Senior Associate, Real Estate Operations

Location: New York

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 Position Summary The Senior Associate, Real Estate Operations will work with Ares Real Estate’s Global and Regional COOs to drive operational excellence, execution, and alignment across Ares Real Estate platform (spanning equity and credit). The role provides high-leverage support across strategic initiatives, business planning, budgeting and forecasting, digital transformation, partner and board-level engagement, and cross-functional coordination between Real Estate and centralized corporate functions.

The successful candidate will bring a rare combination of discretion, emotional intelligence, sharp analytical and modeling capability, and executive-caliber presentation skills, and will be trusted with highly sensitive strategic, financial, and other business information.

Primary Functions and Essential Responsibilities Support the Global and Regional COOs in the execution of high-impact strategic initiatives, cross-segment projects, and centralized firm resource utilization

Prepare, review, and iterate materials for senior leader level meetings and business performance reviews

Analyze complex Excel models to support budgeting, reforecasting, expense tracking, headcount planning, scenario analysis, and business performance monitoring across regions and investment vehicles

Develop executive-ready presentations that bring the story to life visually, going well beyond formatting to structure narrative, insight, and recommendations

Regarding the Global Partner Calendar, support agenda design, materials preparation, and follow-through for recurring leadership meetings and offsites

Support project management on cross-functional initiatives, track progress, surface interdependencies and roadblocks, and drive timely resolution and follow-through

Partner with Ares centralized corporate functions (Finance, HR, Technology, Legal, Compliance, Marketing, Investor Relations) to advance Real Estate priorities and translate corporate best practices into the Real Estate Group Support the rollout and adoption of digital tools, data analytics, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) use cases across the platform, including identifying opportunities to leverage AI to enhance productivity, reporting, and decision-making

Contribute to standardization and refinement of monthly and bi-annual business review materials, including refining metrics tracked to support early intervention and better business management

Assist with communications, updates, and messaging to partners, clients, and internal stakeholders, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and on-brand messaging

Handle highly confidential information with the utmost discretion and sound judgment

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Business, Finance, Accounting, Economics, or Real Estate with strong academic credentials;
Master's Degree a plus6 to 10 years of experience in investment banking, private equity, real estate, accounting, or management consulting

Exceptional Excel and financial modeling skills, including the ability to build and audit complex models from scratch

Outstanding PowerPoint and presentation skills, with proven ability to translate complex information into clear, visually…