Manager, HR M&A and New Business Enablement

Ford • Dearborn, MI

5d • $115,500 - $218,100 • Hybrid

About The Position

The Manager, HR M&A and New Business Enablement manages portfolio governance, practice operations, methodology, and knowledge-management capabilities that enable Ford's HR M&A and New Business Enablement team to execute mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, legal entity formations, and new business standups. The role establishes operating discipline, portfolio visibility, common frameworks, and institutional knowledge to support multiple concurrent initiatives and improve execution over time.

The Manager partners with the Executive Director and Directors responsible for global M&A, joint ventures, and new business standups. The role maintains integrated portfolio visibility, coordinates cross-program dependencies, tracks risks and decisions, and provides program-management and implementation capacity where needed. It documents and maintains shared methodologies, playbooks, readiness frameworks, service agreement tools, governance processes, and reporting mechanisms.

This is an individual contributor role with no direct reports. It delivers through influence, cross-functional coordination, operational discipline, and partnership with HR M&A and New Business Enablement leaders and enterprise functions. The position may represent the team in designated governance forums, portfolio reviews, and cross-functional working sessions, communicating portfolio status, surfacing risks and dependencies, and coordinating follow-through on leadership decisions. The position is hybrid, with a requirement to be onsite four or more days per week.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Human Resources, Organizational Development, Industrial Relations, Information Systems, Operations Management, Project Management, Finance, or a related field, or a combination of education and equivalent experience.
• 7+ years of progressively responsible experience in program management, PMO, business operations, business process improvement, organizational effectiveness, consulting, HR operations, transformation, or a related field.
• Experience managing complex cross-functional initiatives involving multiple stakeholders, competing priorities, interdependencies, and executive-level visibility.
• Experience building and maintaining governance processes, integrated plans, dashboards, scorecards, executive updates, risk and decision logs, or portfolio reporting mechanisms.
• Experience creating repeatable methodologies, playbooks, templates, operating procedures, knowledge repositories, or implementation frameworks.
• Experience facilitating process improvement, requirements gathering, workflow analysis, process mapping, readiness assessment, or operational design activities.
• Experience supporting organizational change, technology implementations, service delivery transitions, operational readiness, or business transformation initiatives.
• Ability to create structure, operating discipline, and portfolio visibility across multiple complex initiatives.
• Ability to distinguish between practice-level ownership and project-level support while adapting capacity to portfolio priorities.
• Ability to identify and communicate risks, dependencies, decisions, resource constraints, and mitigation actions with appropriate urgency.
• Demonstrated project and program management, governance, facilitation, and continuous-improvement capabilities.
• Ability to create concise, executive-ready dashboards, presentations, written updates, and decision materials.
• Ability to influence outcomes, coordinate senior stakeholders, and drive follow-through without direct authority.
• Ability to translate lessons learned into repeatable methods, playbooks, standards, and practical tools.
• Advanced proficiency with office productivity, collaboration, portfolio tracking, reporting, and dashboard tools.
• Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States; employment eligibility verification is required at hire. Visa sponsorship is not available.

Nice To Haves

• Experience supporting mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, legal entity formations, business standups, or similarly complex initiatives.
• Experience working with external vendors, implementation partners, consultants, or managed service providers.
• Experience in manufacturing, energy, mobility, technology, defense, consulting, or other rapidly evolving business environments.
• Project Management Professional (PMP) or similar project or program management certification.
• Prosci Change Management or similar change management certification.
• Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or similar process-improvement certification.

Responsibilities

• Manage integrated portfolio planning, governance, reporting, and operating cadences across mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic partnerships, legal entity formations, and new business initiatives.
• Maintain portfolio-level plans, governance calendars, milestones, risks, actions, issues, dependencies, decisions, and resource views; identify emerging concerns and coordinate escalation and follow-through.
• Create and maintain executive-ready dashboards, readiness scorecards, portfolio updates, and governance materials that show progress, critical decisions, interdependencies, and areas requiring attention.
• Manage shared methodologies, playbooks, templates, readiness frameworks, service agreement tools, governance standards, implementation toolkits, and common operating practices, keeping them practical, current, and reusable.
• Maintain playbooks, trackers, decisions, governance materials, templates, and lessons learned in shared, accessible repositories to support continuity, reuse, and knowledge transfer.
• Coordinate across Directors responsible for M&A, United States new business standups, and European joint ventures to improve information flow, execution consistency, cross-program alignment, workload visibility, and portfolio prioritization.
• Provide program-management and implementation support to Director-led initiatives, including readiness assessments, workplan management, cross-functional coordination, testing and cutover support, training and change activities, and stabilization tracking.
• Analyze current- and future-state processes; facilitate requirements gathering, process mapping, workflow analysis, and operational design; and apply continuous-improvement methods.
• Support service agreement and vendor governance by maintaining service inventories, governance routines, deliverable and obligation trackers, performance measures, issue logs, and reusable standards for external providers.
• Represent HR M&A and New Business Enablement in designated governance forums, portfolio reviews, and cross-functional working sessions; communicate status, surface risks and dependencies, and coordinate follow-through while leaving substantive business and workforce decisions to accountable leaders.
• Capture portfolio lessons learned and performance insights, identify recurring patterns and improvement opportunities, and incorporate findings into methods, tools, readiness criteria, and team development priorities.

Benefits

• Immediate medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage.
• Flexible family care days, paid parental leave, new parent ramp-up programs, and subsidized back-up child care.
• Family-building benefits, including adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement and fertility treatments.
• Vehicle discount program for employees and family members, and management leases.
• Tuition assistance.
• Established and active employee resource groups.
• Paid time off for individual and team community service.
• Paid holidays, including the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day.
• Paid time off and the option to purchase additional vacation time.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager