Fitch

Senior Director, Strategic Alliances

Fitch$225K — $275K *
Finance & Insurance
11 - 15 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 12+ years in commercial partnerships, corporate development, business development, or strategy within financial services or technology
  • Proven track record in structuring and closing complex deals, from inception to launch
  • Experienced in evaluating build/buy/partner strategies and structuring deal agreements
  • Ability to lead cross-functional teams to consensus
  • Strong communication skills for presenting insights to senior leadership
  • Self-directed and responsive; high quality and accuracy under pressure
  • Mature judgment to represent Fitch credibly with stakeholders

Responsibilities

  • Drive the ideation and execution of innovations through strategic alliances
  • Build and maintain a pipeline of alliance opportunities from various sources
  • Originate and assess opportunities based on strategic business needs and emerging markets
  • Evaluate strategic fits and lead the build/buy/partner analysis
  • Structure alliance and equity arrangements in partnership with relevant teams
  • Manage the entire alliance lifecycle with clear success metrics
  • Develop frameworks and playbooks to scale the strategic alliances function

Benefits

  • Hybrid work environment requiring 3 days in the office
  • Culture of continuous learning with training and mentorship programs
  • Retirement planning and tuition reimbursement options
  • Comprehensive healthcare options for overall wellbeing
  • Family-friendly policies, including generous parental leave
  • Collaborative work environment with inclusive Employee Resource Groups
  • Paid volunteer days and matched donations for community involvement
Full Job Description
Fitch Group is currently seeking a Senior Director, Strategic Alliances based out of our New York office.

This position reports to the Global Head of M&A and Venture Investments.

About the Team

The M&A and Venture Investments team identifies, evaluates, and executes Fitch's inorganic growth strategy globally across acquisitions, minority investments, and strategic alliances. Strategic Alliances (SA) is a newly formalized capability within the team, established to work with third parties on creating new capabilities and offerings that bring value to our customers and open new revenue streams for Fitch. SA works with external firms to co-create products or to integrate their capabilities, allowing Fitch to bring differentiated offerings to market. The M&A and Ventures team is a high-performing, entrepreneurial team that partners with internal and external stakeholders to grow the firm through inorganic strategies. Team members are expected to combine domain expertise with drive, proactivity, curiosity, agility, and maturity, enabling us to evaluate opportunities with precision, depth, and impact.

How You'll Make an Impact:

In this role, the Senior Director will drive the ideation and execution of product and workflow innovations through strategic alliances. Collaborating closely with alliance partners and internal teams, they will identify and pursue opportunities across Fitch's product portfolio, integrating external capabilities that strengthen existing offerings while also co-creating differentiated new products that address emerging customer needs. The position encompasses the full alliance lifecycle, from initial ideation and stakeholder engagement through negotiation, launch, and scaling.
  • Shape and drive SA as a distinct capability within M&A and Ventures, defining criteria, and building repeatable, low-risk / high-reward frameworks across two categories: co-creation and capability integration / white-label
  • Build and maintain a forward-looking pipeline of alliance opportunities, sourcing from M&A and Ventures prospects, Fitch's venture portfolio companies, and the broader external market
  • Originate and evaluate opportunities on two tracks: those that address prioritized needs on existing product roadmaps, working side-by-side with business, product, and commercial teams, and thesis-driven opportunities that surface white-space before it appears on any roadmap
  • Assess strategic fit and, in partnership with business, product, and commercial teams, facilitate the build / buy / partner trade-off evaluation, owning the readout and the quantitative and qualitative case that supports the recommendation
  • Structure alliance and equity arrangements - including joint ventures, warrants, and co-investment - and partner with the commercial team on commercial terms such as co-sell, licensing, and revenue share, in coordination with legal and finance
  • Run a stage-gated alliance lifecycle from identification and qualification through time-boxed pilots, commercialization, and scaling, measured against clear success metrics and requiring an accountable business sponsor at each stage
  • Develop the playbooks and repeatable frameworks that allow SA to scale beyond individual deals
  • Serve as the cross-functional bridge across M&A and Ventures, Business, Product, Commercial, Finance, and Legal, ensuring clear alliance ownership and alignment
  • Develop high-quality presentations, analyses, memos, and recommendations that provide clear insights and strategic value to senior leadership and stakeholders across the organization
  • Maintain deep competitive intelligence on peer partnership activity across financial information services in coordination with Corporate Strategy


You May be a Good Fit if:
  • 12+ years of experience across commercial partnerships, corporate development, business development, and / or strategy at a financial information services, data, or technology company
  • Demonstrated track record originating, structuring, and closing complex commercial and / or equity deals, from initial thesis through negotiation and launch
  • Experience evaluating build / buy / partner trade-offs and structuring deal terms such as co-sell, JV, licensing, revenue share, and warrants
  • Proven ability to lead cross-functional efforts and build consensus across business, product, commercial, and executive teams
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills, with the ability to deliver insight-driven recommendations to senior leadership
  • Proactive, self-directed, and responsive, with the ability to move quickly while maintaining a high level of quality and accuracy
  • High level of maturity and judgment, with the ability to represent Fitch credibly with internal and external stakeholders
  • A "performance athlete" who is flexible, thrives under pressure, and is motivated by a challenge


What Would Make You Stand Out:
  • Strong understanding of credit, capital markets, and the financial information services competitive landscape, including emerging data and technology players
  • A track record of commercializing venture or portfolio-company relationships into products
  • Proven ability to build a new function from an ambiguous, white-space mandate, turning it into repeatable playbooks and frameworks


Why Choose Fitch:
  • Hybrid Work Environment: 3 days a week in office required
  • 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

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 interest 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.

FOR NEW YORK ROLES ONLY: Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $225,000 $275,000 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.

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About Fitch

Fitch Ratings Inc. is a credit rating agency and a subsidiary of Fitch Group, which is owned by Hearst Corporation. Fitch Ratings is headquartered in New York City and London. The company was founded by John Knowles Fitch on December 24, 1913 in New York City as the Fitch Publishing Company. It merged with London-based IBCA Limited in December 1997. In 2000 Fitch acquired both Chicago-based Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co. (April) and Thomson BankWatch (December). Fitch Ratings is one of the three nationally recognized statistical rating organizations (NRSRO) designated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 1975, together with Moody's and Standard & Poor's.
Learn more about Fitch
Size
10,000 employees
Industry
Founded
1913

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