Principal, Operational Strategy

Ares Management Corporation•New York, NY

2d•$250,000 - $280,000

About The Position

Ares is seeking a Principal to join its Corporate Strategy – Operational Strategy Group. The group brings execution discipline and program-management rigor to critical firmwide transformation initiatives, including M&A integration, operating-model evolution, efficiency efforts, and governance for senior leadership forums. It coordinates work across Ares’ business lines and operational functions, helping ensure priority initiatives are aligned, sequenced, delivered, and focused on measurable value. The Principal will be directly accountable for the strategy and execution of several key transformation programs, with a significant focus on Technology, Investment, and Sales/Marketing workflows. The role owns assigned programs end to end, from defining strategic objectives, target operating models, roadmaps, success measures, and governance through delivery, dependency management, risk escalation, and outcome realization. It coordinates PMOs, COOs, embedded project teams, and functional transformation resources around common plans and outcomes, and serves as a senior execution lead across a highly matrixed organization. The role also supports M&A integration workstreams in partnership with the Operational Strategy Master Planning function. This includes turning integration priorities into operational plans across the M&A lifecycle, working with Technology on systems and data dependencies, and collaborating with business support teams on diligence, Day 1 readiness, Day 100 execution, process harmonization, vendor and technology rationalization, governance, and post-close tracking. The position reports to the Managing Director, Corporate Strategy – Operational Strategy Group.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree; outstanding academic achievement.
15+ years of experience in large-scale transformation, strategy execution, business operations, process redesign, integration, or management consulting.
Ability to translate strategic priorities into actionable programs, operating models, roadmaps, and execution plans.
Experience analyzing and redesigning business processes, systems, workflows, controls, and requirements from current state through implementation.
Demonstrated success leading cross-functional initiatives across business, Technology, Legal, Compliance, Finance, Operations, Investor Relations, Sales/Marketing, and external vendors.
Strong knowledge of alternative investments, including Credit, Private Equity, Real Assets, and Secondaries, and familiarity with fund, investor, sales/marketing, and investment lifecycles.
Structured problem-solving and analytical skills, sound judgment, and ability to turn complex or ambiguous issues into clear recommendations and actions.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including development of executive-ready materials and ability to influence stakeholders at all levels.
Highly organized, detail-oriented, results-driven, and able to manage competing priorities, deadlines, risks, and dependencies in a fast-paced environment.
Proactive self-starter with a bias for action, a continuous-improvement mindset, and the ability to balance tactical execution with broader strategic direction.
Experience using program-management tools and artifacts to manage complex enterprise programs with 10+ interconnected projects, including integrated master plans, dependency maps, RAID logs, milestone trackers, and executive dashboards.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree major in Accounting, Economics, Political Science, Finance, General Business, or Management.
People-management experience.
Familiarity with client experience and investor transformation, deal pipeline management, allocation and investment workflow transformation, or treasury, banking, and liquidity operations transformation.
Experience with Microsoft Project, Smartsheet, Jira, Confluence, Asana, Monday.com, or equivalent program-management platforms.

Responsibilities

Translate executive priorities into executable programs, including problem statements, program charters, business cases, roadmaps, workstreams, milestones, decision points, and enterprise sequencing.
Assess current-state processes, technology, data flows, controls, roles, and dependencies; define target-state capabilities, operating models, organizational design, governance, and scalable process designs.
Develop integrated program plans, sequence work, identify dependencies and resources, establish timelines, clarify accountability, and coordinate business-unit transformation and project teams.
Lead disciplined delivery of complex, multi-workstream initiatives by managing scope, timelines, budgets, risks, issues, dependencies, decisions, and deliverables; resolve blockers, escalate effectively, and ensure execution quality.
Drive adoption of new processes, tools, and operating models by partnering with business teams to embed changes into day-to-day workflows and sustain outcomes.
Develop clear, audience-specific communications explaining transformation programs’ purpose, value, impact, and stakeholder roles.
Support governance and executive decision-making through executive materials, steering committee updates, decision memos, risk and issue logs, status reports, and recommendations.
Define success measures, quantify benefits, track value realization, and connect program activity to measurable business outcomes.
Identify inefficiencies, redesign workflows, standardize repeatable practices, institutionalize playbooks, and promote continuous improvement.
Lead designated M&A integration transformation workstreams, translating integration priorities into operational plans across the M&A lifecycle.
Coordinate with Technology and business support teams on systems, platforms, data flows, integration dependencies, operational diligence, Day 1 readiness, Day 100 execution, process harmonization, vendor and technology rationalization, governance, and post-close tracking.