Associate, Legal Transformation & Operations

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.

About the Role Ares is seeking an Associate, Legal Transformation & Operations to help drive strategic, operational and technology initiatives across the Legal Strategy and Innovation (“LSI”) function. Working closely with the Head of Legal Transformation & Operations, the Associate will own and advance discrete workstreams spanning operational transformation, workflow modernization, legal technology, data and analytics, AI enablement, vendor management and other department-wide initiatives. The role is designed for a highly resourceful and analytical individual who combines structured problem solving with strong execution. The successful candidate will be comfortable taking ambiguous problems, developing a path forward, coordinating across stakeholders and driving work through implementation. Success requires strong judgment, ownership, attention to detail, intellectual curiosity and the ability to learn new tools, systems and subject matter quickly.

Transformation Execution & Project Management Own and drive discrete workstreams within strategic and operational initiatives across LSI and the broader Legal department. Develop and manage project plans, milestones, dependencies, risks, decisions and follow-up activities across multiple concurrent initiatives. Structure ambiguous business problems, conduct analysis, synthesize findings and help develop practical recommendations and implementation approaches. Prepare decision-ready presentations, briefing materials, executive updates, meeting materials and project documentation. Coordinate stakeholders, working sessions, testing, training, change management and implementation activities to keep initiatives moving forward. Identify execution risks and obstacles, escalate issues appropriately and drive issues through resolution. Process, Data & Technology Enablement Analyze existing workflows and operating processes and identify opportunities to simplify, standardize, automate, or redesign them. Help design and implement scalable intake mechanisms, routing models, approval workflows, service delivery processes and other operational infrastructure. Document processes, operating procedures, decision frameworks, templates and other reusable resources. Collect, organize, validate and analyze data from internal systems, vendors and business processes. Develop dashboards, KPI reporting, management analyses and executive-level insights that support decision-making and performance management. Support data quality, data governance and reporting initiatives that improve the reliability and usability of Legal department information. Support the implementation, testing, administration and adoption of legal technology and other enterprise platforms. Identify practical opportunities to apply automation and generative AI to workflows, operational processes, analysis and knowledge-intensive work. Develop user guides, training materials and adoption resources that help translate new tools and processes into sustained ways of working. Department Operations & General Counsel Support Support the General Counsel to build and maintain a scalable operating infrastructure for the Legal department, including onboarding materials, organizational charts, distribution lists, intranet content, departmental overview materials for investors, reference materials and other internal communications.