Senior Manager, Change Management & Talent Integration

This role is fully onsite out of our HQ in Fort Lauderdale, FL.

What You Own :

Change Management — Talent Program Activation 

• Develop and lead change management strategies for enterprise talent initiatives—including performance management redesigns, listening program launches, skills architecture rollouts, and workforce planning implementations 

• Build stakeholder engagement plans, communication frameworks, and resistance mitigation strategies tailored to field leaders, HRBPs, and associates 

• Design and execute readiness assessments, adoption tracking, and post-launch reinforcement plans to ensure programs stick beyond rollout 

• Partner closely with program owners across the CoE to embed change management into program design from day one—not as an afterthought 

• Translate complex talent initiatives into simple, compelling narratives for field leaders and frontline managers 

• Establish change management standards, tools, and templates that become reusable infrastructure for the team 

M&A Talent Integration 

• Own the talent integration workstream for AutoNation acquisitions—from early-stage due diligence through full post-close integration 

• Develop and maintain a scalable M&A talent integration playbook covering culture assessment, org design, role mapping, associate communications, and Day 1 readiness 

• Partner with Corp Development, Operations, Legal, and HR leadership to ensure talent considerations are embedded in deal timelines 

• Conduct talent risk assessments on target organizations—identifying key talent, retention risks, cultural gaps, and structural redundancies 

• Lead associate-facing communications and change journeys for acquired teams—ensuring a consistent, human experience from announcement through integration 

• Track integration health metrics and surface issues early; act as the early-warning system for talent-related integration risks 

• Build institutional knowledge and lessons learned after each acquisition to continuously improve the playbook 

• Design and lead structured onboarding journeys for acquired associates—covering AutoNation culture, DRIVE values, systems access, and role clarity—ensuring new teams feel informed and connected from Day 1 through their first 90 days 

Onboarding Program Design 

• Own the architecture and continuous improvement of AutoNation’s enterprise onboarding program—designing the framework, milestones, and experience touchpoints that set new associates up for long-term success 

• Partner with the Associate Experience Specialist and HRBPs to ensure onboarding is consistent, scalable, and reflective of the AutoNation culture and DRIVE values 

• Define and maintain onboarding standards across roles and levels—including Day 1 logistics, 15/45/90-day check-in frameworks, and manager onboarding guides 

• Use Signal listening data and lifecycle survey insights (Onboarding Day 15/45/90) to identify gaps and continuously refine the onboarding experience 

• Build onboarding toolkits and resources that enable HRBPs and people leaders to deliver a high-quality experience at scale, without requiring central coordination for every hire 

• Track onboarding effectiveness through retention, engagement, and time-to-productivity metrics—reporting insights to leadership and recommending improvements 

Candidate-to-Associate Experience & TA Handoff 

• Own the design of a seamless handoff protocol between Talent Acquisition and Talent Development—ensuring the associate’s experience from offer acceptance through their first 90 days feels like one connected journey, not two disconnected ones 

• Partner with TA leadership to map the current candidate-to-hire experience, identify friction points, and co-design a handoff process that preserves candidate momentum and sets new associates up for success from Day 1 

• Define what information, context, and connection travels with the associate from TA to TD—ensuring the onboarding experience is personalized, informed, and never starting from zero 

• Design and maintain pre-boarding touchpoints between offer and start date—keeping candidates engaged, informed, and confident in their decision before they walk through the door 

• Partner with the Associate Experience Specialist to connect candidate experience survey data and Day 15/45/90 insights back into handoff and onboarding program improvements—closing the loop between what candidates experience and what the program delivers 

• Establish and track handoff health metrics—monitoring early attrition, onboarding completion, and new hire engagement to identify breakdown points and drive continuous improvement 

Strategic Partnership & Org Effectiveness 

• Serve as a thought partner to the Director, VP & CHRO on change strategy, org readiness, and integration best practices 

• Advise HRBPs and Talent Advisors on change management principles when rolling out market-level talent programs 

• Connect M&A integration learnings to broader workforce planning and org design work—identifying patterns across acquisitions that inform enterprise strategy 

People Leadership 

• Provide day-to-day direction, coaching, and development support for the Workforce Planning & Skills Specialist — setting clear priorities, removing obstacles, and ensuring work is connected to the team's broader strategic goals  

• Conduct regular 1:1s and ongoing feedback conversations that help Ashley grow in the role and build toward her next level  

• Partner with the Director on goal-setting, performance reviews, and development planning for the Workforce Planning & Skills Specialist  

•  Serve as the first point of escalation for questions, decisions, and workload prioritization within the workforce planning and skills function 

Qualifications 

Minimum Qualifications 

• 7+ years of progressive experience in change management, HR transformation, or organizational effectiveness 

• Demonstrated experience leading end-to-end change management for enterprise-wide HR or talent programs 

• Prosci ADKAR certification or equivalent change management methodology training 

• Experience supporting M&A transactions from a talent, HR, or organizational integration perspective 

• Strong project management skills—able to manage multiple workstreams with competing timelines and stakeholders 

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; proven ability to build executive-ready materials and field-facing communications simultaneously 

• Comfortable operating in ambiguity and building structure in environments where the playbook doesn’t yet exist 

• Experience partnering across HR functions (e.g. Talent Acquisition, HRBPs, CoE) to design cross-functional processes or handoffs 

• High degree of emotional intelligence—this role interacts with associates in uncertainty and leaders under pressure 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience in a multi-unit retail, automotive, or operationally complex organization 

• Familiarity with HR tech platforms (Workday, Perceptyx, ServiceNow) and how they intersect with change activation 

• Background in internal communications, org design, or workforce strategy 

• Experience building reusable toolkits, playbooks, or frameworks that scale across a large, distributed workforce