Head of Sales Engineering

SUMMARY

Ares is seeking a Principal to serve as Head of Institutional and Wealth Management Technology, responsible for the strategy, architecture, platforms, and delivery supporting the firm’s rapidly expanding Global Client Solutions and Wealth Management businesses.

Reporting to the Managing Director, Head of Client Platforms Technology, this individual will be the senior technology partner to leaders across Global Client Solutions, Institutional Investor Relations and Investor Servicing, and Wealth Management sales, marketing, and product. The role will oversee technology supporting the full lifecycle of institutional investor and wealth advisor engagement—from prospecting, segmentation, fundraising, and onboarding through relationship management, servicing, analytics, and digital distribution.

The leader will own the firm’s CRM, sales analytics, advisor intelligence, and integrated sales and marketing platforms, with a strong emphasis on Salesforce. As Ares expands across RIAs, private banks, warehouses, and independent broker-dealers, this individual will develop data-driven capabilities that improve advisor segmentation, opportunity targeting, pipeline visibility, distribution effectiveness, and client experience.

This is a hands-on leadership role responsible for defining platform architecture and development standards while leading a high-performing team of architects, developers, and analysts. The team will deliver scalable solutions for complex alternatives fundraising, institutional client management, investor servicing, and advisor engagement across Ares’ global platform.

The successful candidate will bring deep engineering and platform expertise gained within asset management, alternatives, or a similarly complex financial-services environment, along with a strong understanding of fundraising, investor relationship management, wealth distribution, and enterprise CRM data architecture. The role requires a leader who can combine engineering rigor, strong business partnership, and long-term platform strategy with the incremental delivery of measurable business value.

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES

Institutional Technology Strategy

• Own the strategy, architecture, and delivery of the firm’s institutional platform, including the system of record for institutional investor engagement and fundraising activity.
• Partner closely with Global Client Solutions, Investor Relations, Capital Formation, and Marketing leadership to transform institutional distribution priorities into scalable capabilities.
• Support the full institutional lifecycle including:
  • Prospecting and pipeline development
  • Fundraising campaign management
  • Investor targeting and engagement
  • Fund marketing and opportunity tracking
  • Investor onboarding and documentation
  • post-close investor relationship management

Wealth Management Technology Strategy

• Define and execute the technology strategy supporting Ares’ global wealth management distribution platform.
• Partner closely with Wealth Management leadership to translate distribution priorities into scalable technology capabilities that support advisor acquisition, relationship management, and product distribution.
• Drive the evolution of platforms supporting the advisor engagement lifecycle, including prospecting, onboarding, relationship management, product education, and analytics.
• Ensure technology platforms enable scalable growth across RIAs, private banks, warehouses, and other intermediary channels.
• Serve as the primary technology partner to wealth distribution, ensuring alignment between business strategy and technology investments.

CRM, Salesforce & Advisor Engagement Platforms

• Own the delivery of the firm’s CRM ecosystem, with Salesforce serving as a core platform for advisor and intermediary engagement.
• Lead the development of capabilities that enable:
  • Advisor relationship management
  • Advisor and firm segmentation
  • Opportunity and pipeline management
  • Territory management and sales planning
  • Advisor activity and engagement tracking
• Ensure seamless integration between CRM, marketing automation, client reporting, digital portals, and distribution analytics platforms
• Drive platform usability and adoption across global wealth distribution teams

Advisor Data, Analytics & Segmentation

• Partner with Data & AI leadership to develop a robust advisor intelligence platform, enabling the wealth distribution organization to operate with high-quality, actionable data.
• Enable advanced capabilities including:
  • Advisor segmentation and scoring
  • Distribution analytics and territory insights
  • Product demand analytics
  • Sales performance analytics
  • Advisor behavior and engagement insights
• Drive the integration of external advisor datasets, internal sales data, marketing engagement data, and investment product data to create a comprehensive advisor intelligence platform

Sales, Marketing & Client Technology Interoperability

• Ensure strong interoperability across sales, marketing, and client technology platforms, creating a cohesive advisor and client engagement ecosystem.
• Partner with Marketing Technology teams to integrate CRM platforms with digital marketing, campaign management, and advisor engagement tools.
• Enable closed-loop insights connecting marketing activity, advisor engagement, product demand, and sales outcomes.
• Collaborate with Client Reporting and Digital teams to ensure consistent advisor and client experience across portals, reporting platforms, and engagement tools

Platform Architecture & Engineering Delivery

• Partner with platform engineering and architecture teams to ensure wealth technology platforms are scalable, secure, and integrated with enterprise systems.
• Establish modern development practices including:
  • CI/CD for Salesforce development
  • Automated testing and release management
  • Platform observability and monitoring
  • Vendor and package governance
  • Agile program management, including data-driven improvements to SDLC
• Drive modern platform architecture supporting:
  • Cloud-native applications
  • API-based integration
  • Data-driven distribution platforms
  • Secure advisor and client data environments
• Partner with the Data and Artificial Intelligence team to stay abreast of the evolving AI landscape, appropriately identifying and leveraging solutions that will enhance developer productivity and business outcomes

Leadership & Culture

• Build and lead a high-performing wealth technology team or architects, developers, product managers, and analysts supporting the firm’s growing wealth distribution platform.
• Become a trusted partner and collaborator with senior business leaders across Wealth Management, Marketing, Product Management, Data & AI, and Client Technology.
• Promote a culture of data-driven decision-making, accountability, and continuous innovation.
• Act as a senior technology leader representing wealth technology priorities within broader technology governance and planning forums.
• Align technology strategy, platforms, and deliverables to business outcomes
• Manage relationships with software and consulting vendors

Experience & Background

• 18+ years of progressive technology experience with significant leadership responsibility in enterprise application development.
• Deep experience implementing and operating Salesforce platforms within asset management, alternatives, or financial services firms.
• Strong familiarity with institutional fundraising and investor relationship workflows within asset management.
• Significant experience building wealth distribution technology platforms within alternative asset managers or traditional asset managers serving intermediary channels.
• Significant experience designing and delivering analytics and insight platforms
• Experience partnering closely with wealth distribution, marketing, and client teams to deliver scalable technology capabilities.
• Demonstrated success leading complex technology initiatives supporting revenue-generating business functions.

Technical & Strategic Expertise

• Deep experience with CRM platforms (Salesforce strongly preferred) and advisor engagement ecosystems.
• Strong understanding of wealth distribution technology platforms, advisor data models, and intermediary channel dynamics.
• Experience integrating CRM platforms with marketing technology, analytics platforms, and client reporting systems.
• Familiarity with data platforms, analytics environments, and data science capabilities supporting advisor segmentation and sales insights.
• Strong appreciation for enterprise architecture, data governance, and security in regulated financial services environments.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required, advanced degree preferred.
• Engineering, Computer Science, or quantitative background strongly preferred.