Associate, Legal Vendor Strategy & Management - Process Transformation

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 About the Role Ares is seeking an Associate, Legal Vendor Strategy & Management – Operations & Transformation to help build the operational infrastructure for how the Legal department engages outside counsel and other legal service providers. This role is responsible for designing and implementing vendor-related workflows, intake models and operating processes that improve consistency, visibility and scalability across the legal vendor lifecycle. The successful candidate will help transform how Ares opens matters, engages vendors, captures spend data and manages related operational workflows. This position is well suited for a candidate with a background in legal operations, consulting, procurement, business operations or legal technology implementation who is highly structured, quantitative and comfortable building processes and systems in a developing and evolving environment. Reporting Reports to: Head of Legal Vendor Strategy & Management Key Responsibilities Operations and Workflow Transformation Design and implement standardized workflows across vendor engagement, matter opening, vendor onboarding, billing and related approvals. Lead the build-out of vendor-related intake processes and workflow orchestration, including required fields, routing logic, approvals and exception handling. Help redesign e-billing and matter-opening processes to improve speed, consistency and data quality. Document current and future-state workflows and translate them into practical operating procedures. Identify operational bottlenecks, manual workarounds and process gaps across the vendor lifecycle and recommend improvements. Identify opportunities to use AI-enabled tools, workflow automation and agentic solutions to streamline vendor intake, matter opening, invoice review, data validation and related operational processes. Systems Enablement and Process Implementation Partner with Legal, Finance & Accounting, Technology and other stakeholders to implement vendor-related workflow and system improvements. Lead implementation and optimization of tools used in vendor engagement, e-billing, matter management, RFx processes and workflow orchestration. Help define system requirements, workflow rules and user stories for vendor-related transformation initiatives. Lead testing, rollout and stabilization of new vendor operations processes and tools. Oversee development of training materials, process documentation and user adoption plans. Data Capture and Operational Discipline Help establish vendor and matter data standards to improve completeness, reliability and effectiveness of legal operational data. Ensure operational workflows capture the correct information at the right points to support reporting, forecasting and performance management. Partner with internal stakeholders to improve data quality, reduce exceptions and strengthen reporting inputs. Track process adoption, intake completeness and accuracy, cycle times and operational friction points and use that information to drive continuous improvement. Cross-Functional Execution Work across Legal, Finance & Accounting, Technology and other internal stakeholders and external vendor partners to align process requirements and implementation priorities. Partner with cross-functional stakeholders to pilot and implement practical AI-enabled solutions that improve workflow efficiency, data quality and user experience. Prepare materials for working groups, implementation meetings and leadership updates. Support change management efforts through stakeholder coordination, communications and training. Bring a practical execution mindset to fast-moving transformation efforts with evolving requirements. Qualifications Education Bachelor’s degree required. Required Skills And Experience 3+ years of experience in legal operations, management consulting, procurement, business operations, legal technology implementation or process improvement. Experience designing or implementing business processes, workflows or operating procedures in a corporate or professional services environment. Strong quantitative and analytical skills with the ability to work through process and data ambiguity. Experience working with cross-functional teams to implement operational changes. Familiarity with legal or adjacent enterprise systems such as e-billing, matter management, RFx tools like PERSUIT or Priori, workflow tools like Tonkean or Checkbox, CLM or sourcing platforms. Strong Excel or Google Sheets skills and strong PowerPoint or Google Slides skills. Comfort experimenting with AI-enabled tools and workflow automation to solve operational problems in a practical, controlled way. Strong written and verbal communication skills. Detail-oriented, organized and comfortable owning workstreams from design through implementation. Preferred Qualifications Experience with legal spend, billing, accruals or vendor-related operational workflows. Experience using AI-enabled tools, low-code/no-code automation or agentic workflow solutions in legal operations, procurement, finance operations or a similar environment. Experience in a legal department, law firm operations team, ALSP or professional services environment. Experience supporting workflow automation or systems implementation projects. Familiarity with data quality controls, exception management and reporting processes. What Success Looks Like Vendor engagement, matter opening and related workflows are more standardized, efficient and scalable. Vendor and matter data is captured more consistently and is more reliable for downstream reporting and management. E-billing and related operational processes are easier to navigate and require fewer manual interventions. Leadership has greater visibility into the operational health of the vendor lifecycle. New processes and systems are adopted effectively and create measurable improvement in cycle time, data quality and execution discipline. Legal and Finance & Accounting operate through more efficient and transparent end-to-end workflows, with fewer handoff failures, cleaner data and improved payment, budgeting and reporting discipline. Reporting Relationships 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. $105,000 - $120,000 / annum. 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. #J-18808-Ljbffr Ares Management