Hawthorne - Operating Associate - Real Estate

Operating Associate, Real Estate

Hawthorne Partners, New York

The Role

We are currently looking to hire an Operating Associate to join the Hawthorne Real Estate team in New York. The Associate will focus on driving value at both the asset and portfolio level—including across distressed and growth assets—as well as at the operating company and platform level.

The Associate will work on value-creation, value-protection and special-situations opportunities across Davidson Kempner’s Real Estate and Structured Credit investments. The successful candidate will have a strong quantitative background and a well-rounded understanding of value drivers across multiple real estate subsectors.

The Associate will possess a high level of competence in financial modelling, analysis, data management, reporting, and property- and portfolio-level performance metrics. The individual should be comfortable assessing investments from both a credit and an asset-level perspective.

Illustrative Key Tasks

• Designing, amending and updating financial models using Excel, Argus and other relevant tools; running scenarios and producing outputs for internal and external purposes, including:

• Creating and auditing frameworks and models to support asset management initiatives
• Performing sensitivity and scenario analyses
• Assessing the quality of sell-side and operating-partner models
• Building ad hoc DCF models for individual assets and portfolios

• Supporting the investment team with operational diligence, underwriting and analysis
• Liaising with operating partners and evaluating a range of scenarios, including potential exit strategies
• Working with large asset-, loan- and operating-level datasets, drawing key conclusions and presenting findings to management through appropriate reporting and data-visualisation tools
• Monitoring asset and portfolio performance
• Supporting value-creation, value-protection and other strategic initiatives across assets, portfolios and operating platforms

The Person

• Three to five years of relevant real estate investing experience; knowledge of credit strategies or structured products would be beneficial
• Experience in real estate private equity, private credit, investment banking, asset management or another institutional real estate investing environment; exposure to multiple real estate asset classes would be beneficial
• Experience creating cash-flow models and working with asset- and loan-level data
• Experience and comfort working with large datasets, databases and data-visualisation tools
• Strong quantitative, analytical and financial-modelling skills
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present analytical findings clearly to senior colleagues
• Bachelor’s degree in finance, business, economics, mathematics or a related quantitative discipline

Profile

Consistent with the firm’s performance framework, the successful candidate will:

• Deliver: Produce accurate, client-ready analysis; demonstrate sound judgment, accountability, curiosity and a solution-oriented mindset.
• Connect: Build strong relationships, communicate complex analysis clearly, share information proactively and collaborate effectively with internal and external stakeholders.
• Lead: Be self-motivated, dependable and team-oriented; seek and respond constructively to feedback; contribute positively to the firm’s culture and maintain a strong risk and control mindset.

Reporting

The Associate be managed by Jake Eisenberg, US Real Estate Operating Vice President, who in turn reports to Charles Ochman, US Real Estate Operating Partner. The role will also involve meaningful interaction and collaboration with the two existing Associates on the team.

Location

The role will be based in New York. The Associate will be expected to travel to assets and portfolio companies when necessary and feasible.

Base Salary Compensation

The base salary for the position is c130,000 – 150,000 USD, with discretionary bonus on top.