Vice President, AI Credit Product Lead

Ares Operations•New York, NY

About The Position

Ares is seeking a Vice President, AI Credit Product to define and lead the AI product strategy supporting the firm's global Credit investment platform. This leader will partner closely with Credit investment professionals, Engineering, Data & AI, Operations, and Infrastructure teams to identify, prioritize, and deliver AI-powered products and capabilities that enhance investment decision-making, streamline investment workflows, and transform how investment teams source, evaluate, execute, and monitor investments. The role spans the end-to-end Credit investment lifecycle—including deal sourcing, deal screening, underwriting, diligence, investment committee, trade execution, portfolio management, portfolio monitoring, and investment analytics—and is responsible for embedding AI across the firm's investment operating model. Reporting to the Managing Director, Head of Credit Product, this leader will serve as the primary Product partner to the Enterprise Data & AI organization, translating emerging AI capabilities into scalable products that create measurable business value across Direct Lending, Alternative Credit, Opportunistic Credit and Liquid Credit strategies. The successful candidate will combine strong product leadership, investment technology expertise, and a deep understanding of modern AI capabilities. This individual will shape Ares' AI product vision for Credit while driving AI adoption across investment workflows and fostering AI-native ways of working throughout the Credit Product organization. This role requires a hands-on product leader who is equally comfortable defining long-term product strategy and rapidly prototyping new ideas using modern AI-enabled product development tools. The ideal candidate enjoys experimenting with emerging technologies, validating concepts with users, and partnering closely with Engineering to bring innovative products to market.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or adjacent fields.
Strong understanding of private credit investment workflows spanning deal sourcing, deal screening, underwriting, diligence, investment committee, trade execution, portfolio management, portfolio monitoring, and investment analytics.
Strong understanding of modern AI capabilities, including Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), AI assistants and copilots, agentic AI, intelligent workflow automation, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), enterprise search, and enterprise AI platforms.
Experience identifying, defining, and delivering AI-powered products that leverage enterprise knowledge, document intelligence, workflow automation, or intelligent decision support to improve business outcomes.
Experience partnering closely with Engineering, Data Science, and Enterprise Data & AI organizations to define product strategy and deliver enterprise AI capabilities.
Familiarity with prompt engineering, tool/function calling, semantic search, vector databases, AI evaluation, human-in-the-loop workflows, context management, and responsible AI governance.
Demonstrated hands-on experience using modern AI-assisted product development, rapid prototyping, design, or low-code/no-code tools to rapidly validate ideas and communicate product concepts.
Strong product strategy, roadmap development, product discovery, stakeholder management, and product lifecycle management skills with the ability to translate complex business workflows into scalable technology solutions.
Excellent communication, executive presentation, and cross-functional leadership skills with the ability to influence senior business and technology stakeholders.
9-12 years of experience in Product Management, Investment Technology, Digital Transformation, or Financial Technology.
Experience supporting alternative investments, private credit, capital markets, or institutional investment platforms.
Demonstrated experience defining product vision, developing multi-year product roadmaps, and delivering enterprise technology products from concept through production.
Experience delivering AI-enabled products, digital assistants, enterprise search, knowledge management, document intelligence, workflow automation, or intelligent decision-support capabilities.
Experience evaluating emerging technologies, conducting proof-of-concepts, and assessing build vs. buy decisions for enterprise AI solutions.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex cross-functional initiatives across Product, Engineering, Investment, Operations, and Data organizations in a highly matrixed environment.

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Define and execute the AI product strategy supporting Ares' global Credit investment platform.
Develop and maintain a multi-year AI product roadmap aligned with Credit business priorities and investment strategy.
Partner closely with investment professionals to identify opportunities where AI can improve investment decision-making, streamline investment workflows, and enhance operational scale.
Translate investment workflows, market trends, business priorities, and user feedback into scalable AI product opportunities.
Evaluate build, buy, and partner opportunities across the rapidly evolving AI ecosystem.
Establish and manage a portfolio of AI products aligned with measurable business outcomes.
Lead AI product strategy supporting the end-to-end Credit investment lifecycle, including: Market intelligence and deal sourcing, Deal screening and underwriting, Financial analysis and document intelligence, Diligence workflows, Investment Committee preparation.
Partner closely with the Enterprise Data & AI organization to define the product strategy for Ares' proprietary AI platform and gateway supporting Credit investing.
Drive the development of reusable AI capabilities that power investment workflows across origination, diligence, portfolio management, and investment monitoring.
Define the product vision for enterprise investment knowledge management, intelligent search, document intelligence, and investment copilots.
Partner with Engineering to integrate internal data, investment platforms, research, and proprietary content into a unified AI experience for investment professionals.
Help establish a differentiated investment intelligence platform leveraging proprietary data, workflows, and institutional knowledge.
Partner closely with Engineering and Enterprise Data & AI teams to define, prioritize, and deliver AI-enabled products across the Credit platform.
Define product vision, business capabilities, product requirements, success metrics, and release priorities.
Lead AI products from concept and rapid prototyping through production deployment and ongoing product evolution.
Measure adoption, business value, and user outcomes to continuously improve product capabilities.
Drive AI adoption through iterative development, user feedback, and continuous product enhancement.
Partner closely with Investment teams, Engineering, AI & Data, Operations & Infrastructure teams.
Serve as the AI Product leader for Credit within enterprise technology governance and AI strategy discussions.
Partner with Product Managers across the Credit Product organization to embed AI capabilities throughout the investment lifecycle.
Promote responsible AI adoption, governance, security, and change management practices.
Serve as a strategic advisor to senior business and technology leaders on the adoption of AI across the Credit platform.
Foster a product-led culture of experimentation by rapidly validating ideas through prototypes, proofs of concept, and user feedback before committing to full-scale product development.
Stay current with emerging AI technologies, foundation models, agentic AI frameworks, enterprise search capabilities, and modern product development tools, continuously evaluating their applicability to Credit investing.
Leverage AI-assisted product development and rapid prototyping tools to create mockups, workflows, proof-of-concepts, and interactive demonstrations that accelerate product discovery, stakeholder alignment, and engineering execution.
Demonstrate a hands-on approach to product management by utilizing AI-enabled development tools, low-code/no-code platforms, and rapid prototyping technologies to validate concepts and accelerate product delivery.
Evaluate and adopt emerging AI-native product development tools such as Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Replit, Lovable, v0, Figma AI, or similar technologies to improve product discovery and innovation.
Monitor developments in Generative AI, AI agents, enterprise search, workflow automation, and investment technology.
Evaluate emerging vendors and technologies.
Build a pipeline of AI innovation opportunities aligned with Credit business priorities.
Help establish Ares as a leader in AI-enabled investing.