Associate Vice President, L1 Support

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.

The Associate Vice President (AVP) - L1 Support Operations is responsible for building, launching, and leading a centralized Level 1 (L1) team of up to 18 professionals based in Mumbai. The team will provide first-line Application Support and Service Desk services across defined shifts as part of a global follow-the-sun model. The AVP is accountable for establishing the operating model, recruiting and developing the team, implementing SOP-driven workflows, and delivering consistent service against agreed SLAs, OLAs, and KPIs. The function will serve as the initial point of contact for incidents and service requests, performing intake, classification, prioritization, initial diagnosis, approved SOP/runbook-based resolution, user communication, and timely escalation to the appropriate L2 teams when issues cannot be resolved within L1 scope. The AVP partners with business stakeholders, application owners, Infrastructure, Workplace Technology, L2 support teams, and global technology leadership to provide reliable, scalable, and customer-focused support. Primary functions and essential responsibilities: Function Build-Out and Global Service Delivery: Design, build, launch, and scale a centralized Mumbai-based L1 function of up to 18 team members across Application Support and Service Desk. Define the organization, role profiles, shift-lead model, service catalog, RACI, intake channels, and engagement model with L2 teams. Lead phased onboarding of applications and services, including knowledge transfer, readiness criteria, pilots, and transition sign-off. Deliver global coverage through Mumbai shifts aligned to a follow-the-sun model while meeting SLAs, OLAs, KPIs, and customer targets. L1 Triage, Resolution, and Escalation: Own the L1 entry point for incidents and service requests received through phone, chat, email, portal, monitoring, and approved channels. Ensure accurate logging, categorization, prioritization, assignment, impact assessment, and user communication. Drive initial diagnosis and resolution using approved SOPs, runbooks, knowledge articles, scripts, and standard troubleshooting. Enforce evidence capture and clear L1-to-L2 escalation criteria, routing, handoffs, and ownership to minimize delays and ticket bouncing. Operational Governance and Service Management: Establish daily operations controls, weekly service reviews, monthly reporting, and executive dashboards. Monitor volumes, first-contact resolution, response and resolution times, SLA attainment, backlog, aging, escalation rates, quality, shift performance, and customer satisfaction. Present service performance, risks, trends, capacity needs, and improvement plans to technology leadership and business stakeholders. Ensure ITIL, SOP, security, policy, and audit compliance; identify potential major incidents and trigger the required process and initial communications. Shift Operations and Service Continuity: Develop shift schedules, staffing plans, leave coverage, rotations, and contingency arrangements for all assigned support windows. Implement disciplined follow-the-sun handovers covering open-ticket status, business impact, completed actions, next steps, and ownership. Balance queues and resources across Application Support and Service Desk demand to protect service levels and reduce backlogs. Maintain business continuity, disaster recovery support, surge-capacity, and