Product Governance & Controls Expert – Sustainability & Climate

Your Team Responsibilities

We are looking for a motivated and detail-oriented professional to lead our Sustainability and Climate Product Governance and Controls function.

You will work cross-functionally with Product, Compliance, Legal, Risk, Data Operations, Technology, Sales and other teams to ensure that new and existing sustainability-related products meet our internal standards, controls and regulatory obligations. In particular, you will help drive the adoption of new regulations in the EU and UK across the business, and will lead the global operational framework that supports compliance with a broad range of regulatory obligations, including data integrity, transparency, operational readiness, and control execution.

You will be responsible for ensuring that internal operations meet external standards, industry expectations, and jurisdictional regulatory frameworks, and act as a key driver of operational resilience, audit readiness, and process integrity for all key business and regulatory workflows. You will also support with the regular governance of the business, including supporting the Product Operating Officer in running key committee meetings such as the Product Operating Committee, New Product Innovation Forum, and Risk Oversight Committee.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone passionate about sustainability and climate issues to influence the development and integrity of investment-grade data solutions.

Your Key Responsibilities

Product Governance

• Support the governance lifecycle of Sustainability and Climate data products, including new product approvals, ongoing operational controls and change management, and end-of-life processes.
• Coordinate governance forums and product oversight committees; prepare materials, capture decisions, and track actions to resolution.
• Ensure sustainability and climate-related product documentation, inventories, and review processes are accurate and audit-ready.
• Help maintain and enhance governance frameworks, embedding sustainability-specific criteria and controls where appropriate.
• Prepare standard operating procedures and/or guidance documentation for Product organization.
• Support Product organization to find right trade-off between innovation, growth and risk.

Regulatory Implementation & Compliance Monitoring

• Act as a key operational interface for regulators of MSCI’s Sustainability and Climate business around the world, internal audit, major clients and senior executives. Prepare for, attend and lead interactions with regulatory bodies.

• Work closely with the Compliance department to interpret and implement ESG-, sustainability- and climate-related regulations and codes of conduct (e.g., ESMA’s ESG Ratings Provider regulation).
• Work closely with Compliance and our Governance & Regulatory Affairs (GRA) team to conduct regulatory impact assessments on new and existing data products and ensure timely implementation of required changes.
• Help build regulatory readiness across product teams through governance protocols, checklists, and compliance playbooks.
• Work with programme management to drive the implementation of new regulatory obligations on the business.
• Produce required documentation or enhancements for new regulatory obligations.
• Establish global oversight processes to track regulatory workflows, identify deviations or emerging risks, and drive timely remediation.
• Monitor compliance with applicable regulations and standards in the sustainability data space and escalate potential gaps proactively.

Risk and Controls

• Assess and manage operational and regulatory risks specific to sustainability and climate data products.

• Design and enforce scalable control structures, processes and policies to validate data integrity / sourcing, methodologies and model assumptions, distribution workflows, and disclosure practices.

• Partner cross-functionally to resolve issues and continuously improve control design.

• Support incident management and business continuity planning.

• Support responses to internal and external reviews, ensuring documentation and testing meet expectations. In particular, support client escalations and incident management on critical and urgent business issues.

• Develop and maintain internal dashboards and regulatory reporting tools. Ensure we have traceable, auditable processes that are inspection-ready for both internal and external stakeholders.

Data and Reporting

• Maintain governance records, audit trails, and product control artifacts.
• Develop and manage reporting dashboards to provide transparency into product compliance status, risks, and control effectiveness.

• Track regulatory developments and support impact analysis on the broader ESG/climate data product roadmap. Provide high-quality, timely reporting and updates on regulatory operational status and escalations.

Your skills and experience that will help you excel

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business, Law, Sustainability, Environmental Science, or a related field.
• Advanced qualifications (e.g., CFA, FRM, Sustainability/Climate certifications, regulatory compliance certifications (ICA, ACAMS, etc), Six Sigma / lean, project management) are advantageous.

• Extensive experience in a product governance, product management, consulting, compliance, or controls-related role - preferably within regulated financial services, credit ratings and/or ESG data/analytics. Demonstrated experience building operational frameworks in support of sustainability-related or financial data regulations.

• Knowledge of the investment industry, particularly how sustainability and climate data is used in asset management, index construction, risk management, and regulatory reporting.
• Familiarity with global sustainability regulatory regimes and frameworks (e.g., SFDR, CSRD, TCFD, TNFD, ISSB), and/or credit rating agency regulations, and experience of interacting with regulators.

Skills & Competencies

• Genuine passion for sustainability, responsible investing, and climate transition topics.
• Strong analytical and organizational skills with the ability to translate regulatory requirements into operational processes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to explain regulatory operations and controls concepts clearly to internal and external senior audiences.
• Attention to detail and a disciplined approach to documentation, governance, and process management.
• Experience working with enterprise systems, data platforms, and compliance reporting tools. Ability to define technical requirements for workflow automation.
• Experience operating across diverse geographies and regulatory regimes, with an adaptable, collaborative, and inclusive leadership style.

Proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, AI tools (ChatGPT) and governance platforms (e.g., Confluence, Jira, workflow management systems).

About MSCI

What we offer you

• Transparent compensation schemes and comprehensive employee benefits, tailored to your location, ensuring your financial security, health, and overall wellbeing.

• Flexible working arrangements, advanced technology, and collaborative workspaces.

• A culture of high performance and innovation where we experiment with new ideas and take responsibility for achieving results.

• A global network of talented colleagues, who inspire, support, and share their expertise to innovate and deliver for our clients.

• Global Orientation program to kickstart your journey, followed by access to our Learning@MSCI platform, LinkedIn Learning Pro and tailored learning opportunities for ongoing skills development.

• Multi-directional career paths that offer professional growth and development through new challenges, internal mobility and expanded roles.

• We actively nurture an environment that builds a sense of inclusion belonging and connection, including eight Employee Resource Groups. All Abilities, Asian Support Network, Black Leadership Network, Climate Action Network, Hola! MSCI, Pride & Allies, Women in Tech, and Women’s Leadership Forum.

At MSCI we are passionate about what we do, and we are inspired by our purpose – to power better investment decisions. You’ll be part of an industry-leading network of creative, curious, and entrepreneurial pioneers. This is a space where you can challenge yourself, set new standards and perform beyond expectations for yourself, our clients, and our industry.

MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 50 years of expertise in research, data, and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process.

MSCI Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. It is the policy of the firm to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, age, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, marital and civil partnership/union status, pregnancy (including unlawful discrimination on the basis of a legally protected parental leave), veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. MSCI is also committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities. If you are an individual with a disability and would like to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application process, please email Disability.Assistance@msci.com and indicate the specifics of the assistance needed. Please note, this e-mail is intended only for individuals who are requesting a reasonable workplace accommodation; it is not intended for other inquiries.

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