Senior Associate, Financial Crime Prevention, Compliance

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 Ares Compliance Department oversees and manages Ares’ global regulatory compliance and ethics program. Under the leadership of the Global Chief Compliance Officer, the Compliance Department is comprised of functionally aligned teams that operate collaboratively based on the Firm’s overall structure and include the following:

• Investment Advisory, which oversees implementation of the Advisers Act, regulatory reporting, and administers the Code;
• Control Room, Conflicts and Trading, which oversees the regulations and guidelines applicable to trade surveillance, the handling of Material Non-Public Information, and conflicts;
• Marketing and Distribution, focusing on global marketing regulations as well as compliance for Ares’ registered broker‑dealers;
• Regulated Funds, which oversees the compliance for advised and sub‑advised registered funds and public companies;
• Financial Crime Prevention, which develops and administers Ares’ global program for anti‑money laundering and counter‑terrorism financing, economic sanctions, and anti‑corruption;
• European and Asia Pacific compliance, which oversees region‑specific compliance programs and regulatory matters.

Ares is seeking an experienced highly organized and proactive Senior Associate in London, who will focus on KYC execution and provide day‑to‑day support across AML, sanctions, anti‑corruption and financial crime investigations for EMEA, as well as assisting in supporting a high‑quality client service throughout the counterparty KYC process and contributes to continuous enhancement of FCP policies, procedures, and tooling.

Primary Functions and Responsibilities

The Senior Associate will play a critical role in executing and supervising KYC processes in line with the FCP Program and UK/EU requirements. Responsibilities include:

• KYC Execution & Oversight

• Review and analyze completed KYC files and risk factors (structure, source of wealth/funds, jurisdictional risks).
• Liaise directly with external counterparties, investment professionals, internal deal counsel, external counsel, and Operations teams to ensure timely onboarding.
• Provide accurate investment KYC status updates.
• Prepare briefing notes for review regarding high‑risk counterparties and complex structures; include risk rating, flags, and recommended actions.
• Draft follow‑up information requests to clients/intermediaries for escalated cases; track responses and deadlines.
• Support the VP with sanctions escalation cases (ownership/control look‑through, tiered jurisdiction risk); prepare decision memos and recommended mitigations.
• Quality‑check screening alert dispositions and document false positive rationales; propose name‑matching tuning to reduce noise.

• Assist VP in maintaining and updating FCP Program policies and procedures to reflect UK/EU regulatory changes.
• Identify and escalate high‑risk situations; support investigations and risk mitigation strategies.
• Assist with regulatory information‑sharing requests and documentation for high‑risk counterparties.

• Develop and maintain KYC reporting metrics and recordkeeping systems.
• Collaborate on technology‑based solutions for KYC (document repository, screening alerts).
• Contribute to efficiency projects and continuous improvement initiatives.

• Train new joiners on KYC processes and assist VP with cross‑training.
• Support governance activities and ad‑hoc compliance projects.

Education

Bachelor’s Degree is required, preferably from a top university with strong academic achievement.

Experience Required

• 5-8 years of relevant financial services compliance experience, including previous financial crime prevention responsibilities.
• Strong understanding of Anti‑Money Laundering documentation requirements in accordance with relevant legislation and regulations in the UK and Europe.
• Knowledge of complex corporate entity types, and the formation, constitutional, management/control and ownership documents of each and the information contained within them.
• Familiarity with FCA, CSSF and CIMA regulatory reviews and interpretation of regulations.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Visio, Project, PowerPoint).

General Requirements

• Strong sense of ownership and accountability; diligent work ethic.
• Ability to handle multiple workloads.
• High accuracy and extremely detail‑oriented.
• Ability to multi‑task and prioritize deadlines; results‑oriented.
• Effective communication skills and excellent client‑service orientation; responsive and dependable.
• Ability to proactively identify and logically analyze problem situations to develop an effective course of action for resolution.
• Exceptional organizational skills.
• Adept at working independently within a fast‑paced environment.
• Ability to be flexible in terms of hours in order to coordinate with team members across time zones.
• Comfort in dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty in a dynamic environment.
• A desire to drive outcomes and a passion for building efficient processes and procedures to support the scaling of a growing business.
• An analytical mind and a strong interest in bringing new ideas to increase efficiency of existing processes.
• Dependable, highly motivated team player; fosters team collaboration.
• Ability to handle confidential information appropriately.

Reporting Relationships

Vice President, Compliance.

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.