M&A Integration, Standardization & Operational Readiness

• Lead the operational standardization of M&A activity within Immigration, ensuring acquired, transitioned, or newly integrated teams are brought into a consistent global operating model.
• Define the core operating standards, governance routines, performance expectations, and integration milestones required for M&A deals to move from transaction close to sustainable business-as-usual operations.
• Partner with the Immigration Global Lead, Corporate Development, Finance, HR, Technology, Legal, and Transformation teams to ensure operational integration plans are commercially sound, executable, and aligned to Immigration’s global delivery model.
• Assess operational differences across acquired or integrated businesses, including process, people, technology, reporting, controls, and client delivery practices, and develop pragmatic plans to bring them into standard ways of working.
• Ensure M&A integration activity supports margin improvement, scalability, client service consistency, risk management, and capacity planning.
• Establish repeatable playbooks, metrics, and governance mechanisms for Immigration M&A integration, reducing reliance on bespoke approaches deal by deal.
• Monitor post-integration performance and address gaps in adoption, efficiency, quality, or compliance to ensure deal value is realised and sustained.
• Own and actively manage the Immigration inorganic growth funnel, working with the Immigration Global Lead and Corporate Development to identify, prioritise, and track potential M&A targets in line with Immigration's strategic growth objectives.
• Oversee operational due diligence for potential M&A deals, coordinating with Finance, HR, Technology, Legal, and the Office of Transformation to assess target operating models, delivery capability, talent, and integration risk ahead of deal approval.
• Own the onboarding and integration of successful acquisitions into Immigration, and drive post-deal value creation, ensuring acquired businesses reach target synergies, margin, and operational standards within agreed timeframes.

Margin, Financial & Performance Management

• Own, in partnership with Finance to maintain a single source of truth for financial and operational performance, including revenue, margin, utilisation, working capital, and cash flow.
• Play a central role in budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning, ensuring operational decisions actively support margin improvement and sustainable growth.
• Use data-driven insights to identify opportunities for cost optimisation, leverage improvement, and capacity release.
• Support shared accountability with the Immigration Global Lead for profitability and long-term financial performance.
• Ensure M&A integration plans include clear financial, operational, and performance assumptions, with mechanisms to track whether expected synergies, efficiencies, and margin improvements are being delivered.
• Use operational and financial insights to identify where standardization across regions, delivery models, or acquired businesses can improve profitability and release capacity for growth.

Workforce Strategy, Capacity & Capability

• Collaborate with HR to own execution of the global workforce strategy aligned to growth plans, evolving delivery models, and transformation outcomes.
• Translate transformation recommendations into practical workforce actions, including changes to workforce deployment, skill application, location strategy, and ways of working.
• Monitor and actively manage workforce capacity, utilisation, productivity, and turnover to ensure the organisation operates at optimal efficiency.
• Ensure global workforce planning avoids structural underutilisation, bottlenecks, or talent shortages, particularly in critical delivery and specialist roles.
• Ensure workforce implications of M&A activity are assessed early and translated into practical integration plans, including role clarity, leadership alignment, capacity planning, location strategy, skills, and ways of working.
• Partner with HR and business leaders to ensure acquired or integrated teams are effectively aligned to Immigration’s operating model, performance expectations, and leadership routines.

Experience & Profile

• Senior operational leadership experience ideally within a global professional services firm (e.g. legal, consulting, accounting, advisory, or similar).
• Proven experience embedding large-scale transformation outcomes into BAU operations, rather than solely designing or running transformation programmes.
• Demonstrated experience supporting M&A integration, post-deal operational standardization, business integration, or large-scale operating model alignment.
• Understanding of professional services economics, including utilisation, leverage, margin management, capacity planning, and delivery models.
• Demonstrated ability to align and influence global, matrixed leadership teams, including senior partners and executives.
• Strong commercial mindset with a track record of improving margins, scaling operations, and releasing capacity to fund growth.
• Comfortable operating alongside a central transformation function, with clarity on ownership between design, delivery, and BAU adoption.
• Strong ability to bring structure, consistency, and execution discipline to complex environments where legacy practices, regional differences, or acquired business models need to be standardized over time.