Senior Vice President, Real Estate Technology

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 is seeking a Vice President, Full Stack Software Engineering Lead to drive the design, development, and delivery of technology solutions supporting the firm’s global real estate investment and operating platform. Reporting to the Principal, Head of Real Estate Technology, this role will serve as the engineering leader for the Real Estate Technology organization, responsible for building and evolving software platforms that support the real estate investment lifecycle across sourcing, underwriting, acquisitions, asset management, property operations, portfolio management, reporting, and investment analytics. This is a highly hands-on leadership role. The successful candidate will be expected to actively contribute to software development alongside the engineering team while establishing engineering standards, modern architecture patterns, and software delivery best practices. The role will be accountable for engineering execution, solution quality, operational stability, and the end-to-end software development lifecycle across real estate technology initiatives. The ideal candidate will bring strong experience building enterprise-grade applications within financial services, investment management, real estate, or alternative asset management environments, with deep expertise in modern full-stack development, cloud-native architectures, microservices, data platforms, messaging systems, and software engineering best practices. This individual will partner closely with Product Management, real estate investment professionals, asset management teams, property management and operations stakeholders, finance, Data & AI teams, and broader Investment Technology leadership to deliver scalable, resilient, and high-performing technology solutions that support the firm’s growing real estate business. PRIMARY FUNCTIONS & RESPONSIBILITIES Engineering Leadership & Team Development • Lead and mentor a team of software engineers supporting Real Estate Technology initiatives. • Establish engineering standards, development practices, coding guidelines, and quality controls. • Foster a culture of technical excellence, accountability, continuous improvement, and collaboration. • Provide hands-on coaching and technical guidance to team members. • Drive adoption of Agile development practices and modern engineering methodologies. • Drive engineering decisions related to scalability, resiliency, performance, observability, and operational excellence. • Evaluate new technologies and architectural patterns to improve engineering effectiveness and platform capabilities. Application Development & Technology Delivery • Lead development across real estate deal management platforms, underwriting and investment workflow solutions, asset management and portfolio monitoring platforms, property operations integrations, investment data services and APIs, and reporting and analytics platforms. • Ensure engineering teams deliver scalable technology solutions supporting deal sourcing and pipeline management, underwriting workflows, acquisition and transaction management, asset management, property operations, portfolio monitoring, investment reporting, and real estate investment data management. • Develop and maintain APIs, data services, and integration frameworks supporting investment, asset management, property operations, finance, risk, reporting, and analytics platforms. Cloud & Platform Engineering • Architect and deploy applications using modern cloud-native technologies. • Implement containerized solutions utilizing Kubernetes and cloud platform services. • Drive modernization efforts focused on cloud adoption, scalability, resilience, and operational efficiency. • Ensure proper observability, monitoring, logging, and operational support across production environments. Integration & Event-Driven Architecture • Design and implement API-first architecture and integration frameworks. • Leverage messaging platforms, event streaming, and asynchronous processing patterns to support scalable and resilient business platforms. • Build solutions that integrate seamlessly across investment, data, property management, finance, and operational platforms. • Partner with Data & AI teams to enable high-quality data flows and analytics capabilities. Hands-On Software Engineering • Actively contribute to software development and remain deeply involved in implementation decisions. • Design, develop, test, deploy, and support business-critical applications supporting real estate investment and operating workflows. • Participate in code reviews, architecture reviews, troubleshooting, and production support activities. • Lead development efforts across front-end, backend, integration, and data layers. • Ensure solutions are scalable, maintainable, secure, and aligned with enterprise engineering standards. Platform Architecture & System Design • Design and evolve modern cloud-native architectures supporting the real estate technology ecosystem. • Define architecture standards for distributed systems, APIs, event-driven architectures, and microservices. Software Development Lifecycle & Governance • Own the end-to-end Software Development Lifecycle for Real Estate Technology engineering initiatives. • Establish CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, release management processes, and deployment standards. • Drive improvements in software quality, development velocity, security, and operational stability. • Ensure compliance with enterprise security, governance, regulatory, and operational resiliency requirements. Business Partnership & Stakeholder Management • Partner closely with Product Management to prioritize engineering initiatives and deliver business outcomes. • Serve as a trusted technology advisor to real estate investment professionals, asset management teams, property management and operations stakeholders, finance, and broader Investment Technology partners. • Translate complex real estate investment and operational requirements into scalable technical solutions. • Communicate architecture decisions, delivery plans, risks, and engineering tradeoffs to both technical and non-technical stakeholders QUALIFICATIONS ​ Education: BS in Computer Science or related field is required . Advanced degree preferred. Experience Required: • 12-15 years of progressive software engineering experience delivering enterprise technology solutions. • 5 + years leading software engineering teams, technical organizations, or major technology initiatives. • Demonstrated experience leading end-to-end software delivery within financial services, investment management, real estate, or alternative asset management environments. • Experience supporting real estate investment, asset management, property operations, portfolio management, finance, or related investment platforms preferred. • Strong preference for candidates with experience supporting real estate acquisitions, underwriting, asset management, property management, portfolio monitoring, investment reporting, or real estate analytics platforms. • Proven track record building and operating business-critical applications within regulated or operationally complex environments. • Experience partnering directly with product management, real estate investment professionals, asset managers, operations teams, finance stakeholders, and senior business stakeholders. • Experience leading modernization, platform transformation, organizational change, or cloud adoption initiatives. • Experience recruiting, mentoring, developing, and retaining engineering talent. General Requirements: Technical Skills • Advanced Java development expertise . • Advanced React and TypeScript expertise . • Deep expertise with relational and non-relational database technologies. • Deep understanding of distributed systems, microservices, and event-driven architectures. • Strong API and integration design expertise . • Strong knowledge of messaging and streaming technologies. • Experience with cloud platforms including AWS, Azure, or GCP. • Experience with Kubernetes and containerized application platforms. • Experience designing highly scalable, highly available enterprise applications. Software Engineering Excellence • Deep understanding of software architecture, engineering design patterns, and engineering best practices. • Strong SDLC, CI/CD, automated testing, and DevOps expertise . • Experience defining engineering standards and code quality practices. • Strong troubleshooting, performance optimization, and operational support capabilities. • Ability to balance architecture, delivery, quality, and hands-on development responsibilities. Leadership & Collaboration • Hands-on technical leader comfortable contributing code alongside the engineering team. • Strong architecture, system design, and technical decision-making capabilities. • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills. • Ability to build alignment across technology, product, real estate investment, asset management, property operations, finance, and Data & AI teams. • Ability to influence engineering direction through leadership, expertise , and sound judgment. • High level of ownership, accountability, and execution focus. Functional • Famili arity with DealCloud , or other pipeline management systems, real estate systems like Argus, Yardi, RealPage, JD Edwards is a strong plus. Reporting Relationships Global Head of Investment Technology 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. $250,000 - $275,000 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.