Vice President, AI Platform Engineering

0200 Ares Operations LLC; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 225,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive medical benefits

Dental and vision plans

401(k) with company match

FSA/HSA options

Job summary

Ares Management is seeking a Vice President of AI Platform Engineering to design, build, and scale our enterprise AI platform. This senior role leads core components, APIs, and developer tooling used by AI applications firm-wide.

You will own platform architecture, standards, and roadmaps, collaborating with Data Engineering, AI Product Management, Cybersecurity, and business tech teams to deliver secure, scalable AI capabilities at scale.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software engineering, platform engineering, data engineering, ML engineering, or related experience.
• 3+ years of hands-on experience building Generative AI, ML, LLM, or AI platform capabilities in production.
• Strong Python engineering skills with production-quality software.
• Experience designing APIs, microservices, distributed systems, and cloud-native apps.
• Demonstrated experience building reusable platforms, frameworks, or services consumed by multiple teams.
• Hands-on experience with a major cloud platform, preferably Azure.
• Experience with containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, infra automation, and modern DevOps practices.
• Practical experience building production LLM systems using model routing, embeddings, prompt management, tool use, or agentic workflows.
• Experience with production observability, testing, telemetry, and performance monitoring.
• Strong understanding of software security, authentication, authorization, secrets management, and secure development practices.
• Experience delivering highly scalable and reliable production systems.
• Demonstrated ability to independently lead complex engineering initiatives from design through production.
• Strong communication and stakeholder-management skills across engineering, product, data, security, and business teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and operate production-grade AI platform services.
• Own major platform components from architecture to production operation.
• Create reusable APIs, SDKs, and tooling for AI apps across the firm.
• Establish stable interfaces decoupled from model providers and infra.
• Write high-quality production code and participate in reviews, testing, and production support.
• Contribute to platform architecture, standards, and technical roadmaps.
• Develop enterprise AI gateway and model abstraction for multiple providers.
• Build and maintain model lifecycle, configuration, and deployment capabilities.
• Develop shared AI APIs, SDKs, and platform services to accelerate AI delivery across teams.
• Improve the developer experience for teams deploying AI on the platform.
• Partner with cybersecurity, enterprise architecture, and data teams on governance and controls.

Skills

Python engineering

API design

Distributed systems

Cloud platforms

DevOps

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Azure

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Job description

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 SUMMARY

Ares Management is seeking a highly motivated Vice President, AI Platform Engineering to help design, build, and scale the firm's enterprise AI platform and the production‑grade capabilities that support AI solutions across the organization. This is a senior, highly hands‑on engineering role within the central Data & AI organization. The VP will have significant ownership of the core AI platform, including the common services, infrastructure, and developer capabilities used by AI applications, agents, and technology teams across the firm. The successful candidate will combine strong software and platform engineering fundamentals with practical experience building Generative AI and machine learning systems in production. They will own major platform components and technical workstreams, contribute to platform architecture and engineering standards, and build reusable services that allow teams across Ares to develop AI applications securely, reliably, and at scale. The role will work closely with AI Engineering leadership, Data Engineering, AI Product Management, Cybersecurity, Enterprise Architecture, and business‑aligned technology teams. This individual will also serve as a senior technical partner to engineers adopting shared AI platform capabilities.

PRIMARY FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES

Core AI Platform Engineering

• Design, build, and operate production‑grade services that form the foundation of Ares' enterprise AI platform.
• Own major platform components and technical workstreams from architecture and design through implementation, deployment, and ongoing operation.
• Build reusable APIs, SDKs, services, libraries, and developer tooling that enable teams across the firm to build AI applications efficiently.
• Establish stable interfaces that abstract applications from underlying model providers, infrastructure, and one‑off implementations.
• Write high‑quality production code and participate actively in architecture reviews, design reviews, code reviews, testing, troubleshooting, and production support.
• Contribute to platform architecture, engineering standards, design patterns, and technical roadmaps.

AI Gateway & Model Platform

• Build and evolve the enterprise AI gateway and model abstraction layer supporting multiple model providers.
• Implement model routing, provider abstraction, resiliency, rate limiting, usage controls, failover, and cost‑management capabilities.
• Develop common model access patterns that allow application teams to use approved models without coupling directly to individual providers.
• Build and maintain model lifecycle, configuration, and deployment capabilities.
• Evaluate new models and providers through practical experimentation and establish repeatable onboarding patterns.

Platform Services & Developer Experience

• Develop shared AI APIs, SDKs, and platform services that accelerate delivery of AI capabilities across investment and corporate functions.
• Build prompt infrastructure, prompt management, configuration, and reusable execution patterns.
• Develop platform‑level capabilities for agent execution, tool use, and emerging interoperability standards such as Model Context Protocol.
• Partner with teams responsible for shared retrieval, document intelligence, search, evaluation, and reusable AI workflow components.
• Create reference implementations, technical documentation, and development standards that promote consistent adoption of the platform.
• Improve the developer experience for teams building and deploying AI applications on Ares' shared platform.

Identity, Security & Governance

• Partner with Cybersecurity, Enterprise Architecture, Legal, Compliance, Risk, and Data Engineering to implement appropriate controls across AI platform services.
• Build identity, authentication, authorization, entitlement, and access‑control capabilities into the platform.
• Support information barriers, data protection, model governance, and AI risk‑management requirements.
• Implement encryption, secrets management, audit logging, and platform monitoring standards.
• Ensure platform capabilities align with the firm's cybersecurity, regulatory, compliance, and governance requirements.
• Produce technical documentation and evidence required for architecture and governance reviews.

Reliability, Observability & AI FinOps

• Design and operate platform telemetry, tracing, logging, and observability capabilities across AI services.
• Monitor platform health, quality, latency, model usage, token consumption, utilization, and cost.
• Build usage attribution and AI FinOps capabilities that provide transparency into consumption across applications and teams.
• Establish CI/CD, testing, deployment, rollback, disaster recovery, and production‑support patterns for platform services.
• Drive platform reliability, operational health, performance, and scalability.
• Help establish production standards for AI applications and services built on the platform.

Leadership & Collaboration

• Lead complex technical initiatives from architecture and design through production deployment.
• Serve as a senior technical partner to AI engineers, application teams, product managers, data engineers, cybersecurity teams, and business‑aligned technology groups.
• Provide technical guidance, code review, and mentorship to engineers adopting shared platform capabilities.
• Partner with the Principal, Head of AI Platform & Engineering on platform architecture, standards, technical strategy, and roadmap.
• Evaluate emerging AI models, frameworks, developer tools, and platform technologies and make recommendations based on production needs and practical experimentation.
• Help establish an engineering culture focused on software quality, simplicity, reuse, scalability, security, and operational excellence.

QUALIFICATIONS

Education Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.

Experience Required

• 8+ years of professional software engineering, platform engineering, data engineering, machine learning engineering, or related experience.
• 3+ years of hands‑on experience building Generative AI, machine learning, LLM, or AI platform capabilities in production.
• Strong Python engineering skills with demonstrated experience writing and operating production‑quality software.
• Experience designing APIs, microservices, distributed systems, and cloud‑native applications.
• Demonstrated experience building reusable platforms, frameworks, or services consumed by multiple engineering teams.
• Hands‑on experience with a major cloud platform, preferably Azure.
• Experience with containers, Kubernetes, CI/CD, infrastructure automation, and modern DevOps practices.
• Practical experience building production LLM systems using techniques such as model routing, RAG, embeddings, vector search, prompt management, tool use, or agentic workflows.
• Experience with production observability, testing, evaluation, telemetry, and performance monitoring.
• Strong understanding of software security, authentication, authorization, secrets management, and secure development practices.
• Experience delivering highly scalable and reliable production systems.
• Demonstrated ability to independently lead complex engineering initiatives from design through production.
• Strong communication and stakeholder‑management skills with the ability to work effectively across engineering, product, data, security, architecture, and business teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Databricks, including Delta Lake, Unity Catalog, Model Serving, MLflow, or Vector Search.
• Experience with Azure OpenAI, Azure AI services, or other enterprise LLM providers.
• Experience implementing multi‑LLM gateways, model‑routing layers, model proxies, or provider‑abstraction patterns.
• Experience with agent frameworks such as LangGraph, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, or comparable technologies.
• Experience with Model Context Protocol or other agent tool‑use and interoperability frameworks.
• Experience building internal developer platforms, reusable engineering frameworks, APIs, SDKs, or self‑service capabilities.
• Experience with LLM observability, tracing, model governance, evaluation, and AI FinOps.
• Experience implementing identity, entitlement, or information‑barrier controls in regulated environments.
• Financial services, asset management, private equity, investment banking, or alternative investments experience.
• Master's degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.

Reporting Relationships

Managing Director, Head of Data Engineering & AI Platforms

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. $225,000 - $250,000

Benefits

• 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)
• Commuter Benefits plan for parking and transit
• 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.

Ares Management Corporation (NYSE: ARES) is a leading global alternative investment manager offering clients complementary primary and secondary investment solutions across the credit, real estate, private equity and infrastructure asset classes. We seek to provide flexible capital to support businesses and create value for our stakeholders and within our communities. By collaborating across our investment groups, we aim to generate consistent and attractive investment returns throughout market cycles. As of June 30, 2026, Ares Management's global platform had approximately $671 billion of assets under management(1) with more than 4,400 employees operating across North America, South America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. For more information, please visit www.aresmgmt.com. Ares Management LLC (together with its related operating and administrative subsidiaries, “Ares Management”) is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and considers all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, ethnicity, creed, sex, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, partnership status, sexual orientation, status regarding public assistance, military or veteran status, domestic violence victim status, gender identity and expression, transgender status, genetic information, status as unemployed, political affiliation or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. Ares Management will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. (1) As of June 30, 2026. AUM amounts include funds managed by Ivy Hill Asset Management, LP., a wholly owned portfolio company of Ares Capital Corporation and registered investment adviser.

Ares Management LLC (together with its related operating and administrative subsidiaries, “Ares Management”) is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer and considers all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, ethnicity, creed, sex, age, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, marital status, partnership status, sexual orientation, status regarding public assistance, military or veteran status, domestic violence victim status, gender identity and expression, transgender status, genetic information, status as unemployed, political affiliation or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. Ares Management will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance.