Associate, Infrastructure Secondaries

Ares is hiring an Associate onto its Infrastructure Secondaries team in London, posted 3 September 2026. The job is to evaluate new investment opportunities through due diligence, industry and comparable company research, interviews with fund sponsors and financial models built as part of an underwriting team; to run quantitative and qualitative diligence on infrastructure limited partnership interests and the companies underneath them; to build a network across the infrastructure industry through negotiations, diligence and sponsor annual meetings; to prepare presentations for investors, the firm's partner group and counterparties; and to support the deal team on transaction management, negotiations with sellers and closings. Source

The asset class underneath the deal: regulated utilities, transport (tolls, airports, rail, ports), social infrastructure such as PFI schools and hospitals, and digital infrastructure - towers, fibre, data centres. Each earns money differently, from a fixed PFI unitary charge with no demand risk to a toll road whose receipts are whatever traffic turns up. Gearing runs 60-80% net debt to RAB because the cashflows are predictable and asset lives match long debt; the diligence that actually costs money is regulatory resets, EPC contractor insolvency, political intervention and inflation linkage that shifts from RPI to CPI. Source

'Secondaries' is the token doing the work, and the posting explains it if you read it as a definition: Ares buys 'infrastructure limited partnership interests' - a stake in a fund that already exists, changing hands - rather than committing new money to a new fund. That is why the diligence is on somebody else's portfolio and why you interview fund sponsors rather than company management. 'Infrastructure' is the asset class those funds hold, and 'Associate' is the band above analyst, which the two-to-four-year requirement confirms.

Plainly: an experienced hire. Two to four years is the stated bar, so a student or a graduate with no deal experience cannot apply, whatever the row sits next to. It is still worth reading, because it names exactly which junior jobs feed a secondaries seat - infrastructure or power and utilities banking, infrastructure investing, secondaries principal investing, infrastructure valuation, or restructuring advisory.

The team is Infrastructure Secondaries, inside Ares Secondaries Group, which the firm describes as one of the most experienced investors in the secondary private market with over 30 years in it, providing bespoke liquidity solutions across private equity, credit, real estate and infrastructure. The posting says the Infrastructure Secondaries team has grown significantly in recent years, raised over $5 billion in its most recent fundraise, and is expanding to support future growth. It calls the strategy a natural extension of Ares' Infrastructure and Secondaries platforms, which hold approximately $7 billion and $38 billion of assets respectively. Source

6 people have held London roles at Ares Infrastructure since 2018 - the wider infrastructure business the record shows, of which this secondaries team is one part. That is a small number and it is close to the floor at which we will publish one at all, so read it as evidence that the London bench is thin rather than as a precise headcount.

Ares Secondaries Group describes itself as one of the most experienced investors in the secondary private market in alternative asset management, providing liquidity solutions across private equity, credit, real estate and infrastructure, with over 30 years of experience in the market. The Infrastructure Secondaries team raised over $5 billion in its most recent fundraise, and the page calls the strategy a natural extension of Ares' infrastructure and secondaries platforms, which have approximately $7 billion and $38 billion in assets under management. Source

88 people have held London roles at Ares Management as a whole since 2018, across infrastructure, real estate and direct lending.

The posting states its own timing: '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.' Source

This is a build-out, not a backfill, and the posting says so in its own words - a $5 billion fundraise closed and the team is expanding to support future growth. That matters when you are choosing where to spend an application: a team hiring because it has more capital than people is reading CVs properly, where a replacement seat is often filled by someone the team already knows.

'Ongoing basis until the search is no longer active' is Ares telling you there is no date to work back from. In practice that means the seat closes the day someone accepts, and the fact this went up on 3 September makes now the front of the queue rather than the back of it.

Required: two to four years' experience in investment banking (infrastructure or power and utilities preferred but not required), infrastructure, secondaries principal investing, infrastructure valuation, or restructuring advisory services; strong analytical, financial analysis, writing and presentation skills; advanced Excel, PowerPoint and financial modelling; a proven record of leadership and a strong academic record. A bachelor's degree in finance, accounting or a related field is described as helpful but not required, and a second European language will be considered positively. Source

Do not misread the soft degree line. A finance degree being 'helpful but not required' looks like an open door, but the two-to-four-year experience requirement is not qualified in the same way, and that is the bar you have to clear. What it does mean is that if you have the deal experience, a non-finance degree is not held against you - which is genuinely rarer than it sounds in this corner of the market.