This role is responsible for managing Kelso Industries' acquisition process from initial opportunity through post-close integration. The M&A Project Manager serves as the central coordinator across legal, finance, operations, HR, IT, and executive leadership, ensuring every transaction progresses efficiently, deadlines are met, risks are escalated, and leadership has clear visibility into deal status.
The ideal candidate is an exceptional project manager with strong organizational, analytical, and communication skills who thrives managing multiple complex transactions simultaneously.
Key Responsibilities- Manage the end-to-end acquisition process from initial target evaluation through post-close integration.
- Develop and maintain detailed project plans, milestones, task lists, and timelines for every transaction.
- Coordinate cross-functional due diligence efforts across Legal, Finance, HR, IT, Operations, Risk, Insurance, Payroll, Benefits, and other functional teams.
- Track diligence requests, outstanding items, and closing deliverables while holding internal and external stakeholders accountable.
- Prepare executive dashboards, weekly pipeline reports, and transaction status updates for leadership.
- Organize diligence materials, maintain virtual data rooms, and ensure documentation is complete and current.
- Coordinate internal and external meetings, diligence calls, management presentations, and closing activities.
- Identify schedule risks, bottlenecks, and dependencies, escalating issues before they impact closing timelines.
- Support integration planning and ensure post-close action items are completed.
- Continuously improve Kelso's M&A processes, templates, playbooks, reporting, and project management tools.
Required Qualifications- Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Project Management, or related field.
- 3-7 years of experience in project management, corporate development, transaction management, consulting, private equity operations, investment banking support, legal operations, or another highly organized cross-functional environment.
- Exceptional organizational and project management skills.
- Ability to manage numerous concurrent projects with competing deadlines.
- Strong Excel and PowerPoint skills.
- Experience creating executive-level reports and dashboards.
- Excellent written and verbal communication.
- Strong attention to detail and follow-through.
- Comfortable working with senior executives and outside advisors.
Preferred Qualifications- Experience supporting mergers & acquisitions, corporate development, or private equity-backed companies.
- Experience using project management platforms such as Monday.com, Smartsheet, Asana, Jira, or Microsoft Project.
- Familiarity with virtual data rooms and due diligence processes.
- Experience with CRM such as Salesforce or other pipeline management systems.
- Knowledge of financial statements and basic transaction terminology.
