Senior Associate, Operational Strategy

Ares is seeking a high-performing Senior Associate who supports the Executive Office transformation agenda by managing the details of complex cross-functional programs — workplans, milestones, dependencies, governance materials, stakeholder coordination, business process documentation, and change readiness — while building fluency across alternative investment lifecycles, technology-enabled transformation, and enterprise operating model change.

The Operational Strategy Group supports the Executive Office and serves as the enterprise control tower and nerve center for the firm’s highest-priority transformations bringing together strategy, execution oversight, assurance, and cross-functional delivery to ensure these initiatives move in a coordinated, disciplined, and value-focused way. The team manages complexity across the targeted transformation portfolio, keeps priority programs on track, surface dependencies and risks early, and drive clear decision-making at the executive level. Positioned close to the Executive Office, the team executes enterprise programs across all Ares’ lines of business (Credit, Private Equity, Real Assets, and Secondaries) as well as technology, legal, compliance, finance, Sales/Marketing and other functional groups, ensuring that the firm’s most operationally critical initiatives are aligned to enterprise priorities, sequenced effectively, and delivering measurable value.

Reporting relationships

Managing Director, Corporate Strategy – Operational Strategy Group

• Serve as an internal consulting and execution partner to business leaders, corporate functions, and third-party providers.

• Translate high-level objectives into structured workplans, timelines, milestones, and deliverables.

• Coordinate transformation initiatives by tracking scope, status, risks, dependencies, decisions, and stakeholder alignment.

• Support business case development, including current-state challenges, future-state vision, benefits, risks, implementation approach, and decision points.

• Synthesize complex information into clear recommendations for process, operating model, system, or organizational changes.

• Partner with business and functional teams to document future-state operating models, including roles, governance, process ownership, controls, and technology enablement.

• Prepare executive-ready materials for senior leaders, steering committees, process owners, and cross-functional stakeholders.

• Support change adoption through stakeholder engagement, communications, training, readiness planning, and post-implementation tracking.

• Manage detailed project execution across workstreams, including milestones, ownership, timelines, dependencies, escalation paths, and delivery risks.

• Identify upstream and downstream impacts across processes, systems, teams, and operating models to support effective planning and implementation.

• Identify opportunities to improve cross-team workflows and handoffs across functions, simplifying processes, strengthening controls, enhancing system connectivity, and improving operational scalability.

• Support implementation of new products, platforms, processes, and operating model changes in partnership with business, Technology, and functional teams.

• Help translate business objectives and operational requirements into clear deliverables for Technology teams, while communicating technical considerations back to business stakeholders.

• Provide hands-on project management support across transformation initiatives, including roadmap development, governance setup, ROI and benefits tracking, requirements documentation, process mapping, UAT, readiness, training, and status reporting.

• Maintain disciplined program governance, including RAID logs, milestone trackers, decision logs, executive escalation materials, and benefits realization tracking.

Qualifications

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in a business, finance, or related discipline

Experience Required:  

• 5–7 years of experience in financial services, asset management, management consulting, business operations, transformation, project management, business analysis, process improvement, or technology-enabled change.

• Experience supporting complex, cross-functional projects involving business, Technology, Operations, Legal, Compliance, Finance, Investor Relations / Sales and Marketing, and/or external vendors.

• Strong project management skills, including experience maintaining workplans, timelines, milestone trackers, RAID logs, dependency maps, decision logs, status reports, and meeting materials.

• Experience analyzing and documenting business processes, workflows, systems, controls, requirements, and operating model considerations.

• Familiarity with alternative investments, including Credit, Private Equity, Real Assets, and Secondaries, with exposure to fund, investor/client, deal, portfolio, or investment lifecycles preferred.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to organize ambiguous information, identify key issues, and synthesize clear findings, recommendations, and next steps.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare clear, polished materials for senior stakeholders.

• Highly organized, detail-oriented, and proactive, with the ability to manage competing priorities, deadlines, risks, dependencies, and follow-ups in a fast-paced environment.

• Strong technical skills, including proficiency in PowerPoint, Excel, and Visio; experience with project or collaboration tools such as Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Jira, Confluence, Asana, Monday.com, Miro, or similar platforms preferred.

• Familiarity with one or more transformation domains is a plus, including client experience and investor transformation, deal pipeline management, allocation and investment workflow transformation, and treasury, banking, or liquidity operations transformation.