HR Senior Manager, Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures

UL Solutions; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

UL Solutions is seeking an HR Business Advisor to lead people-related aspects of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and strategic partnerships. You will partner with Corporate Development, Legal, Total Rewards, Finance, Payroll, IT, and HR stakeholders to ensure Day 1 readiness and seamless employee experience.

You will oversee HR due diligence, design organization structures, harmonize policies, and coordinate HRIS data migration, security, and reporting readiness across the transaction

Qualifications

• 10+ years of HR experience with mergers, acquisitions, or large-scale transformations.
• Experience partnering with Legal, Finance, Payroll, and IT on integration programs.
• Ability to lead Day 1 readiness, policy harmonization, and HRIS integration planning.

Responsibilities

• Lead HR due diligence for acquisitions, mergers, divestitures, and partnerships.
• Design organization structure, job mapping, and transition plans aligned to job architecture.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams to develop integration roadmaps and governance.

Skills

M&A experience

HR strategy

Organizational design

Change management

Executive communication

Project management

Stakeholder collaboration

HR policy

HR analytics

Tools

Oracle HR / HCM

Job description

Job Description

The UL Solutions HR Business Advisor team serves as a trusted strategic partner to leaders across the organization, helping drive business success through thoughtful people strategies, organizational effectiveness, and enterprise transformation. The team works closely with business leaders and HR Centers of Expertise to ensure that talent, culture, organizational design, and workforce decisions support UL Solutions' growth objectives around the world.

About This Role

This role is a key member of the HR Business Advisor team and leads the people-related aspects of mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, strategic partnerships, and integration initiatives. Acting as the HR subject matter expert throughout the transaction lifecycle, the position partners with Corporate Development, business leaders, Legal, Total Rewards, Finance, Payroll, IT, and HR stakeholders to assess workforce-related risks and opportunities, develop Day 1 readiness and integration strategies, and ensure a seamless employee experience. The role combines strategic consulting, due diligence, organizational design, change management, and program leadership to help UL Solutions successfully execute complex business transactions while maintaining compliance, operational continuity, and alignment with the company's people practices and culture.Leads HR due diligence activities for acquisitions, mergers, divestitures, and strategic partnerships, including employee census review, workforce data requests, people-related risk assessment, and HR integration planning. Scope of responsibilities may vary by deal size and complexity.

• Assesses organizational structures, leadership roles, job hierarchy, reporting relationships, job levels, job titles, employment contracts, employee obligations, and workforce demographics to inform transaction decisions and target-state organization design.
• Partners with business leaders and HR Advisory to develop organization design, job mapping, title harmonization, transition plans, and role implementation recommendations aligned to UL Solutions job architecture and governance standards.
• Evaluates compensation programs, salary structures, broad-based plans, executive compensation matters, incentive plans, equity or share programs, and other rewards arrangements; partners with Total Rewards, Finance, Accounting, and Legal to develop harmonization and transition recommendations.
• Designs and coordinates retention award strategies for critical talent, including governance, eligibility considerations, cost implications, communication needs, and implementation dependencies.
• Evaluates benefits programs including health, retirement, leave, wellness, statutory benefits, country-specific arrangements, vendor relationships, grandfathered provisions, and transition requirements; partners with
• Total Rewards, Legal, Accounting, and external advisors on benefit integration plans.
• Assesses works council, union, employee representative, collective consultation, labor relations, and employment law requirements; partners with Legal, HR Advisory and Field HR to develop compliant consultation, communication, and implementation approaches.
• Leads policy due diligence and harmonization planning, including review of acquired-company policies, local statutory requirements, UL Solutions policy alignment, employee communications, and approval requirements.
• Leads Oracle HR / HRIS due diligence and integration planning, including current-state HR systems assessment, data mapping and conversion, employee record creation, organization structure setup, security access, reporting requirements, system training, and Ask HR / HR service delivery readiness.
• Partners with Payroll on employee setup, payroll transition planning, cutover readiness, tax and statutory requirements, pay cycle alignment, timekeeping dependencies, and payroll harmonization activities.
• Partners with Accounting and Finance on employee liabilities, compensation and benefit accruals, retention award costs, integration cost tracking, synergy assumptions, and transaction-related workforce financial impacts.
• Partners with IT on systems access, identity management, data migration, security, application integration, device and access readiness, and technology cutover requirements that impact employees and HR operations.
• Partners with Legal on transaction documentation, employee transfer requirements, employment law and labor law obligations, works council and consultation requirements, policy transitions, and employee communications.
• Develops Day 1 readiness plans and post-close HR integration roadmaps, including milestones, dependencies, decision points, governance routines, issue escalation, risk mitigation, status reporting, and success measures.
• Coordinates HR integration governance with Corporate Development, the Integration Management Office, HR functional workstream leads, external advisors, and business stakeholders; prepares executive-ready updates, decision documents, and escalation materials.
• Develops change management, stakeholder engagement, leadership alignment, employee communications, and culture integration inputs to support adoption and minimize disruption for acquired employees and UL Solutions teams.
• Identifies and mitigates integration risks related to information availability, Day 1 non-negotiables, Transition Services Agreements, local regulatory timelines, data quality, systems readiness, employee experience, and compliance.
• Contributes business success by performing other tasks as required. Reads and follows the Underwriters Laboratories Code of Conduct and follows all physical and digital security practices.

Qualifications

• 10 or more years of progressive Human Resources experience, including experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, integrations, enterprise transformation, or complex cross-functional change initiatives.
• Broad HR functional expertise across compensation, benefits, job architecture, organization design, employee relations, labor relations / works councils, HR operations, HRIS, payroll, and policy integration.
• Experience leading HR due diligence, sign-to-close planning, Day 1 readiness, Transition Services Agreement inputs, and post-close integration workstreams.
• Working knowledge of Oracle HR / HCM or comparable enterprise HR systems, including HR data, security access, organization structures, employee records, reporting, and business process dependencies.
• Strong project and program management skills, including milestone planning, governance, risk mitigation, issue escalation, dependency management, vendor coordination, and executive-ready status reporting.
• Strong business and financial acumen with the ability to partner effectively with Finance, Accounting, Payroll, Legal, IT, Corporate Development, business leaders, and external advisors.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to prepare executive recommendations, employee communication inputs, decision materials, and integration updates.
• Expert collaboration, consultation, facilitation, and influencing skills, including the ability to lead through ambiguity and across teams without direct authority.
• Demonstrated ability to handle sensitive, confidential, and time-critical transaction information with discretion, sound judgment, and compliance discipline.
• Ability to balance global consistency with country-specific legal, regulatory, labor, works council, payroll, benefits, policy, and employee experience requirements.

About Us

A global leader in applied safety science, UL Solutions (NYSE: ULS) transforms safety, security and sustainability challenges into opportunities for customers in more than 110 countries. UL Solutions delivers testing, inspection and certification services, together with software products and advisory offerings, that support our customers’ product innovation and business growth. The UL Mark serves as a recognized symbol of trust in our customers’ products and reflects an unwavering commitment to advancing our safety mission. We help our customers innovate, launch new products and services, navigate global markets and complex supply chains, and grow sustainably and responsibly into the future. Our science is your advantage.

About The Team

Advancing our mission of working for a safer world starts with our people. We have over 15,000 team members around the world, each making a valuable and essential contribution to creating a safer future. Whether it’s hiring top talent, empowering our people to learn new skills or providing critical hands-on support, we are always finding new ways to deliver a better employee experience. We’re looking for people to share their ideas and help us create a diverse, engaged culture that’s united by a passion for safety and sustainability. Join our team, shape our culture and support our global community of experts.