Senior Associate, Data - Investment Operations

Over the last 20 years, Ares’ success has been driven by our people and our culture. Today, our team is guided by our core values – Collaborative, Responsible, Entrepreneurial, Self-Aware, Trustworthy – and our purpose to be a catalyst for shared prosperity and a better future. Through our recruitment, career development and employee-focused programming, we are committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive work environment where high-performance talent of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives can build careers within this exciting and growing industry.

Job Description

Ares is looking for an Senior Associate to join the Los Angeles Investment Operations team.  The Investment Operations team works closely with business stakeholders in four lines of business (Credit, Private Equity, Real Estate, and Secondaries) as well as various corporate functions.  The Sr Associate will be responsible for partnering with the Vice President on ownership of security master and related reference data. The team primarily works out of the Los Angeles office in partnership with the team in India and New York.  The ideal candidate would have experience leveraging third party platforms as well as internal systems for managing reference and master data while being thoughtful about strategic planning around data management and data governance with an ability to anticipate and respond to future business needs. The role requires a dynamic, adaptive, and versatile experienced hands-on professional to ensure best practices in a fast-paced rapidly growing environment.

Responsibilities:

• Work with key partners in all business lines to assist with data management including but not limited to security master, credit ratings and related reference data (e.g. issuers).
• Interact with all market data vendors including but not limited to Markit, Moody’s, S&P, Fitch and Bloomberg on emerging data needs or questions regarding existing data. 
• Develop strategic partnerships with external providers and market data vendors to enrich data and improve our internal data platforms
• Serve as a key partner to the firm’s portfolio managers in delivering timely and accurate security master information
• Interface with Traders, Portfolio Managers, New Accounts Group, Fund Accounting, Performance and Compliance on various ad hoc requests as well as emerging data needs
• Work closely with the different business functions to capture Critical Data Elements (CDEs) used in end-user processes
• Assist with maintenance of accurate and consistent information flows across Ares’ internal systems and Fund Admins
• Track and monitor data quality issues, work with stakeholders to remediate these issues, and provide regular status updates to senior management
• Have a deep understanding of business requirements that drive data quality, translating those requirements into rules for our Technology team
• Work alongside with Ares’ internal reporting team to map out Security Master data fields for external or client reporting
• Work with PowerBi/Tableau to build out better reporting across the organization for data transparency
• Familiarity with Duco to help create recons between systems/vendors
• Manage and oversee all credit rating exceptions as well as maintenance of Credit Estimates
• Project management: engage with technology teams as well as external partners to lead data projects or enhancements to current processes and provide regular status updates to stakeholders
• Work with downstream business users in order to provide tactical data quality remediation
• Work with Technology in order to provide strategic data quality enhancements,  work effort analysis, monitor progress and report status to senior management

Qualifications:

• Minimum of 7-10 years of experience in large, global capital markets or investment management firms with expertise in Operations
• Experience working with/alongside Investment Operations, Fund Accounting, Information Technology teams
• Prior experience with an alternative asset manager preferred, broader asset management experience required
• Strong understanding of fixed income securities and structured products; Understanding of bank loans preferred;
• Understanding of Bloomberg Terminal and Markit (Loan Reference Data) platforms
• Experience with Tableau, SQL, or PowerBI
• Experience with Indus Valley Partners and/or AllVue preferred
• Hedge Fund, Credit or Private Equity experience is a plus
• Sound understanding of financial data and diverse investment vehicles (such as Institutional Separate Accounts, SMA/Limited Partnerships, Open-End Mutual Funds, Closed-End Funds, UCITs, etc.)
• Familiarity with institutional asset management research, trading workflows, and associated systems. Solid understanding of the data points associated with different asset classes including bonds, equities, structured products, and derivatives.
• Ability to extract meaningful information from extensive research and analysis to effectively present facts and findings in a digestible format, a keen eye for attention to detail
• Experience managing internal and external stakeholders and leading project prioritization discussions to drive product vision and roadmap.
• A self-directed individual with a can-do attitude, willing to work in an energetic, collaborative and fast-paced environment, proactive in nature, and a proven ability to resolve issues with minimal supervision
• Proven outstanding communication (written and verbal), presentation, documentation, and interpersonal skills
• Expert with Excel for data analysis, including modeling and complex lookups
• A hands-on approach and ability to synthesize/translate business operations processes into talent/skill needs
• Ability to successfully manage multiple priorities and competing demands
• High accuracy and detail oriented
• Good judgment in terms of escalating issues vs. solving problems independently
• A solutions-oriented, self-starter and ability to see the big picture
• Comfort in dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty in a dynamic and fast-paced environment
• Ability to be flexible in terms of hours in order to coordinate with team members across various time zones
• An analytical mind and a passion/interest in bringing new ideas to improve efficiency to existing processes
• Dependable, great attitude, highly motivated and a team player

Reporting Relationships

Compensation

$130,000 - $150,000

There is no set deadline to apply for this job opportunity. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the search is no longer active.