Sr Dir-Ind Practice Lead

At Moody's, we unite the brightest minds to turn today’s risks into tomorrow’s opportunities. We do this by striving to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome to be who they are-with the freedom to exchange ideas, think innovatively, and listen to each other and customers in meaningful ways. 

If you are excited about this opportunity but do not meet every single requirement, please apply! You still may be a great fit for this role or other open roles. We are seeking candidates who model our values: invest in every relationship, lead with curiosity, champion diverse perspectives, turn inputs into actions, and uphold trust through integrity. 

Global Industry Practice Group

The Global Industry Practice Group is comprised of practitioners, former regulators, and subject matter experts specializing in risk lifecycle and strategies, insurance risk solutions, AML / financial crime compliance and third-party due diligence, ESG, portfolio optimization strategies, stress testing, transfer pricing, credit analytics, commercial real estate and data solutions.

Senior Director, Government Security & Defense

The Senior Director, Government Security & Defense reports directly to the Head of Global Industry Practices. Is an expert in initiating and leading transformation in Intelligence and/or Defense organizations. Is a subject matter expert with responsibility to develop strategic plans, drive change and provide external oversight to high value client engagements. Provides direct support to the Head of Government Sales in Americas to develop business, accelerate sales cycles by leading customers through adoption of Moody’s capabilities, transformation potential and navigating public sector procurement process. Provides direct support to the Head of Government Global Industry Practice in identifying and capitalizing on growth opportunities, provides guidance on managing risk and resource allocation. Accountable for fostering a culture of continuous improvement, and positioning the organization as the recognized leader within the Law Enforcement, Criminal Intelligence, National Security or Defense space.

Key Responsibilities

The Senior Director, Government Security & Defense is responsible for establishing credibility and confidence in Moody's’ products and solutions with prospective clients; will facilitate solution architecture to address our customers use cases based on Moody’s existing, future and acquired solutions; will collaborate in the creation of new product offering, its value proposition and architecture, and facilitate market feedback using rapid learning approach to product development; and importantly, play a critical role in helping define and articulate the growth strategy for Moody’s in the global Government & Education segment with a specific focus on the Security sub-segment (Law Enforcement, Intelligence, National Security and Defense).

Will have an in-depth understanding of the Government life cycle - including firsthand experience or mastery of one or many of topics such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Visual Analytics, AML, Organized Crime, Financial Crime, Anti-Corruption and Anti-Terrorism.

Responsible for mapping Moody’s solution offerings to the Government/Security Segment challenges and initiatives, as well as collaborating with internal stakeholders such as product, research, advisory, and customer success teams to align Moody’s solutions to market challenges.

The Senior Director must lead our prospects and customer through adoption of Moody’s value proposition and solutions, help them navigate challenging procurement landscape. Must understand vendor and partner landscape and initiate product co-creation with partners as needed.

The Senior Director must communicate complex concepts effectively, interact confidently with senior government executives and industry experts and demonstrate strong people and persuasion skills. Expected to help build and maintain strong relationships with new and current clients by identifying gaps and recommending solutions leveraging market and technical knowledge.

Specifically, there are five areas the Senior Director will be responsible for:

• Leadership: Participate with senior leaders to establish strategic plans and objectives related to our growth plans for customer success and ongoing support; engage with other Moody’s departments to identify cross-cutting requirements that can be leveraged by public sector.
• Driving sales and customer engagement: identify potential sales prospects, lead discovery and qualification of sales opportunities, help accelerate Moody's value proposition adoption during sales cycle and engage with decision makers to develop and close business; design market outreach strategy (with sales, marketing and product management teams); engage with Moody’s public sector advisors and customer success managers to government customers; provide programmatic support to partner engagements, including selling with, selling through and building with partners; ensure feedback, RFIs, and RFPs are proactively collected, functional and technical requirements are extracted, and requirements are met and advertised in a timely manner; qualify and lead the Proof of Concept (POC) process in the sales cycle.
• Industry engagement & thought leadership: develop and maintain industry stakeholder relationships; speak at industry events; publish thought leadership; maintain social media engagement.
• Market feedback for product development: translate emerging market themes and regulatory requirements into product requirements to future proof our solutions; identify valuable white space; build business case for product development and improvement.
• Internal education: conduct training sessions on customer use cases, our solution set and emerging trends; serve as an informal coach and expert to product consultants, sales professionals and customer success teams.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 20 years of experience in the Government segment.
• Bachelor’s Degree required. Advanced degree in Data Science or exposure to Open-source intelligence (OSINT) methods and techniques as part of academic curriculum a plus.
• Hands-on experience using or implementing Moody’s OSINT tool (or any other competitor OSINT products) or any other products required for investigation or intelligence.
• Ability to travel up to 50%.
• Ability to work independently under minimal supervision.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills including the ability to listen to requirements and business problems in order to respond with the appropriate business answer.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a high-pressure, deadline-oriented environment.
• Demonstrated ability to influence and gain buy-in from skeptics.
• Public speaking experience, publications, and/or internal lead on training within an organization are a plus.
• Proven experience and understanding of complex government sales cycles is highly desirable.
• Possess a Top Secret with Sensitive Compartmented Access security clearance is highly desirable.

For US-based roles only: the anticipated hiring base salary range for this position is [[$190,000 - [[$250,000, depending on factors such as experience, education, level, skills, and location. This range is based on a full-time position. In addition to base salary, this role is eligible for incentive compensation. Moody’s also offers a competitive benefits package, including not but limited to medical, dental, vision, parental leave, paid time off, a 401(k) plan with employee and company contribution opportunities, life, disability, and accident insurance, a discounted employee stock purchase plan, and tuition reimbursement.

Moody’s is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, gender, age, religion, national origin, citizen status, marital status, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. Moody’s also provides reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities or based on a sincerely held religious belief in accordance with applicable laws. If you need to inquire about a reasonable accommodation, or need assistance with completing the application process, please email accommodations@moodys.com. This contact information is for accommodation requests only, and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.

For San Francisco positions, qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for employment consistent with the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

This position may be considered a promotional opportunity, pursuant to the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act.

Click here to view our full EEO policy statement. Click here for more information on your EEO rights under the law. Click here to view our Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination statement. Click here to view our Notice to New York City Applicants.
Candidates for Moody's Corporation may be asked to disclose securities holdings pursuant to Moody’s Policy for Securities Trading and the requirements of the position. Employment is contingent upon compliance with the Policy, including remediation of positions in those holdings as necessary.

For more information on the Securities Trading Program, please refer to the STP Quick Reference guide on ComplianceNet

Please note: STP categories are assigned by the hiring teams and are subject to change over the course of an employee’s tenure with Moody’s.