Senior Associate, Corporate Accounting

Ares Operations•New York, NY

About The Position

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. Ares is looking for a Senior Associate to join the Revenue and Investment accounting team within Corporate Accounting. The team is responsible for all of Ares Management Corporation’s fee revenues including Management Fees, Performance Fees, Other Fees, Investment Income and related Placement Fee expense. Due to significant growth in our business and fee streams we are looking to recruit an ambitious, diligent and analytical senior to help account for multiple fee revenue accounting streams and processes.

Requirements

A Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, Finance, or a related field is required.
CPA required.
4+ years of progressive professional experience in accounting.
Strong organizational skills and attention to detail but can still see big picture.
Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment.
Ability to identify and analyze problems and to develop an effective course of action.
Excellent communication and writing skills.
Desire to own issues and be accountable.
Seeking a candidate with a strong desire for personal and professional growth.

Nice To Haves

An advanced degree is considered a plus.
Public accounting experience preferred.
Financial services experience is preferred.
Exposure to investment management, fund accounting, and SEC reporting is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Responsible for accounting for Carried Interest: Accounting for carried interest allocations to the general partner under relevant accounting guidelines – responsibilities would be specific to our Private Equity, Real Assets and Secondaries and Other business lines.
Performing accounting research, reaching accounting conclusions on classification of performance fee revenue under ASC 323 and ASC 606.
Reconciling all carry balances on a timely basis for month and quarter end closes.
Detailed analysis of performance fee income and presentation of significant drivers and changes through clear and concise management reporting.
Key partner for relevant stakeholders including Ares leadership, fund accounting colleagues, tax colleagues and investor relations.
Ensuring control environment is monitored and adhered to in compliance with SOX 404 program.
Responsible for accounting for associated employee incentive compensation programs including associated taxes.
Responsibility and ownership of multiple other fee streams: Responsibilities over agency fee allocations between management company and funds utilizing relevant investment reporting systems.
Accounting, reconciling, and analyzing management fee revenue earned.
Ownership for analyzing, solutioning and operationalizing best in class accounting practices, including: Assessing and documenting current state and working with other parties and peers to benchmark against best practices.
Seeking end-to-end accounting and reporting with minimal manual intervention.
Directing IT team to operationalize changes and efficiencies identified.
Contributing to various special projects including capital transactions, acquisitions, and process improvements to improve overall group efficiencies.
Helping to automate other accounting and financial reporting requirements.
Support internal reporting requirements and other ad-hoc requests of various internal users including other finance and accounting teams, investor relations and the front office.
Other duties as assigned by management.
Clear growth path through other revenue stream ownership as mastery of assigned work is displayed.