Strategic HR Deals Lead — Associate Director (Remote)

Cognizant; Lansing (MI); Remote; USD 150,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical/Dental/Vision/Life Insurance

Paid holidays & PTO

401(k) plan

Disability insurance

Paid parental leave

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking an Associate Director, HR Deal Lead to guide the people workstream across outsourcing bids and transitions. You will oversee solution design, due diligence, and employee transfers, partnering with Sales, Finance, Legal, and Delivery to ensure smooth handovers and compliant implementations.

You will engage with senior stakeholders, manage client relationships, and drive end-to-end employee transitions from communications to benefits readiness.

Qualifications

• Experience leading an HR deal workstream, including end-to-end people activities supporting outsourcing engagements.
• Experience in transformation, employee relations, or workforce transition, with demonstrated success independently leading complex workstreams.
• Strong practical knowledge of employment law.
• Experience in client-facing delivery, commercial risk assessment, contractual review, and cross-functional stakeholder management within a matrix organization.
• Commercial acumen and a solution-focused approach.
• Credibility with senior stakeholders, along with strong judgment and risk awareness.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills and confidence in negotiation.
• Strong program management skills and the ability to work effectively amid ambiguity, competing priorities, and deadlines.
• A collaborative and resilient working style, with the ability to work effectively across cultures.
• A strong sense of ownership, a desire to create meaningful outcomes, and a passion for work that serves customers, communities, or global challenges.
• Embodiment of Cognizant’s values: Work as One, Dare to Innovate, Raise the Bar, Do the Right Thing, and Own It.

Responsibilities

• Lead HR input into people solution design for outsourcing pursuits, partnering with Sales, Solutioning, Commercial, Finance, Legal, Delivery, and regional HR teams.
• Assess regional sensitivities and regulatory employee-transfer implications. Define transfer, rebadge, rehire, restructuring, and integration approaches.
• Lead people due diligence and translate employee data into risks, assumptions, dependencies, liabilities, and mitigation actions; develop HR cost inputs for deal pricing and approvals.
• Review people-related provisions in master services agreements, statements of work, transfer schedules, and related documents; present the people solution to senior stakeholders.
• Establish strong customer engagement and lead client-facing activities, including oral presentations, due diligence, solution design, town halls, Day One activities, onboarding, payroll readiness, stabilization, and HR handover.

Skills

HR deal lead

End-to-end HR

Employment law

Client-facing delivery

Commercial acumen

Stakeholder management

Negotiation

Program management

Cross-cultural work

Ownership mindset

Cognizant values

Job description

Cognizant is seeking an Associate Director, HR Deal Lead to guide the people workstream across outsourcing bids and transitions. You will oversee solution design, due diligence, and employee transfers, partnering with Sales, Finance, Legal, and Delivery to ensure smooth handovers and compliant implementations.

You will engage with senior stakeholders, manage client relationships, and drive end-to-end employee transitions from communications to benefits readiness.