Senior Associate ESG, Secondaries

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.

Job Description

Ares Management is seeking an experienced and enthusiastic leader to work closely with the Private Equity and Secondaries Environmental, Social, and Governance (“ESG”) Lead to further advance and embed ESG principles into the Ares culture, investment platform, and operations. Based out of our New York City, the Senior Associate, ESG will work in partnership with investment and portfolio management teams, and other internal stakeholders to implement a comprehensive business plan for ESG, as well as ensure that these programs are executed consistently across the firm.

Ares is a flat, flexible, and dynamic organization. The firm fosters a culture of collaboration, entrepreneurialism, integrity and partnership, both internally amongst colleagues and externally amongst clients and other stakeholders. The Ares team operates with a growth mindset, communicates transparently, and cultivates a high-performance and results-oriented environment.

Reporting relationship

Reports to: Principal, Private Equity and Secondaries ESG Lead

Primary functions and essential responsibilities

The Senior Associate, ESG will primarily support the Ares Secondaries group to build and execute programs in alignment with the firmwide ESG integration approach. Ares Secondaries has pioneered and innovated within secondary markets across three decades and a range of alternative asset classes, including private equity, real estate, infrastructure and credit. Over the course of our 30-year history in this space, we have invested across thousands of partnership interests, driving highly differentiated and proprietary transactions through our deeply established relationships with institutional investors, fund sponsors, and market advisors. Ares Secondaries has more than 150 professionals across six offices in New York, Boston, Dallas, London, Hong Kong, and Simsbury, Connecticut.

Based in New York, this role will provide week-to-week support to the Secondaries teams on ESG diligence during the underwriting process and engaging with sponsors post-transaction to drive a holistic ESG agenda. This role will also interact regularly with the Ares Investor Relations and Relationship Management teams in serving external clients.   

Other specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Partner with embedded ESG Champions across the Secondaries team to scale ESG integration strategies designed to deliver measurable impact.

• Help mitigate material ESG risks through scalable implementation of ESG diligence.  Partner with ESG champions embedded within the investment strategies to execute monitoring and engagement strategies focused on mitigating risk and creating value from ESG factors.  Focus topics include climate change, DEI, and holistic ESG integration.

• Implement a consistent and scalable approach to ESG data collection, validation and reporting for both internal and external stakeholders.  Partner with Investor Relations team to create ESG content in LP reporting.

• Assist with LP ESG due diligence on Ares including answering questions on our ESG practices, policies and case studies.

• Contribute to thought leadership pieces focused on ESG in secondaries.

• Support select ESG initiatives within the Private Equity business, such as ESG data collection, and portfolio company engagements.

• Support the broader ESG team with project management and development of internal / external deliverables.

Qualifications

Education: Bachelor’s degree required. MBA or equivalent degree in finance, economics or environmental management strongly preferred.

Experience Required:  The ideal candidate will have a desire to build upon Ares’ existing ESG processes, with deep knowledge of ESG integration and data.  They will be an energetic, passionate leader genuinely inspired by our mission and values.
 

• Minimum of 5 years of experience in ESG-related business practices, investments, and sustainability, preferably within the financial services industry. Experience engaging with and doing due diligence on alternative asset manag