Principal, Senior HR Business Partner (Global Client Solutions and Wealth Management Solutions)

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 is seeking an accomplished Senior Human Resources Business Partner to support its Global Client Solutions (GCS) and Wealth Management Solutions (WMS) businesses. This role will serve as a senior HR advisor to GCS and WMS leadership and will play a critical role in shaping and executing the talent and organizational strategies that support the continued growth and evolution of these businesses.

The Senior HRBP will partner closely with senior GCS and WMS leaders to build, develop, and retain high-performing teams capable of delivering against the firm's ambitious growth objectives. The role requires a strategic, commercially minded HR leader who can operate effectively at the most senior levels of the organization, understand the dynamics of global client-facing and distribution businesses, navigate complex organizational issues, and translate business priorities into effective talent strategies.

The successful candidate will bring deep expertise across talent management, organizational effectiveness, leadership development, workforce planning, succession planning, performance management, and employee relations. This individual will serve as a trusted advisor and thought partner to senior leadership while helping the businesses scale effectively, develop leadership capability, strengthen talent pipelines, and evolve their organizational models to support continued growth.

Ares is a fast-paced, high-growth, and rapidly evolving organization. Success in this role requires the ability to move seamlessly between strategic advisory and hands-on execution, exercise sound judgment in complex situations, and build strong relationships across businesses, functions, geographies, and levels of the organization.

Reporting relationships

Reports to: Head of Talent

Supervises: n/a

Primary functions & responsibilities

·         Act as a trusted strategic advisor to senior GCS and WMS leaders, developing a deep understanding of business strategy, growth objectives, organizational priorities, and talent needs to deliver commercially relevant HR strategies and solutions.

·         Partner closely with business leadership to develop and execute talent and organizational strategies that enable growth and ensure the organization has the right talent, structure, and capabilities to deliver against evolving business priorities.

·         Advise leadership on organizational design and effectiveness, including operating models, spans and layers, role clarity, team structures, leadership accountabilities, and organizational capabilities required to support continued scale and growth.

·         Lead strategic workforce and headcount planning, partnering with leadership to anticipate future talent and capability requirements and align investment in talent with business priorities.

·         Drive succession planning and talent reviews across GCS and WMS, identifying critical roles and talent and developing thoughtful succession and development strategies.

·         Proactively identify organizational, talent, and workforce trends across the businesses and translate these into actionable insights and recommendations to strengthen organizational effectiveness, talent outcomes, and the employee experience.

·         Lead and influence key annual talent processes, including performance management, promotions, compensation planning, succession planning, talent reviews, and workforce planning, ensuring strong alignment between talent decisions, performance differentiation, and business priorities.

·         Partner with senior leaders to assess, develop, and retain key talent, including proactively identifying retention risks, capability gaps, and development opportunities across critical populations.

·         Advise senior leaders and managers on complex people and organizational matters, providing thoughtful, pragmatic, and commercially oriented guidance while balancing business objectives, employee considerations, risk, and Ares policies and practices.

·         Support the continued evolution and scaling of GCS and WMS by identifying organizational and talent implications.

·         Leverage workforce analytics, market intelligence, and qualitative insights to identify emerging talent and organizational themes and provide proactive, data-informed recommendations to business leadership.

·         Identify opportunities to strengthen organizational effectiveness and HR practices across GCS and WMS, sharing best practices and helping drive scalable and consistent approaches across the global organizations.

·         Build strong partnerships across the HR function and collaborate with Centers of Excellence to deliver integrated solutions aligned with business priorities, including:

o    Talent Acquisition: Partner on strategic workforce planning, senior and critical hiring, candidate slate reviews, selection strategy, and offer structuring to ensure high-quality hiring outcomes and build the capabilities required to support future growth.

o    Reward: Partner on compensation strategy, annual compensation processes, benchmarking, retention considerations, and complex compensation matters to support competitive, performance-oriented, and commercially appropriate outcomes.

o    Talent Development: Drive succession planning, talent reviews, leadership development, performance management, and targeted development strategies for critical talent and future leaders.

o    HR Operations: Partner to ensure effective execution of employee lifecycle processes while identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, scalability, data quality, and the employee and manager experience.

o    DEI: Embed inclusive talent practices into hiring, development, promotion, succession, and broader people strategies in support of the firm's objectives and talent priorities.

Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree required
• Master’s degree preferred

Experience Required:

• 12-15+ years of progressive HR experience, including substantial experience operating as a senior HR Business Partner to executives and leadership teams within alternative asset management, asset management, financial services, or another sophisticated, high-performance professional services environment.
• Demonstrated success serving as a strategic HR advisor to senior executives within complex, global, high-growth, and client-focused organizations.
• Experience supporting client-facing, distribution, wealth management, fundraising, product, or other commercial organizations strongly preferred.
• Deep experience translating business strategy and growth objectives into organizational and talent strategies.
• Demonstrated expertise in organizational design, workforce planning, succession planning, talent management, leadership development, change management, and organizational transformation.
• Significant experience advising senior leaders on complex performance, compensation, promotion, succession, development, and retention decisions.
• Strong analytical capabilities with demonstrated ability to use workforce data, market intelligence, and business insights to inform talent strategies and executive decision-making.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint; experience with Workday or comparable HRIS platforms preferred.

General Requirements:

The successful candidate will:

• Bring strong commercial acumen and intellectual curiosity, with the ability to quickly develop a deep understanding of GCS and WMS business models, strategic priorities, growth drivers, and talent implications.
• Operate as a credible and trusted advisor to senior executives, combining strong business judgment with deep HR expertise.
• Demonstrate a strong bias for action, exceptional work ethic, and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.
• Exercise sound judgment and operate with a high degree of autonomy, discretion, and personal accountability.
• Exhibit the highest standards of integrity, professionalism, and ethical decision-making.
• Navigate ambiguity and organizational complexity with confidence, resilience, adaptability, and pragmatism.
• Demonstrate exceptional relationship management and influencing skills, quickly establishing credibility and building effective partnerships across businesses, functions, geographies, and levels.
• Balance strategic thinking with a hands-on, execution-oriented approach and a willingness to engage directly in complex or high-priority matters.
• Demonstrate strong organizational discipline and the ability to manage multiple, competing priorities without sacrificing quality or attention to detail.
• Bring deep expertise in organizational design, workforce planning, talent management, and organizational transformation.
• Leverage strong analytical capabilities to interpret data, identify trends, challenge assumptions, and develop evidence-based HR strategies and recommendations.
• Communicate with clarity, credibility, and impact, both verbally and in writing, and tailor communication effectively across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Maintain composure, sound judgment, and professionalism in high-pressure, sensitive, or highly confidential situations.
• Demonstrate reliability, strong personal accountability, intellectual rigor, and a collaborative, team-oriented mindset.
• Handle confidential and sensitive business and employee information with the utmost discretion and care.

Reporting Relationships

Compensation

$225,000-$275,000

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.