Senior Associate, Investment Operations

Ares is looking for a Senior Associate to join the Los Angeles or New York based Investment Operations team. This role reports to the Investment Operations - Reconciliation Team. The candidate will serve as a senior escalation point for complex cash, par, and non-custody reconciliation matters, drive cross-functional resolution, analyze trends and operational impact, and lead selected process, control, and technology improvements. The role includes challenging administrator and custodian processing, supporting relationship management, guiding junior team members, and helping strengthen the reconciliation platform. The ideal candidate is an experienced self-starter with strong technical judgment, stakeholder influence, and a practical solutioning mindset.

·          Serve as a senior escalation point for complex, aged, or recurring cash, par, and non-custody breaks across assigned funds, portfolios, and products.

·          Drive resolution through detailed root-cause analysis, impact assessment, clear ownership, and cross-functional coordination.

·          Review and challenge fund administrator, custodian bank, paying agent, and service-provider processing where results are incomplete, inconsistent, or unsupported.

·          Assess transaction, accounting, reference-data, and system issues and communicate operational risk, required actions, and expected resolution paths.

·          Prioritize high-risk exceptions and ensure material concerns are escalated promptly with complete supporting evidence.

·          Analyze daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly KPIs to identify trends across break volumes, aging, root causes, products, portfolios, and service providers.

·          Evaluate reconciliation processes and controls, identify systemic weaknesses, and recommend improvements that strengthen governance, accuracy, and operational resilience.

·          Lead selected remediation, automation, workflow redesign, data-quality, platform enhancement, testing, migration, and onboarding workstreams.

·          Partner with Technology and business stakeholders to define requirements, validate results, and support implementation of scalable solutions.

·          Provide reconciliation expertise for new funds, portfolios, products, administrators, custodians, and business initiatives.

·          Build effective relationships with Portfolio Management, Fund Administration, Treasury, Finance, Technology, Operations, custodians, agent banks, and other service providers.

·          Provide day-to-day guidance, quality review, and knowledge-sharing to Analysts and Associates and help promote accountability and consistent execution.

·          Support internal and external audits, risk assessments, regulatory inquiries, and governance reporting.

·          6-10 years of relevant investment management operations experience, with emphasis on reconciliation, fund accounting, middle office, custody, or related functions.