Data Governance Lead

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 a Vice President of Data Governance to own and operationalize data governance across the firm. This person will build the frameworks, policies, and operating processes that make data trustworthy, discoverable, secure, and AI-ready — directly enabling the firm's Enterprise Data Strategy and the AURA AI agent platform. The role sits within the Data & AI team and works across all investment and corporate functions. This is a hands-on, build-from-the-ground-up mandate: the VP will design governance frameworks, stand up the tooling and processes to enforce them, and partner with Legal, Compliance, Risk, Cyber, and business stakeholders to ensure governance keeps pace with an aggressively expanding Data & AI ecosystem. Key Responsibilities Data Governance Framework & Strategy Design, implement, and continuously mature the firm's end-to-end data governance framework, including policies, standards, operating models, and RACI structures for data ownership and stewardshipDefine and drive the firm's data classification scheme (e.g., public, internal, confidential, restricted/PII) and ensure consistent application across Databricks/Unity Catalog and downstream systemsEstablish data governance councils/forums and stewardship roles across investment and corporate functionsAlign governance roadmap with the Enterprise Data Strategy and the AURA platform roadmap Data Catalog Management Own the data catalog strategy and administration (Unity Catalog), including taxonomy, metadata standards, business glossary, lineage tracking, and ownership taggingEnsure all critical data assets and supporting documents — fund master data, deal data, portfolio data, LP data — are cataloged, documented, and discoverablePartner with data engineering to embed catalog registration into the medallion architecture (bronze/silver/gold) as a standard part of the data lifecyclePartner with Compliance to ensure data meet retention requirements and manage the end-to-end data lifecycle. Data Quality Establish an enterprise Data Quality FrameworkDefine Critical Data Elements (CDEs), data quality standards, metrics, and SLAs for critical data domains (fund, deal, portfolio, investor)Build data quality monitoring, issue management, and remediation workflowsDevelop executive dashboards and governance reporting on quality performance and trends and report quality KPIs to senior stakeholdersEstablish root-cause and continuous improvement processes for recurring data quality issues Access Management & PII Define and enforce data access management requirements, including role-based access control, least-privilege principles, and periodic access recertificationPartner closely with IAM in Cyber to align data access management requirements with the firm's broader identity and access management framework, including provisioning, entitlement reviews, and control testingOwn the firm's approach to identifying, classifying, and protecting PII and other sensitive data (e.g., investor data, employee data), including masking, tokenization, and retention requirementsPartner with Cyber and Legal on data privacy compliance (e.g., state privacy laws, GDPR where applicable) and incident response for data exposure events Data Governance for AI Define governance requirements specific to AI/agentic systems built on AURA, including:Model & data lineage for AI: tracking which datasets, embeddings, and vector indices feed which agents, and ensuring traceability from source data to AI-generated outputAI data access controls: governing what data each agent/persona is permitted to retrieve or act on via Unity AI Gateway, including guardrails against unauthorized cross-domain data accessPII handling in AI pipelines: ensuring RAG pipelines, embeddings, and LLM prompts do not leak PII or confidential deal information; defining redaction/masking standards for data entering vector storesModel risk & output governance: partnering with Risk/Compliance on evaluation, human-in-the-loop review, and sign-off processes for agent outputs (e.g., IC memo agents, portfolio agents) before business useThird-party/LLM vendor governance: data handling requirements for external model providers (e.g., data residency, retention, training-use exclusions) as part of the LiteLLM/LangFuse observability stackAI agent registration & catalog governance: ensuring every agent registered in AURA carries documented data sources, access scope, and owner, consistent with the “register once, appear everywhere” modelAuditability: ensuring LangFuse (or equivalent) observability logs meet governance and audit retention requirements for agent decisions and data usageContributing to and maintaining the AI platform governance sign-off process with Legal, Compliance, Risk, and Cyber for new agents and use cases Stakeholder Management & Enablement Serve as the primary governance partner to Legal, Compliance, Risk, and Cyber on all data- and AI-related data governance mattersAct as a key member of the E&C (Enablement and Control) governance group, helping evaluate and enable new AI use cases while ensuring appropriate controls are in place before launchEducate and enable Business AI Champions and Quant/Technical on governance requirements and self-service complianceRepresent data governance in architecture review boards (ARB) for new data and AI initiatives Qualifications 10+ years in data governance, data management, or related roles, with at least 3-5 years in a leadership capacity; financial services or alternative asset management experience strongly preferredDemonstrated experience building data governance programs from scratch, including catalog, classification, quality, and access management frameworksHands-on familiarity with modern data platforms — Databricks, Unity Catalog, Azure data services — and how governance is operationalized within themWorking knowledge of AI/ML governance concepts: model risk management, RAG/LLM data handling, responsible AI principles, and emerging AI regulatory frameworksExperience with PII/data privacy compliance programs and regulatory frameworks (GDPR, CCPA/state privacy laws, etc.)Strong executive communication and stakeholder management skills; able to operate effectively with Legal, Compliance, Risk, Cyber/IAM, and Enablement & Control functions as well as technical and investment teamsExcellent written and verbal communication skills; able to translate technical governance concepts for non-technical/investment audiencesExperience working within regulated financial services environments; alternative asset management experience strongly preferred.Bachelor's degree required; advanced degree or relevant certifications (CDMP, DAMA, CIMP etc.) a plus Reporting Relationships Vice President, Business Intelligence 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. $200,000 - $220,000 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.