Director, Public Finance Product Owner / Agile Product Lead - Toronto

At Fitch, we have an open culture where employees are able to exchange ideas and perspectives, throughout the organization, irrespective of their seniority. Your voice will be heard allowing you to have a real impact. We embrace diversity and appreciate authenticity encouraging an environment where employees can be their true selves. Our inclusive and progressive approach helps us to keep a balanced perspective.  Fitch is also committed to supporting its employees by advancing conversations around diversity, equity and inclusion.  Fitch’s Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) have been established by employees who have joined together as a workplace community based on similar backgrounds or life experiences.  Fitch’s ERGs are available to connect employees with others within the organization to offer professional and personal support. 

With our expertise, we are not only creating data and information, but also producing timely insights from every angle to influence decision making in this ever changing and highly competitive market. We have a relentless hunger to innovate and unlock the power of human insights and to drive value for our customers. There has never been a better time to make an impact and we invite you to join us on this journey.

Fitch Ratings is currently seeking a Director- Public Finance Product Owner / Agile Product Lead based out of our New York office. 

About the Team:

Ratings Workflow Solutions (RWS), part of the Ratings COO organization, is a cross-functional, agile team responsible for designing, implementing, and optimizing applications and workflows used by our Ratings staff. Our goal is to streamline processes, mitigate risks, and advance standardization and automation across Fitch’s ratings platforms and workflows.  The team partners closely with analytical, business, and technology staff to ensure our systems support the needs of the Ratings organization and enable our staff to work effectively.    

How You’ll Make an Impact:

We’re looking for an experienced and dynamic Product Owner to lead an agile delivery team supporting Fitch’s Public Finance and Global Infrastructure credit analysts and their internal workflows. In this role, you’ll lead the squad, work closely with different groups to understand their needs, solve problems, and ensure we’re building solutions that advance our business objectives. You’ll work alongside analytical groups and technology teams to align priorities and deliver key outcomes. Strong leadership, communication, and organizational skills are important, and you should enjoy working with colleagues who have different levels of experience with Agile. A collaborative, customer-first mindset is essential.

• Define overall strategy and direction of the applications covered based on understanding of organizational goals and analytical groups’ needs.
• Own the backlog, feature prioritization, roadmap, and the MVP in support of business objectives.
• Communicate and align with stakeholders to prioritize features and ensure a shared vision of sprint goals and backlogs.
• Lead the Agile squad to define and align sprint goals, ensuring "ready" user stories and supporting the squad to deliver on sprint commitments.  Supports squad in identifying dependencies and other execution risks.
• Work closely with the squad to provide timely feedback and answers to their questions; ultimately accept or reject the product increments of the sprint.
• Oversee the overall squad’s quarterly delivery, ensuring that the squad meets their goals and deliver business value.
• Identify opportunities for process improvements and drive initiatives to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the Ratings business.
• Enhance and automate processes to improve data quality, standardize workflows, and integrate key systems.
• Analyze and break down complex workflows and system processes for both current (As-Is) and future (To-Be) states in support of automation and standardization.
• Oversee and guide user training, rollout, and change management processes.

You May be a Good Fit if:

• Bachelor’s degree and 5+ years of product ownership experience
• Agile practitioner capabilities & experience working with or in Agile teams.
• Proven track record of delivering workflow and data-driven solutions with a customer-first mindset.

• Sees the business as a customer and translate requirements into technical solutions.
• Ability to create and maintain a backlog and roadmap, and to prioritize that backlog based on business value and technical feasibility.
• Track record of delivering results in a high-demand, matrixed organization.
• Strong interpersonal and organizational skills, demonstrating an ability to work well with teams and stakeholders.

• Proficiency in Jira, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word

What Would Make You Stand Out:

• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) certification

• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels
• Demonstrated ability to oversee complex projects and excel in a high-demand, matrixed organization
• Prior experience in debt capital markets, financial services or consulting

Why Choose Fitch:

• Hybrid Work Environment: 3 days a week in office required based on your line of business and location
• A Culture of Learning & Mobility: Dedicated trainings, leadership development and mentorship programs designed to ensure that your time at Fitch will be a continuous learning opportunity
• Investing in Your Future: Retirement planning and tuition reimbursement programs that empower you to achieve your short and long-term goals
• Promoting Health & Wellbeing: Comprehensive healthcare offerings that enable physical, mental, financial, social, and occupational wellbeing
• Supportive Parenting Policies: Family-friendly policies, including a generous global parental leave plan, designed to help you balance career and family life effectively
• Inclusive Work Environment: A collaborative workplace where all voices are valued, with Employee Resource Groups that unite and empower our colleagues around the globe
• Dedication to Giving Back: Paid volunteer days, matched funding for donations and ample opportunities to volunteer in your community

As one of the world’s top three credit ratings agencies, Fitch Ratings plays a critical role in global capital markets by providing credit analysis, ratings, research, and commentary to financial market participants. For over 100 years, Fitch Ratings has been creating value for global markets through its rigorous analysis and deep expertise, which have resulted in a variety of market leading tools, methodologies, indices, research, and analytical products. Fitch Ratings is part of Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries, which also includes Fitch Solutions. With dual headquarters in London and New York, Fitch Group is owned by Hearst.

Explore a career at Fitch Ratings and you’ll join a collaborative network of curious minds. Here, our differences are our strengths - in life as well as our work. Together we work with integrity and objectivity to provide clarity to the world’s financial markets. We pride ourselves on our ability to harness the ideas, expertise, and professionalism of our global workforce, which is integral to our continued success. The accessibility and depth of experience of our industry leading analysts, combined with our broad sector credentials, allow us to help market participants make important credit decisions with confidence.

Fitch is committed to providing global securities markets with objective, timely, independent and forward-looking credit opinions. To protect Fitch’s credibility and reputation, our employees must take every precaution to avoid conflicts of interests or any appearance of a conflict of interest. Should you be successful in the recruitment process at Fitch Ratings you will be asked to declare any securities holdings and other potential conflicts prior to commencing employment. If you, or your immediate family, have any holdings that may conflict with your work responsibilities, you may be asked to divest yourself of them before beginning work. 

Fitch is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status, and other statuses protected by law. 

FOR TORONTO ROLES ONLY: Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $170,000 and $200,000 per year. Actual salaries will be determined on an individualized basis and may vary based on factors including but not limited to education, training, experience, past performance, and other job-related factors.  Base pay is one part of Fitch’s total compensation package, which, depending on the position, may also include commission earnings, discretionary bonuses, long-term incentives, and other benefits sponsored by Fitch.