Associate Vice President, Product Manager, Credit Technology

Ares is seeking an Assistant Vice President, Credit Product to define and evolve technology products supporting the firm’s global Credit investment platform. This role will partner closely with Credit investment professionals, Engineering, Data & AI, Operations, and Infrastructure teams to define product strategy, shape the investment product roadmap, and deliver capabilities that improve investment decision-making, streamline investment workflows, and enhance the overall investment lifecycle. The role spans the end-to-end Credit investment lifecycle-including deal sourcing, pipeline management, deal screening, underwriting, diligence, investment committee, trade execution, portfolio onboarding, portfolio monitoring, and investment analytics-and is responsible for defining products and capabilities that create a seamless investment experience across Direct Lending, Alternative Credit, Opportunistic Credit, Structured Credit, and Liquid Credit strategies. Reporting to the Head of Credit Product, this individual will serve as the Product owner for one or more investment capabilities spanning the investment lifecycle, translating business priorities and investment workflows into scalable technology products while partnering closely with Engineering and Data & AI teams responsible for delivery. The successful candidate will combine strong product management experience with deep investment technology knowledge and an understanding of private credit workflows. This individual will partner closely with investment teams to improve how technology supports the investment process while driving adoption of modern capabilities, automation, and AI-enabled workflows.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities: Product Strategy & Vision

• Define and execute the product strategy supporting one or more domains across Ares' global Credit investment platform.
• Develop and maintain multi-year product roadmaps aligned with Credit business priorities and investment strategy.
• Partner closely with investment professionals to understand evolving investment workflows and identify opportunities to improve decision-making, operational efficiency, and investor productivity.
• Translate market trends, business priorities, user feedback, and operational challenges into scalable technology products and business capabilities.
• Evaluate build, buy, and partner opportunities to enhance the Credit investment platform.

Investment Lifecycle Products

• Deal sourcing and relationship management
• Pipeline management and opportunity tracking
• Deal screening and underwriting
• Financial spreading and credit analysis
• Diligence workflows and document management
• Investment Committee preparation and approvals
• Trade execution and order management
• Allocations
• Portfolio management and portfolio monitoring
• Partner closely with investment teams to improve how investment opportunities progress from initial sourcing through portfolio monitoring while creating a seamless user experience across investment platforms.
• Continuously identify opportunities to simplify workflows, eliminate manual processes, improve data quality, and increase automation across the investment lifecycle.

Product Execution & Delivery

• Partner closely with Engineering teams to define, prioritize, and deliver technology capabilities supporting the Credit investment platform.
• Define product requirements, business capabilities, success metrics, and release priorities.
• Participate throughout the product development lifecycle, including discovery, prioritization, user acceptance testing, release planning, and product adoption.
• Measure product adoption, user satisfaction, and business outcomes to continuously improve delivered capabilities.
• Partner with the AI Product team to identify opportunities to embed AI-enabled capabilities across investment workflows.

Cross-functional Leadership

• Build trusted partnerships across Investment Teams, Engineering, Enterprise Data & AI, Operations and Infrastructure teams.
• Represent Credit Product within investment technology planning, governance, and roadmap discussions.
• Drive alignment across business and technology stakeholders to ensure product investments deliver measurable business value.
• Act as the primary Product partner for assigned investment capabilities and champion a product-led approach to technology modernization.

Product Innovation & Rapid Prototyping

• Foster a product-led culture of experimentation by rapidly validating ideas through prototypes, proofs-of-concept, and user feedback before committing to full-scale product development.
• Stay current with emerging technologies, AI capabilities, and modern product development tools, continuously evaluating how they can improve the Credit investment platform and investment workflows.
• Leverage AI-assisted product development and rapid prototyping tools to create mockups, workflows, proof-of-concepts, and interactive demonstrations that accelerate product discovery, stakeholder alignment, and engineering execution.
• Demonstrate a hands-on approach to product management by utilizing modern AI-enabled, low-code/no-code, and prototyping platforms to quickly test concepts and validate business value.
• Partner with Engineering and the AI Product to experiment with emerging technologies and incorporate AI-enabled capabilities into the product roadmap where they create measurable business value.
• Champion a culture of curiosity, continuous learning, experimentation, and innovation across the Credit Product organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required. Advanced degree preferred. Strong understanding of private credit investment workflows spanning deal sourcing, pipeline management, deal screening, underwriting, diligence, investment committee, trade execution, portfolio onboarding, portfolio monitoring, and investment analytics.

General Requirements

• 5-8 years of experience in Product Management, Investment Technology, Financial Technology, Business Transformation, or Enterprise Software.
• Experience supporting private credit, alternative investments, institutional asset management, or capital markets technology platforms.
• Demonstrated experience owning products from strategy through delivery, including defining product vision, roadmap prioritization, and successful implementation.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional initiatives within a highly matrixed environment.
• Track record of improving business processes and delivering measurable business outcomes through technology, workflow transformation, and product innovation.
• Passion for emerging technologies with a curiosity for rapid learning, evaluating, and applying new AI capabilities to improve the investment experience.

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.

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