People Programs, M&A Lead at Anthropic

On-site - San Francisco, CA

Anthropic is seeking a senior M&A People Program Manager to own the People side of our M&A program end-to-end. You will act as Corporate Development’s strategic counterpart on all things People, shaping deal decisions, leading complex acquisitions, and setting direction, standards, and playbooks for People‑side M&A work. The role requires operating on year‑long horizons with minimal direction, representing Anthropic credibly in deal‑critical discussions, and building durable program infrastructure.

Requirements

Skills

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
Have 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
Are 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
Are comfortable operating with minimal oversight on long horizons, creating your own structure and clarity for others where none exists
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)

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
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
Set the standards, templates, and decision frameworks that all People-side M&A work follows, in partnership with the existing team
Build credibility and operating rhythms with senior stakeholders across Corp Dev, Legal, Finance, and People so the right people mobilize quickly when timelines compress
Level up the broader People team's ability to execute M&A confidently through documentation, retros, and coaching-by-doing
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

Technologies

Claudeautomation

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