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 Management is seeking an experienced and hard-working Climate Senior Associate to implement climate change initiatives in Ares' investment platform and corporate operations. Based out of our New York office, Climate Senior Associate will partner with internal stakeholders-including the Climate Strategy Lead, ESG team, investment teams, and relationship management teams-as well as portfolio companies and LPs to create value by implementing our firmwide climate change strategy.

Ares is a flat, flexible, and dynamic organization. The firm fosters a culture of collaboration, entrepreneurialism, integrity, and partnership, both internally amongst colleagues and externally amongst clients and other stakeholders. The Ares team operates with a growth mindset, communicates transparently, and cultivates a high-performance and results-oriented environment.

ESG at Ares

Building on our core values, we are weaving sustainability further into the fabric of our business. We believe a clear and compelling sustainability vision - one that unites our team across geographies, functions, and roles - is a prerequisite to delivering our maximum positive impact. Our program flows seamlessly from our culture, animating each of our employees' day-to-day work, ultimately enabling us to act swiftly with a single Ares voice.

We pursue an ESG strategy that is designed to address the most material issues to our business, starting with a Corporate Sustainability program - how we lead by example through our own corporate operations - and then scaling through a Responsible Investment program - how we amplify our impact through our investment platform.

We believe that by being a leader for integration of environmental, social and corporate governance factors in our business, we can in turn drive greater adoption within our investment and portfolio management processes and help create better investment outcomes. Whether it's protecting and growing the capital of our clients, creating long-term value for our shareholders or aligning our interests with business partners, we are committed to supporting sustainable practices that generate positive environmental and social impact - not just now, but for years to come.

Reporting relationships

Reports to: Climate Strategy Lead (Principal)

Supervises: n/a

Primary functions & responsibilities

The Climate Senior Associate will work closely with the Climate Strategy Lead as well as professionals across each business line to build and execute a climate strategy aligned with the Ares firmwide ESG integration approach. This role will provide week-to-week support to various teams as Ares seeks to minimize its climate impact and capture opportunities to advance progress towards a lower carbon economy. Job responsibilities are expected to be split between (a) portfolio engagement, (b) carbon accounting, and (c) support for other climate initiatives.

Specific responsibilities include:

• Collaborate with the Climate Strategy Lead to continually define, develop, communicate, and refine our firmwide approach to decarbonization and climate risk management.
• Engage day-to-day with Ares portfolio companies and assets across all business lines to advise leadership and deploy decarbonization initiatives. Asset classes to be engaged include Credit, Private Equity, Infrastructure, Real Estate, and Secondaries. Regions include the U.S., Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
• Coordinate Ares' annual financed emissions footprint including data collection, education/training, QAQC, calculation, analysis, reporting, and management of software vendors (primarily Watershed and Novata).
• Develop scalable tools to assist portfolio companies and assets in accelerating their decarbonization plans (e.g., playbooks, fact sheets, decks).
• Support Ares' external climate-related reporting (e.g., TCFD reporting, LP requests, website).
• Support management of Ares' Climate Action Group, a community of 40+ colleagues across investment groups and business functions, including the annual Climate Summit and quarterly update calls to drive action and accountability on our climate goals.
• Support investment professionals to better integrate climate risks and opportunities into the investment due diligence process.
• Analyze climate-related firmwide risks and work with relevant corporate functions counterparts to establish mitigating practices.
• Serve as an internal expert and advisor on all things climate and be available to provide as-needed guidance to internal stakeholders.
• Support management of relationships with external vendors including consultants, software providers, and sellers of environmental commodities such as RECs and offsets.
• Engage with external industry networks to advance net zero and decarbonization frameworks for private markets.
• Evaluate possible decarbonization target-setting approaches for certain asset classes.
• Perform internet and other research on a variety of climate topics including peer efforts, frameworks/standards, regulation, and decarbonization strategies.
• Support some administrative and operations tasks such as meeting coordination, note taking, event planning, responses to investor RFPs, and assisting the Climate Strategy Lead and others with development of decks and documents.

Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's degree required, preferably in environmental economics, environmental science or engineering, environmental management, energy studies, or related field. MBA or equivalent degree in finance, economics or environmental management is a plus.

Experience Required:

• Minimum of 7-10 years of experience in climate/ESG-related business practices, investments, and sustainability, preferably within the financial services industry. Alternative asset management experience is preferred.
• Strong knowledge of climate and carbon-including emissions disclosure frameworks (e.g., TCFD), target-setting methodologies (e.g., SBTi, NZAM), approaches to decarbonization, and management of physical and transition risks from climate change.
• Technical knowledge and experience specifically in carbon accounting-including basic science, governing frameworks (e.g., GHG Protocol Corporate Standard, PCAF), calculation methodologies, QAQC, and reporting. This should include ability to conduct advanced analysis in Excel as well as partnering with software vendors to develop analysis (direct software development experience not required).
• Ability to bounce seamlessly between strategic and technical/quantitative climate work, including translating complex issues for non-technical audiences.
• Ability to work effectively with a range of stakeholders with varying degrees of climate knowledge and 'meet them where they are' as it relates to incorporating climate initiatives.
• Experience with account management, consulting, sales, or other forms of stakeholder engagement.

General Requirements:

• Outstanding communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills-including ability to "influence without authority" in a multi-stakeholder environment.
• Demonstrated success in managing complex projects or pieces of projects in matrixed organization and driving measurable results.
• General knowledge of the finance and investment sector, private markets, and corporate operations.
• Strong networking and relationship building skills with external parties (e.g., counterparts at comparable firms, industry leaders, etc.).
• Strategic thinker with an ability to work independently and proactively; keen eye for detail as well as the ability to focus and drive towards the bigger picture.
• Sharp presentation skills, meeting facilitation, interpersonal, decision making, consensus building and collaboration ease.

Reporting Relationships

Compensation

The anticipated base salary range for this position is listed below. Total compensation may also include a discretionary performance-based bonus. Note, the range takes into account a broad spectrum of qualifications, including, but not limited to, years of relevant work experience, education, and other relevant qualifications specific to the role.

$150,000-$180,000

The firm also offers robust Benefits offerings. Ares U.S. Core Benefits include Comprehensive Medical/Rx, Dental and Vision plans; 401(k) program with company match; Flexible Savings Accounts (FSA); Healthcare Savings Accounts (HSA) with company contribution; Basic and Voluntary Life Insurance; Long-Term Disability (LTD) and Short-Term Disability (STD) insurance; Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and Commuter Benefits plan for parking and transit.

Ares offers a number of additional benefits including access to a world-class medical advisory team, a mental health app that includes coaching, therapy and psychiatry, a mindfulness and wellbeing app, financial wellness benefit that includes access to a financial advisor, new parent leave, reproductive and adoption assistance, emergency backup care, matching gift program, education sponsorship program, and much more.

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.