Director, Product Development

Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, is the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research, data, and valuations. An essential part of the world's financial infrastructure, Standard & Poor's has played a leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. And we do it with utmost integrity. If our values speak to you, then speak to us.



This Director, Product Development will have primary responsibility for managing or participating in the execution of new product development. This will include oversight for projects and ideas from start to finish and working in partnership with other Centers of Excellence (COE) units, IT, business unit experts, Legal, Finance, Segment Marketing and Project Management. This role includes developing business relationships and maintaining on-going communications with key internal and external stakeholders to assure that the business units are providing competitive service and value.



This individual will participate in and perform tasks across the entire spectrum of the product development cycle including: customer interviews for market research, secondary market research, product concept development, development of functional specifications, prototype development and full product implementation.



The selected candidate will also have responsibility for monitoring and evaluating market development implications and for investigating potential new product opportunities based on these developments and other idea sources (initial market research). This includes determine key priorities and achievable objectives among a wide range of strategic product development issues and focusing on project execution, progress and results, and moving ideas along and meeting "time to market" objectives. He or she will work with Product Development team to execute new product projects and to ensure that all new projects follow the new product development process. The Director is responsible for mentoring the product marketing team while acting as the primary source for market sizing and segmentation



REQUIREMENTS
Bachelor's degree required, MBA preferred Minimum of 7 years experience in product development or product marketing for a financial services company Must have a solid understanding of capital markets, specifically fixed income products and securitization markets; candidates with previous experience in Structured Finance are highly desirable, also candidates that have experience with analytical model type products would be highly desirable Must have strong analytical and financial background and skills as well as experience with financial models and model building Must be results-oriented with a strong record of accomplishment in product management Must have some project management experience and be comfortable working with IT methodology Solid understanding of Quality Assurance methodologies Experience in Business-to-Business Marketing primarily in the financial service industry. Demonstrated ability to bring new products from ideas to fruition Solid knowledge of internet online services and industry trends, some experience developing technical specifications Experience in creating and managing product launches and supporting marketing programs with specific financial goals a plus. Solid understanding of industry competitors Ability to build excellent rapport with vendors and partners; ability to negotiate business partnerships and project outsourcing contracts Superior oral and written communications skills; must be comfortable speaking at conferences on behalf of the company to form partnerships and exchange ideas Strong communication and interpersonal skills are required since the Product Development Director will heavily interface with all levels of management, internally and externally. Fast learner; ability to master new systems and processes Strong leadership skills; gains credibility quickly; ability to impact and influence others Ability to successfully manage projects involving multiple internal functions that do not formally report to this position. 10-15% travel