Director, ESG Research – Risk Product Lead

Director, ESG Risk/Impact Products

Morningstar Sustainalytics delivers high-quality, analytical environmental, social and governance (ESG) and climate research, ratings and data to institutional investors and companies. Our research is empowering the world’s leading institutional investors to identify, understand, and manage risks and opportunities from an ESG perspective. We are a global leader in sustainability and corporate ESG solutions, informing and advocating to improve the world we live in.

About the role

Our ESG Risk/Impact Products business encompasses a suite of products that translates ESG data and research into higher level signals that provide an indication to our clients on the financial risks companies and countries face from ESG issues and the impacts they have on society, stakeholders and the environment. The suite includes Sustainalytics’ flagship product, our ESG Risk Rating, which covers over 14,000 companies, leveraging a sophisticated ratings framework. Our Risk/Impact Products enable clients’ investment decision making across a variety of use cases from stock selection to portfolio screening to fund ratings. It is dynamic business that requires consistent product innovation and regular interactions with our clients.

We are seeking a Product Leader to oversee product management for our ESG Risk/Impact products. This includes the ESG Risk Rating, Country Risk Rating, Sub-Sovereign (Muni) Risk Rating ESG Risk Smart Score products and Impact Metrics/Objectives. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated product management expertise, an understanding of ESG from a financial materiality perspective and a deep commitment to Sustainability. This position can be based in Amsterdam, London, Toronto, Chicago or Frankfurt. We follow a hybrid policy of 3 days onsite and 2 days remote work.

Job responsibilities:

• Assure the commercial success of the business by establishing and executing an ESG Risk/Impact product strategy across all client segments in key regions around the world.
• Lead a team of product managers who are responsible for individual products. Provide guidance and oversight on their work and support them along their career paths.
• Partner with cross-functional teams, including research, methodology, data, technology, sales and marketing research to develop and deliver products that leverage our intellectual property to meet users’ needs.
• Develop business requirements refined and validated with internal and external users, prioritize conflicting work, and work within an Agile software development framework.
• Together with marketing, create Go-To-Market plans that support sales.
• Monitor industry trends and competitive landscape to identify opportunities for innovation.
• Understand the needs of clients in all major markets/regions, conducting market research and gathering customer feedback to inform product decisions.

Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in product management or a related field, with a focus on building Research or data products preferred.
• Experience in Sustainability and Financial Services is required.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent.
• A proven track record of building and managing high-performing products delivering double-digit growth for a $5+ million-dollar business.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to work cross-functionally.
• Experience performing user research, developing a product vision and building products using agile development methodologies and product development best practices.
• Ability to present complex information at industry events and strategic client meetings.
• Strategic mindset, with the ability to use data to identify and prioritize key opportunities and challenges.