Index Design R&D Team Manager, Director

OSTTRA•New York, NY

20h•$149,031 - $223,204

About The Position

S&P Dow Jones Indices is seeking an R&D Team Manager to lead R&D experts delivering index research, design, analysis, and scalable capabilities within the Equities & Digital Assets value stream. Reporting to the Head of Equities & Digital Assets Index Design, the manager translates value stream priorities into an executable team backlog and ensures consistent, timely delivery of index concepts, while providing subject matter expertise. This is primarily a people leadership role, responsible for hiring, developing, coaching, and performance-managing team members and fostering a high-performance culture grounded in disciplined execution, collaboration, and client focus. The manager balances hands-on technical and domain expertise with leadership, ensures adoption of agreed operating standards and agile practices, and drives continuous improvement in delivery quality. The role works closely with Product Management, Commercial, Index Engineering, and other functional partners to support collaboration and contribute technical expertise to internal and external engagements. Strong backlog ownership and team leadership support execution of the value stream strategy and delivery of differentiated, client-focused index solutions.

Requirements

At least 8 years of experience in R&D, portfolio/index design, or related technical roles.
At least 3 years of direct experience managing and developing people.
Extensive industry knowledge of impactful trends and future direction in core index, asset, wealth, and capital market industries.
Experience owning team backlogs and leading delivery in an agile or iterative operating model.
Experience supporting client or stakeholder engagements through technical expertise.
Advanced degree, MBA, or equivalent experience required.

Nice To Haves

CFA or PhD is desirable.

Responsibilities

Lead and contribute to the conceptualization, design, and analysis of new indices and scalable capabilities, personally driving the most complex or highest-risk work while coaching the team on most execution.
Serve as the team's technical escalation point and methodology coach, promoting analytical quality and innovation through reviews, mentoring, and selective hands-on work.
Seek customer feedback to understand needs and requirements and ensure end-to-end feature delivery.
Ensure team-level adoption of operating standards and agile practices established at the value stream level.
Build relationships across R&D, Product, and functional teams to promote collaboration and identify and support cross-product opportunities.
Partner with Commercial to deepen client and stakeholder relationships through R&D designs, capabilities, innovation, and best practices.
Resolve complex technical challenges and unblock delivery through expert analysis, design reviews, and hands-on problem solving.
Hire, onboard, and performance-manage team members.
Develop team members' skills and capabilities for effective performance.
Apply the day-to-day backlog prioritization and delivery process established by the Head of Equities & Digital Assets Index Design.
Own team backlog planning, prioritization, and refinement, translating value stream priorities into clear executable work and aligning with stakeholders.
Inspire and empower the team to deliver business outcomes against priorities and OKRs.
Set development and growth targets and lead performance assessments to support ongoing professional development.
Participate in value stream performance calibration to promote consistency, fairness, and alignment with enterprise standards.
Contribute technical expertise to internal and external engagements, including project-specific client discussions, in support of value stream objectives.