Director, People M&A

Databricks · San Francisco, California

onsitefull-time10+ years

posted 1d

GAQ327R268 While candidates in the listed location(s) are encouraged for this role, candidates in other locations will be considered. The Role Databricks continues to grow both organically and through strategic acquisitions. To support our scale, we are elevating our People M&A engine to handle high-volume, and complex global deals. As a player-coach for this function, you will lead the strategic vision, hands-on execution, and continuous evolution of our global People M&A  function. Reporting to the Director of People Programs (Global Mobility, M&A, Compliance), you will bridge Corporate Development, People Leadership, and functional business teams to orchestrate end-to-end deal lifecycles—from due diligence through Day 1 execution and multi-year post-merger integration. We are seeking a strategic builder who blends high-level vision with rigorous execution and a "doer" mentality. You will lead cross-functional deal teams, build scalable operational frameworks, manage senior executive stakeholders, and ensure every acquired employee experiences a world-class transition into Databricks. The impact you will have: <ul> <li>Strategic Deal Leadership & Due Diligence: Serve as the primary People executive on M&A deals. Drive holistic due diligence, organizational design alignment, retention strategies, deal risk mitigation, and employment law strategy globally.</li> <li>Deal Execution & Post-Merger Integration: Design and execute comprehensive integration strategies across Culture, Talent Acquisition, Total Rewards, People Operations, and Systems, balancing aggressive timeline targets with employee experience.</li> <li>M&A Platform & Playbook Strategy: Architect and mature the enterprise People M&A Playbook, establishing standardized governance, automation roadmaps, and data-integrity frameworks with People Tech.</li> <li>Executive Stakeholder Management: Partner closely with CorpDev, Legal, Finance, and Business Unit Leaders to present People diligence findings, synergy plans, and integration roadmaps.</li> <li>Functional Governance & Cross-Functional Alignment: Lead cross-functional People workstreams (TA, Benefits, Total Rewards, Global Mobility, People Partners) to ensure seamless alignment, resource allocation, and program execution across deal phases.</li> </ul> What We Look For <ul> <li>12+ years of progressive HR/People Operations experience, with 8+ years focused directly on leading end-to-end global M&A deals in high-growth tech environments.</li> <li>Proven track record of managing M&A programs across the full deal lifecycle: Due Diligence, Deal Structuring, Day 1 readiness, and Post-Merger Integration.</li> <li>Strong executive presence with demonstrated ability to influence Founders/C-suite stakeholders, CorpDev leaders, and business executives.</li> <li>Deep technical understanding of global People workflows, international employment law, compensation architecture, and system integrations.</li> <li>Strategic builder mindset capable of operating at high altitude while maintaining rigor over deal execution and complex operational mechanics.</li> </ul><div class="content-pay-transparency"><div class="pay-input"><div class="description">  Pay Range Transparency Databricks is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. The pay range(s) for this role is listed below and represents the expected base salary range for non-commissionable roles or on-target earnings for commissionable roles.  Actual compensation packages are based on several factors that are unique to each candidate