AVP – Investment Accounting

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

Summary:

Ares is seeking an Associate Vice President to join our Investment Accounting (IA) team in London. This role is a unique opportunity to work within a high performing international team.

This position is focused primarily on analyzing complex transaction across multiple credit strategies, and product controls for existing portfolios. Transaction analysis includes working closely with other parts of the firm to analyze and evaluate each deal. Analysis includes summaries for each deal which notate internal rationale for accounting treatment with the goal of ensuring deals are properly recorded by the administrators.  Product controls includes monitoring the existing investment data to ensure accuracy, integrity and consistency for reporting to senior investment leaders.

The Investment Accounting team is part of the global Investment Operations team within the broader Finance & Accounting Operations organization and has a presence in California, New York, London and Mumbai. The team is responsible for the firmwide analysis of new/existing investments and daily profit and loss, development of accounting /other investment policies as well as internal/external reporting and works closely with Front Office,  Fund Accounting, FP&A, Operations, Compliance, and Portfolio Management.

The successful candidate will be a self-starter, process-oriented, and extremely flexible with an ability to define, design, create and improve IA functions.  The ideal candidate will adapt quickly and must be organized with a strong sense of client service and ability to meet multiple tight deadlines.  They will have a demonstrated track record and possess experience working in a fast-paced, high growth and rapidly changing environment.  To succeed, the individual will need a flexible and consultative skill set, including the ability to think strategically, execute tactically, and collaborate across multiple business lines, and other internal/external teams, levels, and situations.

Primary Functions and Essential Responsibilities:

• Participate in investment committee, watch list, valuation, allocation and strategy discussions
• Assist in managing relationships and liaise with internal resources, offshoring resources, external fund administrator(s) to meet all deadlines
• Track deals in the pipeline to identify any accounting, tax or compliance concerns
• Analyze credit terms, fee structures and syndication mechanisms to ensure proper revenue recognition in accordance with accounting guidelines
• Daily investigation of material profit and loss items and coordinate with third party admins to correct any inconsistencies
• Resolve and / or assist administrator and offshore team with investment related discrepancies
• Work with fund accounting teams to ensure that all investment accounting transactions are recorded in accordance with accounting standards and consult tax as necessary for complex transactions
• Analyzes results from complex financial accounting data and communicates results
• Participate and implement the company’s technological initiatives as it pertains to the investment process including building and maintaining internal modeling and monitoring tools
• Prepare monthly and quarterly investor deliverables and other ad-hoc reporting for investor relations, analysts, and portfolio managers.
• Work in a team environment to contribute to the development and implementation of the group’s overall goals

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree in finance/accounting required or relevant qualification
• CA or CPA candidate preferred

Experience Required:  

• 5-7 years of relevant work experience with public/fund accounting or product control preferred
• Strong Microsoft Office skills required
• PowerBI/Tableau/Alteryx preferred
• Exposure to alternative assets, preferably credit instruments such as bank debt, bonds, structured products and other fixed income products
• Knowledge of investment accounting and the investment lifecycle

Experience Desired:

• Dependable, great attitude, highly motivated and a team player
• A self-directed individual with a can-do attitude, willing to work in an energetic, collaborative and fast-paced environment, proactive in nature, and a proven ability to learn quickly, display flexibility and adaptability while resolving issues with minimal supervision
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills
• High accuracy and detail orientation; confident decision-making skills
• Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills
• Outstanding communication (written and verbal), presentation, documentation, and interpersonal skills; strong customer focus
• Ability to successfully manage multiple priorities and competing demands; strong time management and prioritization skills
• Able to pick up and work with new technology solutions (Power BI, multiple Excel add ins, SharePoint. Etc.)
• Ability to handle confidential information appropriately

Reporting Relationships

Principal, Investment Operations

There is no set deadline to apply for this job opportunity. Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the search is no longer active.