine.
• Identify recurring failure modes across deals and implement upstream fixes to continuously optimize our playbooks.
• Provide a "white-glove" experience to incoming talent, serving as their primary advocate, guide, and escalation point as they navigate our culture and systems.
• Partner with leadership and Internal Comms to execute empathetic change management, addressing workforce anxiety through transparent communications, FAQs, and town halls.

Requirements

Experience: 6–10+ years of experience across People Operations, HRBP roles, or Program Management, with at least 3+ years directly owning People/HR workstreams for M&A transactions in high-growth tech environments.

Startup Agility: Proven track record of building 0-to-1 processes. You excel in fast-moving, unstructured environments where templates are built on the fly.

Execution Under Pressure: Outstanding project management skills; calm under pressure and capable of handling highly confidential data and compressed, unpredictable deal timelines.

Technical & Core HR Fluency: Solid foundational understanding of employment legal basics, high-growth compensation structures, and visa/immigration complexities (critical for international or highly technical talent).

Influence Without Authority: Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills. Ability to earn the trust of elite technical founders and seamlessly align cross-functional internal executives.

Desirable Skills, Knowledge, And Experience

• Experience in high-growth tech environments.
• Proven track record of building 0-to-1 processes.
• Outstanding project management skills; calm under pressure and capable of handling highly confidential data and compressed, unpredictable deal timelines.
• Strong foundational understanding of employment legal basics, high-growth compensation structures, and visa/immigration complexities (critical for international or highly technical talent).
• Exceptional communication and relationship-building skills. Ability to earn the trust of elite technical founders and seamlessly align cross-functional internal executives.

Compensation

Estimated annual salary of $187,000 - $257,000 for San Francisco Bay Area based hires. Estimated annual salary of $178,000 - $245,000 for New York City and Washington based hires. Estimated annual salary of $162,000 - $223,000 for Colorado based hires.

Benefits

• Health & Welfare Benefits: Medical/Rx Insurance, Dental Insurance, Vision Insurance, Flexible Spending Accounts, Commuter Spending Accounts, Fertility & Family Forming Benefits, On-demand mental health support and Employee Assistance Program, Global Travel Medical Insurance.
• Financial Benefits: Short and Long Term Disability Insurance, Life & Accident Insurance, 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan, Employee Stock Participation Plan.
• Time Off: Flexible paid time off covering vacation and sick leave, Leave programs, including parental, pregnancy health, medical, and bereavement leave.

What Makes Cloudflare Special?

We are an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and place great value in both diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to, among other things, race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Cloudflare is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people and place great value in both diversity and inclusiveness. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to, among other things, race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, family care status, or any other basis protected by law.