Principal, Pricing & Valuation-Control - Investment Operations

Ares Operations•Los Angeles, CA

About The Position

Ares is seeking a strategic, hands-on Principal of Pricing to lead our enterprise pricing and valuation-control capability. Reporting to the Head of Operations, this individual will set the vision and operating model for pricing, build scalable tooling and rules, strengthen SOX and valuation governance. The role will combine control ownership, product leadership, and vendor management to ensure the pricing function scales with the complexity and growth of the investment platform. The successful candidate will operate at the intersection of Operations and other strategic data partners, including Portfolio Management, Technology, Fund Accounting, Compliance, and both internal and external audit teams. The individual should be equally comfortable setting enterprise direction and engaging in detailed challenges, while bringing an external perspective on the evolving pricing and valuation models in the market. This is an opportunity for a builder and enterprise leader who can take a complex pricing environment and make it more systematic, transparent, automated, commercially efficient and easier to govern.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business or a related discipline required.
Minimum 10-15 years of progressively responsible experience in investment management, capital markets, valuation, pricing, investment operations, fund accounting, product management or a related field, with demonstrated leadership of complex cross-functional initiatives.
Demonstrated senior-level experience with pricing controls, valuation governance, price verification, exception management and market data within a complex asset-management environment.
Strong fixed-income and credit product knowledge; experience with bank loans, CLOs, CDOs, variable-rate securities and other complex or less-liquid instruments strongly preferred.
Experience building or enhancing pricing tools, workflows, dashboards, rules engines or operational platforms in partnership with Technology.
Demonstrated experience managing strategic market-data or pricing-vendor relationships, including contract negotiation, commercial optimization, service governance, and vendor performance management.
Strong external orientation with experience benchmarking operating models, controls, and technology against peers or industry best practice and translating those insights into scalable change.
Experience with alternative asset management and private or illiquid investments preferred.
Experience supporting audit, SOX/control testing, valuation committees or similar governance forums preferred.
Prior experience with acquisitions, integrations or platform transformations is a plus.
An enterprise builder mentality with the ability to set a future-state vision, establish priorities, and translate strategy into practical workflows and measurable outcomes.
Intellectually curious and appropriately skeptical; comfortable challenging senior investment professionals when applicable.
Strong judgment and a clear understanding of when to resolve issues independently versus escalating material valuation or control concerns.
Excellent analytical skills with the ability to synthesize large datasets and complex valuation topics into clear conclusions and actionable management information.
Outstanding executive presence and stakeholder management skills.
Advanced Excel and data analysis skills; experience with visualization, workflow or data-query tools is a plus.
Self-directed, highly accountable and comfortable operating in a fast-paced environment with competing priorities and ambiguity.
A proven leader who can effectively manage personnel across a global team with varying schedules.
Ability to build and grow a high performance team focused on continuous improvement while being conscious of the need for stable, auditable controls.

Nice To Haves

MBA, CFA and/or CPA preferred.
Experience with alternative asset management and private or illiquid investments preferred.
Experience supporting audit, SOX/control testing, valuation committees or similar governance forums preferred.
Prior experience with acquisitions, integrations or platform transformations is a plus.
Experience with visualization, workflow or data-query tools is a plus.

Responsibilities

Own the daily pricing process across loans, bonds, equities, derivatives and private securities.
Source data from vendor and internal team uploads and review discrepancies, significant variances, stale pricing, and pricing history to ensure accurate records.
Own the strategic and commercial relationship with third-party market pricing vendors. Monitor service quality, coverage, methodology, controls, resiliency, and implement new capabilities.
Partner with portfolio managers and investment teams to deliver timely and accurate investment information and support valuation conclusions in accordance with applicable accounting and audit standards.
Continuous improvement on design and maintenance of pricing rules hierarchy by asset class and source - including vendor selection, source precedence, tolerance thresholds, stale-price logic, fallback rules and escalation criteria.
Lead implementation and rollout of new pricing functionality, system enhancements, integrations, and vendor solutions; drive decisions, manage issues and support adoption.
Own the operating model and multi-year roadmap of the firm’s pricing capability including workflows, rule engines, exception management, approval paths, dashboards, audit trails and integration with the broader valuation ecosystem.
Serve as the senior pricing advisor to the Head of Operations and valuation leadership, providing a clear point of view on risk and controls, as well as the capabilities required to support future growth.
Enforce enterprise standards and ensure all valuation teams follow said standard decision so that local practices do not undermine firm-wide consistency or control.
Own and continually strengthen the pricing control framework, including SOX-relevant controls, evidence standards, approvals, segregation of duties, exception governance and control documentation.
Ensure pricing processes are repeatable, auditable, and supported by clear policy, procedures, and evidence across daily, monthly, quarterly and annual valuation cycles.
Partner with Fund Accounting, Internal Audit, External Audit, and Compliance on valuation-control design, testing, documentation and remediation.
Monitor regulatory, accounting, and industry developments and translate relevant changes into operating procedures, system rules and governance standards.
Develop control metrics that identify recurring exceptions, override behavior, control failures, and emerging valuation risks.
Act as an independent control partner to the investment desks by critically reviewing pricing exceptions, material movements, stale prices, illiquid positions, and trader/portfolio manager overrides.
Establish consistent override thresholds, reason codes, aging standards, and escalation protocols so that overrides are governed by policy rather than convention.
Perform trend and root-cause analysis on overrides and pricing exceptions to identify patterns by desk, asset class, source, or individual security and recommend remediation.
Balance commercial understanding with control independence, maintaining constructive relationships while being willing to push back where pricing support is insufficient.
Set the firm-wide strategy for price providers, defining where Ares should buy, build, consolidate or diversify capabilities based on asset-class needs, control requirements, and economics.
Lead vendor selection, renewals and commercial negotiations, including pricing, licensing, service levels, data rights, implementation commitments, and contractual protections; use scale and consolidated firm demand to improve economics and service.
Establish vendor scorecards and governance forums to evaluate coverage, price quality, methodology, responsiveness, SLA performance, control environment, and value delivered; escalate persistent gaps and drive remediation.
Regularly assess overlapping vendor services and opportunities to rationalize spending, simplify architecture and improve resilience without compromising valuation control objectives.
Develop an external benchmarking program to understand how leading alternative asset managers and other relevant peers structure pricing teams, technology, and controls.
Manage personnel across a global team with varying schedules.
Build and grow a high performance team focused on continuous improvement while being conscious of the need for stable, auditable controls.