Director, Markets & Product Specialist

Job Title: Director, Markets & Product Specialist

Reports to: Senior Counsel, Europe

Location: London

The Director, Markets & Product Specialist will serve as ISDA’s primary voice on derivatives market structure, product design and market practice in the context of the Emerging Markets (EM) strategy. The role sits at the intersection of market expertise and stakeholder engagement. The individual will spend a significant proportion of their time in dialogue with market participants, regulators, central banks and MDB counterparts, helping shape how those stakeholders think about market development priorities and what changes to market structure, regulation or practice could unlock depth and resilience.

The role holder must work closely with the global legal team providing a complimentary markets and products perspective as well as with other ISDA functions and senior leadership and participants and members in the derivatives industry locally and globally. The role holder should be capable of working in a fast-paced and autonomous environment which comes with being in a high-profile role in the derivatives market.

• Engage substantively with local and international regulators, central banks and financial supervisors on how derivatives market frameworks can be designed or reformed to support market depth, risk management capacity and financial stability.
• Engage with bank’s, buy-side institutions, infrastructure providers and industry bodies in priority EMDE jurisdictions, building trusted relationships that position ISDA as the credible partner for derivatives market development.
• Represent ISDA in working groups, round tables, conferences and bilateral meetings with market participants and policymakers, drawing on direct experience of how developed markets work to inform and advance the conversation.
• Collaborate with MDB partners — including the World Bank, IFC, EBRD, ADB and IDB — on country-level engagement and capacity building, contributing the market practitioner perspective to their technical assistance programmes.

• Contribute to the design and delivery of ISDA’s derivatives market diagnostic framework, identifying structural, regulatory and operational bottlenecks in priority markets and helping to sequence practical recommendations.
• Provide expert assessment of product market conditions in priority jurisdictions across interest rate, FX, credit and commodity derivatives, drawing on knowledge of market conventions, liquidity dynamics, hedging practice and infrastructure requirements.
• Articulate clearly which features of mature markets — in product design, trading conventions, clearing and settlement infrastructure, margin practice and regulatory treatment — are most consequential for market development, and how those features might be adapted or sequenced in local contexts.
• Contribute to briefing materials, discussion papers, consultation responses and policy submissions that convey ISDA’s position on market development priorities in EMDE jurisdictions.

• Work closely with the legal specialist leading the EM strategy to ensure coherence between the legal and documentation and the market practice dimensions of ISDA’s engagement.
• Contribute EMDE market insights to ISDA’s broader Policy, Research and Market Infrastructure teams, ensuring that perspectives from developing markets inform association-wide thinking.
• Support the development of educational and capacity building content for legal counterparts, judiciary members and front and back-office practitioners in priority jurisdictions.

• Minimum 10-15 years experience in derivatives…