Position Overview

MSCI is seeking a Finance Director to lead the financial management for the Analytics Product line. MSCI's Analytics products offer institutional investors an integrated view of risk and return. Our research-enhanced content and tools help institutional investors make better investment decisions, enhancing their understanding and analysis of market, credit, liquidity and counterparty risk across all major asset classes, spanning short, medium and long-term time horizons.

MSCI's industry-leading analytics include: Barra multi-factor models; pricing models; methodologies for performance attribution; RiskMetrics models for statistical analysis, such as VaR; and tools for security analysis, portfolio optimization, back testing and stress testing.

Scope of Responsibility

The Finance Director will report to the CFO and will partner closely with our Head of Analytics. In this capacity s/he will be an important part of the Analytics leadership team. In this role s/he will provide advice and counsel to the business leaders regarding business opportunities and challenges, using financial metrics and analysis. In addition to driving the day-to-day financial management of the Analytics business, the FD will help drive sustainable enterprise growth and will understand economic drivers to help develop and drive the business strategy. The strategic and financial plans the FD will develop will incorporate the development of both financial and operating metrics focused on driving the execution of the core investments to the strategic plan. The FD will directly manage a small team and indirectly engage with an off-shore team based in Mumbai.

Specific Knowledge

• Strong communication and influencing skills
• Experience managing though change with demonstrated leadership driving that change
• Demonstrated ability to translate data into insight
• Strong collaboration skills and comfortable providing indirect leadership
• Comfortable working in a global environment
• Experience in capital budgeting, risk management, P&L analysis, customer profitability, business development, competitor analysis, pricing strategy, product development (are any of these something you would want?)
• Expertise in the operations and financial management
• Experience in developing and using metrics on profitability and growth
• Experience leading strategic initiatives and investments through understanding the competitive landscape, industry trends, market structure and the potential business impact
• Experience with product pricing and profitability review, large deal review & partnering with product & sales management
• The ideal candidate will provide a unique perspective, will question assumptions and challenge effectively and will drive change through innovation and strong commercial knowledge
• Strong understanding of a subscription based selling model as well as an understanding of the SaaS framework
• Preference for a candidate with similar industry experience