M&A Integration Lead

M&A Integration Lead, Emergence | Remote, U.S.-based | Full-Time

Emergence is a permanent-hold software holding company backed by the Pritzker Organization. We acquire and operate category-defining B2B software businesses across healthcare technology, automotive technology, cloud infrastructure, and supply chain technology.

About the Role

Emergence is hiring its first dedicated integration hire in the US. You will act as our deal team's strategic counterpart on all things operational: joining early, at or before LOI, to shape the integration approach and pressure-test the deal, running operational due diligence, and then leading the integration through close and beyond. You work alongside the Operating Partners' value creation team from the start, and you lead a clean transition to them once the business is stable.

The role is foundational — the playbooks, governance, and operating rhythms you build on live deals become how Emergence integrates every company it buys.

The work spans two connected phases whose length depends on the deal, not a fixed calendar: Pre-close Diligence and Integration Planning, then Post-close Integration. You will run multiple concurrent integrations at different stages across varied deal profiles — we are on track to acquire roughly 15 companies per year, spanning standard tuck-ins, mergers between portfolio companies, corporate carve-outs, and international targets.

You will report to the Head of Portfolio Operations, work closely with a senior M&A integration executive who advises Emergence and will mentor you, and (if required) direct a dedicated integration PM who supports execution. You will build Emergence's integration playbook from live deals — capturing deal value drivers, accountability (RASCI), and the operating rhythms that make each integration faster than the last.

What You'll Do

• Pre-close diligence and integration planning: Partner with the deal team during diligence to assess operational readiness and execution risk: systems landscape, team capacity, process maturity, and the cost and timeline to remediate what you find
• Deliver a written operational assessment before Investment Committee — your read on integration risk and what it means for the value creation plan
• Translate the deal thesis into a practical integration plan with clear owners, milestones, risks, and decision points, built before close so that Day 1 is execution rather than planning
• Prepare Day 1 readiness: access pre-staged, ERP migration capacity booked with our finance team, benefits renewal and other calendar anchors captured, and an employee experience roadmap for the acquired team
• On carve-outs, map shared services and support TSA scoping and negotiation by function, including duration, headcount allocation, and service coverage
• Post-close integration: Lead the integration management office: weekly IMO cadence, steering committee reporting, and accountability check-ins with Operating Partners and portfolio company CEOs
• Coordinate the functional workstreams — IT, HR, legal, CRM, and change management — and hold finance and ERP migration, which run with our StratFin team, to booked capacity and dates
• Create clarity in fast-moving situations: sequencing, priorities, trade-offs, and the escalations that keep workstreams unblocked
• Serve as a trusted partner to acquired founders and management teams, and work hand in hand with the Operating Partners, who stay engaged throughout
• Lead a structured transition to the value creation team once the business is stable, with long-tail workstreams launched under named owners
• Direct the junior integration PM and vendor workstreams
• Track integration outcomes against the original deal model and value drivers, and report progress, risks, and recommendations to leadership
• Run a retrospective after each deal and feed the lessons into the next diligence and the integration playbook
• Flag where Emergence's shared services should invest next, based on what you see across deals
• Scope boundaries: back-office migration (payroll, benefits administration, IT cutover execution) runs centrally at Emergence, and value creation is owned by our Operating Partners, who you partner with throughout the integration.
• Who You Are
• 4+ years of M&A integration experience with direct ownership of integrations across multiple transactions — you built the plan, ran the cadence, and held stakeholders accountable, not participated in someone else's program. M&A integration specifically, not IT implementations or system rollouts
• You have worked the pre-close side of deals: operational due diligence, Day 1 readiness planning, or separation/TSA work during a live transaction
• You connect integration work to the deal thesis and value drivers: what a weak systems landscape or an understaffed target team means for cost, timeline, and value realization
• Strong operating judgment and the ability to move fluidly between strategy and execution
• Operating experience inside a business, not exclusively advisory. Consulting backgrounds are welcome with a subsequent operating role
• Familiar with PE-backed environments: the cadence, the stakeholder dynamics, the decision rhythm
• Comfortable building structure where an established process doesn't exist yet — you write playbooks others can run rather than executing one handed to you
• A track record of building trust quickly and driving outcomes through influence rather than authority, including with executives and founders
• Comfortable managing multiple concurrent integrations at different stages
• Strong academic record or an equivalent track record of structured, rigorous work
• Bonus Points
• B2B SaaS or vertical software integration experience
• Consulting or banking followed by an operating role at a portfolio company
• Experience on a PE or growth equity value creation or portfolio operations team running add-on integrations
• Big 4 M&A advisory background, integration practice specifically
• Carve-out experience: TSA definition, negotiation, or governance on either side of a separation
• Familiarity with Sage Intacct, Rippling, Ramp, or similar portfolio operational tools
• Experience applying AI tools to diligence or integration work