Director – Esoteric ABS, Denver, CO or Toronto
spgi · Denver, Colorado, United States · onsite
About the Role:
Grade Level (for internal use):
13About the Role
The Esoteric ABS team at S&P Global Ratings evaluates the credit risk of structured finance transactions backed by non-traditional collateral — including transportation assets, data centers, triple-net leases, whole business securitizations, timeshare facilities, and private equity structures. The team delivers independent credit opinions that help issuers and investors navigate complex instruments, providing market-relevant perspectives on performance trends, issuance conditions, and evolving credit dynamics. This is a senior leadership role at the heart of the practice, where analytical authority, team development, and stakeholder influence come together.
What You'll Do
Impact
As a Director on the Esoteric ABS team, you will lead credit analysis across a portfolio of complex, non-traditional asset-backed structures, serve as an escalation point for analytical matters, and guide a team of analysts to deliver forward-looking, market-ready credit opinions. Your expertise will shape rating committee outcomes, drive the adoption of modern analytical practices, and influence how market participants understand risk across one of the most technically demanding areas of structured finance.
Responsibilities
Team Contribution & Capability Building
- Lead, coach, and develop analysts, building deep credit expertise alongside the ability to leverage generative AI, advanced analytics, and automation tools effectively; drive adoption of modern analytical practices across monitoring, drafting, research, and workflow execution while maintaining strong human judgment and accountability
Core Analytical & Delivery
- Lead end-to-end credit and capital markets analysis across an assigned portfolio of esoteric asset classes — including transportation ABS, private equity securitizations, triple-net leases, data centers, timeshares, and whole business structures — delivering forward-looking insights that support ratings, surveillance, and rating committee discussions
- Serve as subject matter expert on cash flow analysis, transaction structures, and ratings criteria; lead rating committee discussions, review third-party model outputs, provide analytical guidance to junior team members, and act as the escalation point for complex analytical matters
Stakeholder & Market Engagement
- Build and maintain strong relationships with issuers, investors, bankers, legal counsel, and other market participants; contribute to thought leadership through commentaries, webinars, podcasts, and external market engagement activities
- Communicate complex, data-informed analysis clearly and credibly while maintaining analytical independence and objectivity
Risk Management and Operating
- Maintain disciplined oversight of portfolio risk, ensuring emerging risks are identified early and escalated appropriately; apply rigorous controls to AI and automated outputs, ensuring transparency, explainability, and adherence to governance and regulatory standards
Compensation/Benefits Information (US Candidates) S&P Global states that the anticipated base salary range for this position is $150,000 USD to $210,000 USD. 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 eligible to receive additional S&P Global benefits. For more information on the benefits we provide to our employees, please click here.
Compensation/Benefits Information (Canadian Candidates) S&P Global states that the anticipated base salary range of compensation for this position is 140,000 CAD to 239,000 CAD. Final base salary compensation for this role will be based on the individual's performance, 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, which is included in the range of compensation above. 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.
In accordance with Ontario's new regulations effective January 1, 2026, this job posting provides information on expected compensation. S&P Global may use automated tools or artificial intelligence to support certain aspects of the hiring process, where permitted by law. Additionally, we are committed to transparency and will inform all interviewed candidates of hiring decisions within 45 days of their interview. This posting is for an existing vacancy, and we encourage you to reach out for further information regarding our hiring practices or any questions you may have. Thank you for considering a career with us!
What We're Looking For
Required Skills and Experience
- An S&P Global employee at this level would typically have 10+ years of relevant experience in structured finance, securitization, credit analysis, capital markets, or related fields.
- Experience mentoring colleagues and/or managing small teams, with a demonstrated ability to foster a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, and responsible AI adoption
- Strong credit expertise and the ability to deliver high-quality analytical output at pace across a complex, multi-asset portfolio
- Practical experience using generative AI, data, and advanced analytics tools to enhance research, monitoring, drafting, and workflow efficiency, with strong validation and analytical discipline
- Strong relationship management skills and a proactive stakeholder engagement mindset, communicating complex analytical insights clearly and credibly while maintaining analytical independence
Preferred or Helpful Experience
- Experience partnering with Data, Technology, Compliance, and Methodology teams to identify workflow improvements and scale best practices across the function
- Education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent required. A master's degree or professional certification (such as CFA) is highly valued. We welcome candidates from traditional finance disciplines as well as diverse academic backgrounds that support innovative and critical thinking.
Additional Information
- We require all candidates who reach the final stage of our interview process to attend at least one in-person interview, which is ordinarily at your nearest S&P Global Ratings office. This must be completed before we can proceed to an offer.
- Employees are required to work from the office a minimum of two days per week.
About S&P Global Ratings
At S&P Global Ratings, our analyst-driven credit ratings, research, and sustainable finance opinions provide critical insights that are essential to translating complexity into clarity so market participants can uncover opportunities and make decisions with conviction. By bringing transparency to the market through high-quality independent opinions on creditworthiness, we enable growth across a wide variety of organizations, including businesses, governments, and institutions.
S&P Global Ratings is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). S&P Global is the world’s foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help many of the world’s leading organizations navigate the economic landscape so they can plan for tomorrow, today.
For more information, visit www.spglobal.com/ratings
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 transi