Associate, Operational Strategy

Ares is seeking a versatile and highly motivated Associate to join the Corporate Strategy – Operational Strategy Group. Operational Strategy brings best-in-class execution discipline and program management rigor to the firm’s most critical transformation initiatives, including M&A integration master planning, enterprise operating model evolution, corporate efficiency efforts, and governance support for senior leadership forums. Working across Ares’ lines of business and business operations functions, the team advances high-priority strategic initiatives through disciplined solution design, enterprise coordination, strong delivery, and scalable execution.

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.

This person will sit within Operational Strategy and support both the strategy and execution of several of the firm’s key transformation programs, with a heavy focus M&A Master Planning and Integration.

Reporting relationships

Principal, Corporate Strategy – Operational Strategy Group

Primary functions & responsibilities

• Support operational acquisition integration and large-scale transformation initiatives by coordinating across business stakeholders, corporate functions, and third-party services providers to track status, surface risks, an maintain execution momentum

• Help manage a high volume of concurrent integration workstreams, ensuring activities remain aligned to the master integration plan including Day 1 readiness, Day 100 planning, and longer-term value creation priorities.

• Serve as a highly organized program support partner, connecting dots across workstreams, identifying dependencies, and helping teams stay coordinated and accountable against key milestones.

• Drive integration of operating models, business processes, and systems across acquired or merging entities, ensuring alignment with target-state operating frameworks

• Partner with Growth Strategy and corporate leadership to identify and execute operational synergies, including cost optimization, revenue enhancement, and scalability initiatives

• Prepare clear, concise executive-level presentations to stakeholders, including senior leadership and investment teams, summarizing integration progress, risks, and value realization outcomes

• Own end-to-end project lifecycle across multiple concurrent initiatives, with a focus on dependency management across integration workstreams (technology, operations, finance,

• Act as a liaison between business and technical teams to translate integration requirements into scalable solutions, particularly within systems and data environments

• Help identify and document best practices for operational integration, including process standardization, governance routines, performance tracking, and recurring reporting cadences

Qualifications

Education:

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

Experience Required:  

• 4-7 years in COO Office, Transformation Office, Enterprise PMO, Integration Management Office (IMO), or management consulting

• Experience managing complex cross-functional transformation, integration, or strategic initiatives

• Advanced PowerPoint and storytelling capabilities, with experience synthesizing complex information into executive-ready presentations, dashboards, and progress reports for senior leadership

• Program management expertise including dependency, risk, and stakeholder management

• Alternative Investments domain knowledge

• Operating model redesign, process improvement, or integration experience

• Good judgement and understanding when to solve issues independently versus what need to be escalated

• A demonstrated ability to research and leverage available resources to accomplish the task at hand

• Comfort in dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty in a dynamic and fast-paced environment

• Dependable, great attitude, highly motivated and a team player

• Ability to handle confidential information appropriately