Job Description

Job Description

The Role: Director, U.S. Public Finance – Charter Schools Group

The Location: (Flexible) New York, NY; San Francisco, CA; Centennial, CO; Dallas, TX; Chicago, IL; Boston, MA
 

The Team: You will join a national team of analysts that maintains a strong culture of analytical excellence and customer service in a supportive and collegial environment. The Charter Schools team covers more than 550 charter school, independent school, and community college ratings.  As a Director, you will manage a complex portfolio, support market outreach and thought leadership efforts, and coach and mentor analysts to strengthen analytical development across the team.
 

The Impact: US Public Finance is an important sector of the capital markets and is a key funding source and growth driver for many areas of the economy. If you are interested in helping to facilitate this growth while challenging yourself in a fast-paced environment, this is the right position for you. This position will give a successful candidate the opportunity to contribute to a strong talent development culture that values integrated and high-impact analysis, service excellence, diversity, and empowerment.
 

What’s in it for you: This position offers the opportunity to work in a collegial culture with great potential for professional development and career growth, while also providing relevant, insightful and compelling market analysis and coaching teammates to do the same. While overall career development will depend on individual performance and company need, this is an opportunity for your skills and hard work to move you forward.
 

Responsibilities: As a Director, you will analyze a portfolio of assigned entities as well as complex situations, data, and information, assess financial projections and resolve difficult deal-specific analytical situations. This position is responsible for meeting with issuers and investors on analytical matters, assisting in resolving client needs, and taking the lead at external meetings (along with the primary analyst) related to credit ratings. Specifically, in this role, the analyst will:

Possess strong municipal credit skills and ability to analyze complex credit structures.

Act as a senior member of rating committees and be responsible for convening and conducting rating committee deliberations. This includes acting as active voting member and rating committee chair with responsibility for assuring the integrity of the rating process.

Function as a sector expert and support timely credit analyses and thought leadership articles.

Manage, support, and guide analysts on the team to develop their analytical skills. Review, critique, and provide feedback on team analytics to support a culture of continuous improvement.

Model the company’s leadership behaviors, including coaching and mentoring and maintaining a positive and team-oriented mindset.

Understand and implement S&P’s Policies and SOPs and promote a strong culture of compliance for all team members.

Speak publicly and represent the company with external stakeholders.

Take the lead on special projects as appropriate.
 

What We’re Looking For and Basic Qualifications:

• BS, BA in finance, accounting, economics, government/public policy, or similar field required; postgraduate degree or CFA designation would be an advantage.

• Minimum 7+ years of experience in U.S. Public Finance.

• Experience working with charter school, independent school, and community college ratings and a desire to continually expand an understanding of these sectors.

• Sound work ethic, with an ability to work well both independently and as part a team, and maintain flexibility in supporting the team as needs arise.
• Ability to ensure that analytical guidelines, quality standards, procedures and policies established are adhered to for all credits.
• Strong communication, interpersonal, and management skills, with the ability to interact confidently with clients.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and critical thinking skills and a demonstrated ability to coach and mentor analytical team members. 

• Ability to thrive in a deadline-driven environment.

• Ability to be highly organized, detail-oriented, and juggle multiple priorities at once.