M&A Integration Director in London

Be a part of the next big success story in the M&E design sector. My client is busy growing and acquiring MEP design consultancies across the UK. We require an integration director who ideally has previous experience working in the MEP or Engineering sector. You will be responsible for on-boarding new acquisitions into the group to ensure the most smooth and successful integration. This role is all about taking founder/owners on a positive journey of integration into the group.

The Role: We are seeking an experienced Integration Director to lead the on-boarding, integration and transformation of every business acquired into the platform. The individual will be central to delivering our acquisition-led growth strategy and the cross-sell and synergy benefits that underpin the investment thesis. Reporting to the Group CFO in the near term, the Integration Director owns a structured 100-day onboarding programme and a 12-month integration roadmap for each acquisition, working in close partnership with the M&A team, the Group CFO, the incoming Group CEO, and the Managing Directors of acquired businesses.

Key Responsibilities:

• Integration Planning and Execution: Accountable for the 100-day plan, 12-month roadmap, and weekly integration governance.
• Design and deliver a structured 100-day onboarding plan for each acquired business, covering operational, systems, financial, commercial, cultural and people workstreams.
• Develop and execute a 12-month integration roadmap to bring each business into alignment with group operating standards, KPIs and commercial targets.
• Facilitate weekly integration calls with acquired business leadership, the Group CFO, the M&A team and functional leads.
• Build and continuously improve the integration playbook, tailoring deal-specific actions to diligence findings.
• Identify and escalate risks early, and drive issue resolution across workstreams.

• Systems and Technology Integration: Coordinate migration of acquired businesses onto group core systems.
• Sequence systems adoption sensibly, supporting data migration and quality assurance across system transitions.
• Work with technical and functional leads to align acquired business technology with group architecture and standards.

• Commercial Integration and Synergy Realisation: Establish visibility of client relationships across the group through CRM adoption.
• Facilitate workshops with sales leads across businesses to map and standardise commercial processes.
• Support incentive approaches that reward business leaders for introductions and collaboration.
• Define, tag and track synergy KPIs that can be measured reliably.

• Operational Integration and Operating Model: Align working practices, service delivery processes and documentation to group standards.
• Support the rollout of the group target operating model within each business.
• Drive utilisation, resource planning and project profitability discipline.
• Standardise templates, processes and service-level expectations across acquired entities.

• Transformation and Technology Adoption: Use the integration window to drive group transformation initiatives.
• Identify and promote AI and automation tools that improve workflows.
• Contribute to the evolution of the platform operating model as the group scales.

• Finance and Governance Integration: Ensure acquired businesses transition to group financial reporting frameworks.
• Support alignment of chart of accounts, management accounts format and financial controls.
• Track financial integration milestones and flag risks to the Group CFO.

• People and Culture Integration: Coordinate people integration in collaboration with the Chief People Officer.
• Support cultural integration, helping acquired teams connect with group values.
• Build relationships with founders and leaders, understanding how they prefer to work.
• Monitor employee sentiment and retention through the integration period.

• M&A Interface: Work with the M&A team during the later stages of deal execution.
• Contribute to due diligence, ensuring operational, systems and commercial integration considerations are captured early.
• Build integration readiness materials for each deal based on pre-completion information.

Person Specification:

• Proven track record of leading post-acquisition integration programmes in a fast-moving, multi-site environment.
• Experience in a private equity backed or acquisitive buy-and-build business.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multi-workstream programmes across operational, systems, commercial, finance and people domains.
• Experience building or contributing to integration playbooks, frameworks and governance standards from scratch.
• Track record of navigating founder-led businesses and bringing established leaders along through change.
• Comfortable engaging at senior level with Managing Directors of acquired businesses, the Group CFO, the M&A team and functional leads.

Skills and Personal Attributes:

• Exceptional project and programme management skills, highly organised with a structured, disciplined approach.
• Strong commercial acumen and the ability to connect integration activity to financial and strategic outcomes.
• Confident, credible communicator able to build trust quickly and influence without authority.
• Hands-on, pragmatic and delivery-focused, comfortable building processes from scratch.
• Collaborative and empathetic, with the ability to manage the human dimension of post-acquisition change.
• Working knowledge of ERP, CRM and finance systems and how to programme manage their implementation.
• Willingness to travel regularly across UK group offices and acquired sites.

Qualifications:

• Project or programme management qualification desirable (for example Prince2, MSP, Agile or PMP).
• Relevant degree or equivalent professional experience.

What This Role Offers:

• A rare opportunity to join an acquisitive sustainable buildings platform at the very beginning of its journey.
• Direct exposure to senior leadership and to the Ansor private equity team.
• The chance to build the integration and transformation function from scratch, with real ownership and autonomy.
• A central role in delivering the cross-sell and synergy benefits at the heart of the investment thesis.
• Significant career development as the group scales, with potential to step into a broader Integration and Transformation Director or other operational remit.
• Competitive package including base salary, performance bonus and equity participation, commensurate with experience.