Senior HR Business Partner (Legal & Compliance)

Ares Operations•New York, NY

10d

About The Position

Ares is seeking an accomplished Senior Human Resources Business Partner to support its Legal, Risk and Compliance businesses. The role serves as a senior HR advisor to business leadership and helps shape and execute talent and organizational strategies that support continued growth and evolution. The successful candidate will partner with senior leaders to build, develop, and retain high-performing teams, strengthen talent pipelines, develop leadership capability, and evolve organizational models. This is a strategic, commercially minded role for an HR leader who can operate at senior levels, understand global Legal, Risk and Compliance functions, navigate complex organizational issues, and turn business priorities into effective talent strategies. The role spans talent management, organizational effectiveness, leadership development, workforce and succession planning, performance management, employee relations, compensation, promotions, onboarding, exits, recruitment strategy, diversity, and learning and development. Success requires moving between strategic advice and hands-on execution in a fast-paced, high-growth, rapidly evolving organization. The position reports to the Managing Director, Head of Talent Management, Business Operations. The anticipated base salary range is $225,000–$275,000, and total compensation may also include a discretionary performance-based bonus. Ares offers U.S. core benefits and additional programs described in the posting. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis until the search is no longer active.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree required.
12–15+ years of progressive HR experience, including substantial experience as a senior HR Business Partner to executives and leadership teams.
Experience in alternative asset management, asset management, financial services, investment banking, or another sophisticated, high-performance professional services environment.
Demonstrated success advising senior executives in complex, global, high-growth, client-focused organizations.
Deep experience translating business strategy and growth objectives into organizational and talent strategies.
Experience building, coaching, and developing high-performing teams, with a strong player-coach mindset.
Expertise in organizational design, workforce planning, succession planning, talent management, leadership development, change management, and organizational transformation.
Significant experience advising senior leaders on complex performance, compensation, promotion, succession, development, and retention decisions.
Strong analytical capabilities and demonstrated ability to use workforce data, market intelligence, and business insights to inform talent strategies and executive decisions.
Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint.
Strong commercial acumen, intellectual curiosity, business judgment, and ability to build credibility as a trusted advisor to senior executives.
Ability to act with autonomy, discretion, accountability, integrity, professionalism, and sound ethical judgment.
Ability to navigate ambiguity and organizational complexity with confidence, resilience, adaptability, and pragmatism.
Exceptional relationship management and influencing skills, with the ability to build partnerships across businesses, functions, geographies, and organizational levels.
Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution and manage multiple competing priorities without sacrificing quality or attention to detail.
Strong communication skills, including the ability to communicate clearly and effectively in writing and verbally with diverse stakeholders.
Ability to maintain composure and professionalism in high-pressure, sensitive, or confidential situations and handle sensitive information with discretion.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred.
Experience supporting client-facing, distribution, wealth management, fundraising, product, or other commercial organizations.
Experience with Workday or comparable HRIS platforms.

Responsibilities

Serve as a trusted strategic advisor to Legal, Risk and Compliance leaders and managers, developing an understanding of business strategy, growth objectives, organizational priorities, and talent needs.
Partner with business leadership to develop and execute talent and organizational strategies that support growth and evolving priorities.
Advise on organizational design and effectiveness, including operating models, spans and layers, role clarity, team structures, leadership accountabilities, and organizational capabilities.
Lead strategic workforce and headcount planning, anticipating future talent and capability needs and aligning talent investment with business priorities.
Drive succession planning and talent reviews, identifying critical roles and talent and developing succession and development strategies.
Identify organizational, talent, and workforce trends and provide actionable insights and recommendations to strengthen organizational effectiveness, talent outcomes, and employee experience.
Lead annual talent processes, including performance management, promotions, compensation planning, succession planning, talent reviews, and workforce planning.
Partner with senior leaders to assess, develop, and retain key talent, identifying retention risks, capability gaps, and development opportunities.
Advise leaders and managers on complex people and organizational matters, balancing business objectives, employee considerations, risk, and company policies and practices.
Support the continued evolution and scaling of the functions by identifying organizational and talent implications.
Use workforce analytics, market intelligence, and qualitative insights to identify themes and provide data-informed recommendations.
Identify opportunities to strengthen organizational effectiveness and HR practices, share best practices, and promote scalable and consistent approaches across global organizations.
Collaborate across HR to deliver integrated solutions aligned with business priorities.
Partner with Talent Acquisition on workforce planning, senior and critical hiring, candidate slate reviews, selection strategy, and offer structuring.
Partner with Reward on compensation strategy, annual compensation processes, benchmarking, retention considerations, and complex compensation matters.
Partner with Talent Development on succession planning, talent reviews, leadership development, performance management, and targeted development strategies.
Partner with HR Operations on employee lifecycle processes and improvements to efficiency, scalability, data quality, and employee and manager experience.
Embed inclusive talent practices in hiring, development, promotion, succession, and broader people strategies.
Provide general HR guidance and counsel to managers and employees; manage employee relations and performance issues; and facilitate onboarding and exits.