Associate Director - Chemicals Consulting
Spgi · Houston, Texas, United States
About the Role:
Grade Level (for internal use):
12Associate Director - Chemicals Consulting
About the Role:
As an Associate Director in Chemicals Consulting, you will lead complex client engagements and help shape the growth of our global advisory business. You will combine deep chemicals industry knowledge with consulting judgment to translate market, technology, cost, policy, and competitive intelligence into clear strategic choices for senior clients. The role requires ownership of project outcomes, strong client leadership, development of high-quality proposals and intellectual capital, and active contribution to priority accounts and practice development.
The Team:
The Chemicals Consulting team is part of S&P Global Energy and combines market intelligence, proprietary data, industry expertise, and consulting methods to help clients make high-value decisions across the chemicals value chain. We work with chemical producers, national oil companies, governments, investors, technology providers, and financial institutions on strategy, market and commercial assessment, feasibility, techno-economics, competitiveness, transactions, sustainability, and business transformation. The team is global, collaborative, and client-led, with close links to S&P Global research, price reporting, data, analytics, and adjacent consulting practices.
Responsibilities and Impact:
- Lead Project Delivery: Lead end-to-end delivery of complex, multi-workstream consulting engagements, from problem definition and hypothesis development through analysis, executive synthesis, and implementation-oriented recommendations; maintain accountability for scope, quality, economics, risk, and client outcomes.
- Strategic Advisory: Advise senior client stakeholders on strategic and investment questions across petrochemicals, polymers, specialty chemicals, and adjacent value chains, including portfolio strategy, market entry, growth, competitiveness, feasibility, pricing, M&A and due diligence, decarbonization, circularity, and operating-model transformation.
- Data Synthesis & Frameworks: Convert S&P Global Energy data, price assessments, supply-demand outlooks, cost and asset intelligence, policy analysis, and primary research into robust consulting analyses, scenarios, and decision frameworks; challenge assumptions and ensure transparent, defensible conclusions.
- Client & Relationship Management: Own day-to-day client relationships for assigned engagements and accounts; contribute to steering meetings and workshops, communicate trade-offs clearly, resolve delivery issues, and identify well-founded follow-on opportunities aligned with client needs.
- Business Development: Develop winning proposals and differentiated points of view in collaboration with research, commercial, and consulting colleagues; shape scope, methodology, team, schedule, deliverables, and commercial model, and support the practice pipeline and revenue plan.
What We're Looking For:
Required Qualifications:
- An S&P Global employee at this level would typically have 8+ years of relevant experience in chemicals consulting, corporate strategy, market intelligence, commercial development, investment analysis, or an operating role in the chemicals industry.
- Industry & Domain Expertise: Demonstrated expertise in at least one chemicals domain, such as olefins, aromatics, polymers, fertilizers, inorganics, specialty chemicals, advanced materials, chemicals sustainability, or integrated refining and petrochemicals, supported by a strong understanding of value chains and industry economics.
- Advanced Analytical Capabilities: Advanced capability in market assessment, competitive and cost analysis, scenario development, financial and investment evaluation, strategic synthesis, and executive-level written and verbal communication; proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint is required.
Consulting and Power Skills:
- Strong Consulting Judgment: Structures ambiguous questions, prioritizes the analyses that matter, and moves teams from evidence to a clear answer and practical recommendation.
- Executive Presence and Influence: Communicates complex findings simply, handles challenges constructively, and builds credibility with senior clients and internal stakeholders.
- Commercial and Practice-Building Orientation: Connectes market developments to client needs, develops relevant propositions, and balances client value, delivery quality, and project economics.
- Collaborative Leadership: Aligns multidisciplinary and cross-regional teams, develops others, makes sound trade-offs, and maintains high standards under pressure.
Additional Preferred Qualifications:
- Data Modeling & Techno-Economics: Experience with chemical industry databases, supply-demand and price forecasting, production cost or techno-economic models, asset benchmarking, valuation, or transaction support.
- Senior Stakeholder Networks: Established network with chemical producers, investors, governments, NOCs, technology licensors, or other industry stakeholders, and experience facilitating senior workshops or board-level presentations.
- Global Perspective: Additional language capability and experience working across multiple geographies and cultures.
Right to Work Requirements:
This role is limited to persons with indefinite right to work in the United States.
Compensation/Benefits Information: (This section is only applicable to US candidates)
S&P Global states that the anticipated base salary range for this position is $140,000.00 to $170,000.00 Final base salary for this role will be based on the individual’s geographic location, as well as experience level, skill set, training, licenses and certifications.
In addition to base compensation, this role is eligible for an annual incentive plan. This role is not eligible for additional compensation such as an annual incentive bonus or sales commission plan. This role is eligible to receive additional S&P Global benefits. For more information on the benefits we provide to our employees, please click here.
About S&P Global Energy
At S&P Global Energy, our comprehensive view of global energy and commodities markets enables our customers to make superior decisions and create long-term, sustainable value. Our four core capabilities are: Platts for news and pricing; CERA for research and advisory; Horizons for energy expansion and sustainability solutions; and Events for industry collaboration.
S&P Global Energy is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). S&P Global enables businesses, governments, and individuals with trusted data, expertise, and technology to make decisions with conviction. We are Advancing Essential Intelligence through world-leading benchmarks, data, and insights that customers need in order to plan confidently, act decisively, and thrive economically in a rapidly changing global landscape. Learn more at www.spglobal.com/energy.
What’s In It For You?
Our Mission:
Advancing Essential Intelligence.
Our People:
We're more than 35,000 strong worldwide—so we're able to understand nuances while having a broad perspective. Our team is driven by curiosity and a shared belief that Essential Intelligence can help build a more prosperous future for us all.From finding new ways to measure sustainability to analyzing energy transition across the supply chain to building workflow solutions that make it easy to tap into insight and apply it. We are changing the way people see things and empowering them to make an impact on the world we live in. We’re committed to a more equitable future and to helping our customers find new, sustainable ways of doing business. Join us and help create the critical insights that truly make a difference.
Our Values:
Integrity, Discovery, Partnership
Throughout our history, the world's leading organizations have relied on us for the Essential Intelligence they need to make confident decisions about the road ahead. We start with a foundation of integrity in all we