Associate Director - Structured Finance Ratings, Esoteric Assets

About The Role

Grade Level (for internal use): 12

The Team:
Structured Finance Esoteric ABS Credit Ratings is an integral part of the Global Ratings Services team, comprising a diverse group of 1,400 analysts spread across key financial hubs worldwide. We are dedicated to delivering high-quality insights and exceptional client service across all industry sectors.

The Esoteric ABS team assigns credit ratings to securities backed by non-traditional collateral such as corporate securitizations, data centres, triple-net leases, transportation assets, De‑Fi, etc., by analysing underlying asset performance, structural protections, cash‑flow mechanics, and downside stress scenarios. Analysts produce opinions that help issuers and investors compare complex instruments, bringing market-relevant perspectives on performance trends, issuance conditions, and AI’s role in origination and securitization.

• Team Contribution & Capability Building – Act as senior reference point coaching Research Assistants, Rating Analysts, and Senior Analysts on credit fundamentals, modelling discipline, data quality, and standard work, including how to use AI as an enabler with governance; coordinate work across credits, anticipate capacity/quality risks; influence outcomes through planning and constructive challenge in ambiguous situations; embed continuous improvement by improving playbooks/SOPs/prompt libraries and driving adoption;
  
  partner with stakeholders to identify and shape high‑impact use cases, supporting testing, adoption, and rollout with governance, controls, and change management; foster a critical‑thinking mindset that challenges assumptions and the status quo to generate insights that shape market views and strategic decisions; model enterprise behaviors of Discovery, Integrity, and Partnership, including human‑centric leadership alongside AI‑enabled change.
• Core Analytical & Delivery – Deliver end‑to‑end analytical execution across a defined portfolio, setting a consistently high bar for quality, timeliness, and clarity; lead surveillance and analytical updates, connecting performance, market developments, and issuer peers to forward‑looking risk themes; own the quality of key outputs, ensuring consistency and clarity of reasoning; use approved GenAI/LLMs to accelerate research, comparisons, and drafting; operate effectively alongside AI agents in recurring workflows;
  
  support the execution of AI‑driven projects; validate inputs, reconcile metrics, document assumptions and model changes.
• Stakeholder & Market Engagement – Synthesize data, analysis, and research into executive‑ready, market‑facing narratives that convey S&P’s analytical expertise; build collaborative stakeholder trust through empathetic communication, differentiate S&P’s market viewpoint, and drive engagement with market participants; contribute to strategic initiatives and thought leadership by researching, drafting, and refining content with senior team input.
• Risk Management and Operating – Ensure adherence to methodology, confidentiality, and data governance requirements; embed responsible AI use in workflow processes; drive controlled automation and agentic workflows to remove low‑leverage work, defining requirements and controls and partnering with Data/Engineering to scale safely while setting expectations for ongoing monitoring and human oversight.

• Complete the end‑to‑end ratings process for new issue and surveillance transactions.
• Perform cash flow analysis, synthesize results, and present findings in a timely manner in committees for various non‑traditional assets, including transportation ABS, private equity, triple‑NNN, data centres, time‑share, whole business, and De‑Fi transactions.
• Analyse credit, cash flow, and performance characteristics of collateral pools; review third‑party model output and reconcile with cash flow results from internal models.
• Review legal and operating documents to ensure consistency with criteria and identify issues with the transaction structure; provide comments to external parties.
• Actively manage relationships with internal and external clients.
• Demonstrate strong…