Vice President/Principal, Alternative Credit

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 is a leading participant in the global alternative credit markets with approximately $34.1 billion of assets under management (“AUM”) invested across multiple, actively-managed funds as of September 30, 2023. Of this AUM, the Alt Credit Team manages over $13 billion of dedicated capital on behalf of insurers including Aspida, our indirect insurance subsidiary. The Alt Credit Team today comprises approximately 70 investment professionals located primarily in three Ares offices: New York City, Atlanta and London. 

Ares’ Alt Credit platform employs strategies that are asset-focused, making investments backed by assets and contractual cash flows such as loans, leases and receivables. Alt Credit fills gaps in the capital markets between credit, private equity and real estate, investing across a spectrum of liquid and illiquid opportunities that include various specialty finance sectors, net leases, structured products, cash flow streams (e.g., royalties, licensing, management fees), and other asset types. 

Ares is seeking a Principal to join our Alternative Credit Group in the New York office (in-person), focused on the ABS investment strategy. This strategy focuses on delivering strong risk adjusted excess return over investment grade corporates for insurance balance sheets, with a focus on privately originated asset-based opportunities. The qualified candidate will have a proven track record in sourcing, structuring, and underwriting asset-based transactions. Illustrative examples of asset types include fund finance, lender finance, infrastructure, transportation, consumer / small business, and royalties (whole business, music, etc). The ideal candidate will also have experience in transaction structures ranging from lending facilities to forward flow and whole loan investments.

The ideal candidate will be able to operate independently with core responsibilities in sourcing and execution. The candidate should have significant experience interacting with portfolio companies, rating agencies, banks, legal counsel, and have familiarity with investing insurance capital.

Primary functions and responsibilities:

• Sourcing & Origination: Leverage relationships with market participants to source and originate private investment opportunities.
• Due Diligence: Lead due diligence processes including management due diligence, data analysis, and lead all third party work flows including counsel, rating agencies, and other groups as appropriate to facilitate successful closing of transactions.
• Documentation: Lead documentation processes and negotiations with counterparties. Significant expertise in assembling term sheets, commitment letters, and driving the execution of definitive transaction documents is required.
• Financial Modeling & Analysis: Thoroughly analyze and underwrite potential investments including reviews of collateral tapes, historical performance, facility structure, and develop quantitative models to conduct scenario analysis. Strong proficiency with Intex, Bloomberg, and Excel is critical for success in the role.
• Investment Recommendation: Lead the development of investment committee memos and supporting analysis; ensure the quality, completeness, and accuracy of the analysis that precedes investment recommendations as well as manage the overall delivery of associated materials required for decision making.
• Portfolio Management: Provide active input for active portfolio management of transactions in portfolio. This includes providing oversight and input on transactions and working with portfolio managers to actively manage and continuously assess risk and exposure across the portfolios.

Qualifications:

• Superior academic achievement at a top tier undergraduate program is required.
• 7+ years of finance experience with direct exposure to asset-backed transactions, with a preference for investment banking or buyside experience across both public and private securitizations
• Demonstrated track record in sourcing and executing privately originated asset-based opportunities.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills that demonstrate an ability to articulate a clear, concise analysis of investment risk a