Principal Consultant - Mergers & Acquisitions, Consulting Human Services

Join Consulting for Human Services as a Principal Consultant
- Mergers & Acquisitions

Consulting for Human Services (CFHS) is in need of adding to the team a Principal Consultant
- Mergers & Acquisitions. This client-facing, billable role will lead and execute complex M&A engagements for nonprofit and mission-driven human services organizations.

Consulting for Human Services (CFHS) supports nonprofit and mission-driven human services organizations through complex mergers and acquisitions, strategic growth, integration, and operational engagements. The work requires close partnership with executive leaders, boards, and cross-functional teams in high-stakes environments.

The Principal Consultant will lead and execute complex merger and acquisition (M&A) engagements for nonprofit and mission-driven human services organizations. The role is primarily client-facing and is expected to consistently meet monthly billable hours targets.

This leader will serve as a primary contact between CFHS and Merakey's Human Resources, Information Technology, and Legal teams, coordinating timelines, resolving issues, and aligning CFHS and Merakey processes and practices. The role requires strong judgment, discretion, project leadership, and the ability to translate complex diligence and integration work into clear, actionable recommendations.

• Lead and execute complex M&A and strategic growth engagements for nonprofit and mission-driven human services organizations.
• Serve as the day-to-day engagement lead, coordinating cross-functional teams and client executive stakeholders across operational, financial, regulatory, and organizational work streams.
• Serve as a primary contact between CFHS and Merakey's Human Resources, Information Technology, and Legal teams, ensuring alignment across requests, timelines, deliverables, and practices.
• Lead communication across clients and internal subject matter experts, translating diligence outputs into clear recommendations and executive-ready materials.
• Coordinate due diligence timelines, document requests, interview schedules, findings, dependencies, and escalation points.
• Design and support post-transaction integration plans spanning organizational and leadership alignment, HR and workforce transitions, and process, policy, and system integration.
• Monitor deal flow and engagement activities to identify risks, bottlenecks, and issues that could affect transaction timelines or outcomes, and address them proactively.
• Develop, embed, and refine repeatable, scalable consulting processes, tools, methodologies, and frameworks that improve consistency, efficiency, and delivery quality.
• Develop pragmatic and innovative approaches to integration and operational challenges in ambiguous, rapidly changing, or high-pressure environments.
• Mentor junior consultants, interns, and project managers on process discipline, methodology application, and delivery standards, as assigned.
• Build consensus among clients, executive teams, boards, and cross-functional resources while navigating differing perspectives and complex trade-offs.
• Uphold CFHS standards for white-glove client service, responsiveness, professionalism, confidentiality, and long-term relationship building.
• Ensure integration and strategic operations deliverables support measurable outcomes, including synergy realization, cost optimization, and performance improvement.
• Contribute to proposals and statements of work, identify opportunities to expand engagement scope, and deliver additional client value.
• Maintain billable utilization while managing internal operational responsibilities and keeping work within agreed scope and contract parameters.

• Direct experience supporting mergers, acquisitions, affiliations, or large-scale organizational change.
• Strong working knowledge of due diligence, integration processes, and Human Resources.
• Experience working directly with CEOs, executive teams, and boards, with the ability to tailor communication across executive and frontline audiences.
• Strong project management and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to balance competing priorities and mobilize resources across functional teams.
• A high level of judgment, discretion, follow-through, situational adaptability, and confidence leading teams and clients through ambiguity.

• Bachelor's degree in Business Management, Healthcare, or a related field.
• 8+ years of experience…