Senior Associate, Financial Planning & Analysis

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 a Senior Associate to join the New York Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team.  The FP&A team works closely with business stakeholders in all lines of business (as well as various corporate functions.)  The team primarily works out of the New York office in partnership with the teams in Los Angeles and London offices.  Ares, as an alternative asset manager, has an asset mix which is comprehensive and heavily concentrated in bank debt and directly originated investments.  The ideal candidate would have experience working with alternative credit or direct lending funds, extensive knowledge of fund waterfalls and an aptitude for technological data and forecasting solutions.  The role requires a dynamic, adaptive, experienced hands-on professional to ensure best practices in a fast-paced rapidly growing environment.

Primary functions and essential responsibilities

The Sr. Associate will support the VP and broader FP&A team in partnering across our enterprise with fund accounting, corporate accounting, divisional CFOs, senior investment professionals, senior finance leadership, information technology resources and programmers.

Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Credit Segment reporting support across sub-segment Credit investment groups and business operations.
• Preparation of periodic financial reporting for internal stakeholders.
• Assets Under Management “AUM” and related metrics public reporting.
• Database creation and management in support of our enterprise projects – finance and information technology.
• Financial modeling – in support of enterprise-wide financial and strategic business decisions.
• Identify and understand business challenges; propose and help create solutions.
• Partner directly with the finance team to collaborate on metrics, goals, and business reviews.
• Dive deeply into specific financial data to provide anecdotal insights.
• Create presentations that provide insightful analysis, identify required action items, and effectively frame decisions to be made.
• Work closely with accounting to identify and research variances to forecast, budget, and prior-year expenses, proactively identifying opportunities for improvement.
• Develop and maintain effective relationships with business partners and cross-functional teams at all levels of the organization.
• Manage the optimization of consolidation and reporting, budgeting/forecasting, and dashboard/analytics software/technology systems to ensure the use of value-added financial tools; including selection of any new software/systems as needed.
• Lead, manage, motivate, and inspire Operational Finance & FP&A team to effectively embrace and drive objectives, visions, and goals.

Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance or other business-related discipline
• MBA preferred but not required

Experience Required:  

• Minimum of 6+ years of experience in investment management firms with expertise in Investment Operations and Asset Servicing related functions
• Basic understanding of Income Statements, Balance Sheets and Cost Center functionality.
• Expert analytical, data management and financial modeling skills (utilizing Excel and advanced technological solutions)
• Familiarity with financial planning applications (Oracle, Hyperion, OneStream, Power BI, Anaplan, etc.).
• Technically proficient with all MS Office applications, especially Excel and PowerPoint.
• Experience building, maintaining, or working with relationship, hierarchical, SQL or Access databases strongly preferred
• Hedge fund, Credit or Private Equity fund experience and detailed understanding of fund waterfall calculations and mechanics
• Applications: PowerBI (Reporting Dashboard), Microsoft Excel, OneStream (Financial Consolidation and Reporting Software), Alteryx, Workiva

General Requirements:

• 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.
• Excellent interpersonal and written communication skills.
• Self-motivated and driven with ability to multitask and to work effectively in a dynamic environment.
• Genuine interest and passion about understanding the fundamentals of corporate finance and the aptitude to embrace technological workflows enhancements.
• Team-oriented and collaborative with strong sense of ownership
• 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, collaboration, and interpersonal skills
• A hands-on approach and ability to synthesize business operation needs
• Ability to successfully manage multiple priorities and competing demands
• High accuracy and detail orientation
• 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 increase efficiency of existing processes
• Dependable, great attitude, highly motivated and a team player

Reporting Relationships

Compensation

$120,000 - $135,000

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.