Associate, Data Initiatives and Solutions

About the job

Who You’ll Work With:
AB CarVal's Data Initiatives and Solutions (DIS) team connects business needs with data and technology capabilities to accelerate the delivery of business solutions. The Associate partners closely with investment professionals, operations teams, Private Alternatives Product, and Private Alternatives Infrastructure (PAI), including Data Analytics, Data Engineering, and Software Engineering. The role is business-facing and focused on translating problems into practical, scalable solutions rather than serving as a project-coordination function.

This position will report to the Director, Data Initiatives and Solutions (DIS) and is located in Minneapolis, MN.

What You’ll Do:

• Partner with business stakeholders to understand problems, objectives, and desired outcomes, and challenge pre-defined solutions to clarify the underlying “what” and “why.”
• Identify opportunities to simplify processes, improve efficiency, and recommend solution approaches aligned with the organization’s technology strategy.
• Help stakeholders understand available capabilities before work enters the delivery pipeline.
• Translate business needs into clear requirements and actionable work for technology teams, including user stories, process flows, business rules, and acceptance criteria.
• Validate that proposed solutions address the underlying business problem, reduce ambiguity, and support efficient execution by development teams.
• Support testing strategy and user acceptance testing.
• Perform exploratory analysis to answer business questions and validate requirements using the firm’s data and analytics tools.
• Build simple reports, dashboards, or Sigma prototypes to facilitate stakeholder discussions and help business users get started with self-service.
• Resolve common friction points such as access requests, basic how-to questions, and getting-started support before escalating to a technology team.
• Determine when a request can be addressed through self-service versus when specialized technical expertise is required, and engage PAI for more complex design and implementation work.
• Ensure business requirements are technically feasible and align with the organization’s data architecture.
• Drive initiatives from intake through implementation, monitoring progress, risks, dependencies, outstanding decisions, and delivery quality.
• Follow up proactively to remove roadblocks, maintain momentum, and escalate issues at the appropriate time.
• Coordinate across business and technology teams and provide clear status updates to leadership.
• Partner with Private Alternatives Product and PAI teams to scope and plan work, resource needs, and delivery to business stakeholders.
• Evaluate opportunities to improve work using AI-enabled tools, identify automation opportunities, and support responsible adoption of AI capabilities.
• Independently drive day-to-day execution while keeping the Director informed of active work, emerging issues, and recommendations before finalizing solution direction or strategic decisions.
• Continuously seek more efficient ways of working and strengthen communication between business, data, and technology teams.

• What We’re Looking For:
• Required
• Bachelor’s degree in Business, Information Systems, Computer Science, Data Analytics, Finance, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 2+ years of relevant experience in Business Analysis, Product Ownership, Project Management, Data Analytics, Consulting, or a related area.
• Ability to translate business needs into requirements, process flows, business rules, and acceptance criteria.
• Working knowledge of data and analytics platforms and the ability to perform exploratory analysis, create simple reports or prototypes, and collaborate effectively with technical teams.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively with executives, portfolio managers, operations teams, engineers, and other stakeholders.
• Business curiosity and analytical thinking
• Self-directed approach with the ability to own workstreams independently, make progress in ambiguous situations, and know when to seek guidance or escalate.
• Strong relationship-building skills
• Solution-oriented mindset
• Commitment to continuous learning and comfort adopting new technologies, AI capabilities, and evolving business processes.

• Preferred
• Experience supporting Investment Management, Asset Management, Financial Services, or Capital Markets.
• Experience working with Agile teams and tools such as Jira, Jira Product Discovery (JPD), Confluence, and Loom.
• Working knowledge of modern cloud data and analytics platforms such as Snowflake, Sigma Computing, Power BI, Tableau, or similar tools.
• Experience using AI tools such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Claude, or similar technologies to improve productivity.
• Working knowledge of SQL sufficient to explore data, validate business requirements, answer routine business questions, and collaborate with technical teams; advanced SQL development or database engineering experience is not required.
• Experience with process mapping tools such as Visio, Lucid, or Miro.
• Exposure to data modeling, change management, Lean / Six Sigma, or product management.

Who We Are:

AB CarVal is an established global alternative investment manager and part of AllianceBernstein’s Private Alternatives business. Since 1987, AB CarVal’s team has navigated through ever-changing credit market cycles, investing $155 billion in 5,850 transactions across 82 countries. Today, AB CarVal has approximately $20 billion in assets under management. The firm has a 38-year history, strong track record and an established reputation in asset-based finance with a team of approximately 74 investment professionals in the US, Europe and Asia. A key differentiator is the firm’s robust global network of established relationships with operating platforms and partners.

Our culture of intellectual curiosity and collaboration creates an environment where you can thrive and do your best work. Whether you're producing thought-provoking research, identifying compelling investment opportunities, infusing new technologies into our business or providing thoughtful advice to our clients, we are fully invested in you. If you're ready to challenge your limits and empower your career, join us!

In accordance with applicable law, the minimum and maximum base annual salary for this role is as follows:
Base Salary Range: $85,000 to $100,000

Actual base salaries may vary based on factors including but not limited to education, training, experience, past performance, and other job-related factors. Base salary is just one component of total compensation at AB, which may include, depending on eligibility, commissions, year-end incentive compensation, short- and long-term incentives and Department-specific awards. In addition AB provides a variety of benefits to eligible employees, including health insurance coverage, an employee wellness program, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays, sick and vacation time off

All are encouraged to apply. AB does not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, ancestry, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, gender identity, military or veteran status or any other basis that is prohibited by applicable law. AB’s policies and practices seek to ensure that employment opportunities are available to all employees and applicants based solely on job-related criteria.
Minneapolis, Minnesota