Senior Director, Product Owner (Chicago)

Senior Director, Product Owner  Platform Products in our Chicago Office.  

Fitch Solutions is a leading provider of insights, data and analytics. It informs investment strategies, strengthens risk management capabilities and helps identify strategic opportunities. Its analysts, lawyers, journalists and economists offer in-depth views on credit markets and risk, individual credits, ESG, developed and emerging markets, and industry sectors. Fitch Solutions is part of Fitch Group, a global leader in financial information services with operations in more than 30 countries. Fitch Group is owned by Hearst. 

By becoming part of the Fitch Solutions team, you will join colleagues delivering critical data, insightful research and comprehensive analytics that empower clients to make informed decisions. You will work in a dynamic environment where innovation is encouraged and collaboration is central to developing solutions that address the evolving needs of global markets. With a portfolio of best-in-class, award-winning brands, we offer the opportunity to advance your career while contributing to a company known for its expertise and commitment to excellence.  

About the Team 

Platform Products is responsible for building shared capabilities that can be leveraged across the organization. We operate a product-led model focused on identifying common business needs, building reusable solutions once and enabling business units to adopt them at scale. 

Our mission is to accelerate innovation, improve consistency and reduce duplication by delivering platform capabilities across Fitch Solutions. While business units focus on domain expertise and commercial differentiation, Platform Products develops the foundational capabilities that support them all. 

As Senior Director, Product Owner, you will be accountable for hands-on involvement in delivering a suite of platform products and capabilities and providing strategic leadership across a portfolio of platform capabilities. You will use your data and product experience to solve complex problems and build scalable solutions that create measurable value across multiple business areas. You will shape product vision and roadmaps, align senior stakeholders around priorities, and lead cross-functional teams.

How You’ll Make an Impact 

• Set the product vision, strategy and multi-year roadmap for a portfolio of shared platform capabilities, ensuring alignment with Fitch Solutions’ business priorities, client needs and technology strategy. 

• Build deep expertise in Fitch’s data, products, underlying architecture and integration points, and use that knowledge to guide investment decisions and platform evolution. 

• Own portfolio-level prioritization and product backlogs, balancing strategic initiatives, business demand, technical enablement, risk, scalability and measurable value. 

• Partner with executive leaders, Product Managers and business-unit stakeholders to translate strategic goals into clear outcomes, investment cases, epics and delivery plans. 

• Practice and promote a culture of establishing clear accountability, strong product practices and a culture of continuous improvement. 

• Manage cross-functional collaboration across engineering, architecture, data, AI, design, operations and business teams to deliver high-quality, reusable platform solutions. 

• Actively manage product and data governance that create transparency around priorities, dependencies, trade-offs, risks, timelines and outcomes. 

• Identify and resolve complex, cross-portfolio dependencies and delivery blockers, escalating and influencing effectively when executive decisions are required. 

• Drive stakeholder alignment across business domains, navigating competing priorities and building commitment to enterprise-wide platform adoption. 

• Define success measures and oversee product performance, adoption, client or user value, operational effectiveness and return on investment. 

• Sponsor validation, user acceptance and release readiness processes to ensure delivered capabilities meet business, control and quality expectations. 

• Champion disciplined product documentation, process flows, release communications and knowledge assets that support transparency, adoption and scalability. 

• Represent Platform Products in senior leadership discussions and communicate product strategy, progress, risks and outcomes with clarity and credibility. 

• Advance the product operating model by introducing practices that strengthen discovery, prioritization, delivery, measurement and cross-functional execution. 

You May Be a Good Fit If 

• You have 10+ years of experience in product ownership, product management, platform strategy or a related discipline, including significant leadership responsibility. 

• You have a strong data background, including but not limited to symbology, reference, equities, fixed income, structured and unstructured data.
• You have substantial experience in financial services, financial information, data and analytics, or another complex and highly regulated industry. 

• You have a proven record of delivering enterprise platforms or shared capabilities used across multiple business units. 
• You have practical experience applying AI, advanced analytics or automation to improve products, workflows or decision-making. 

• You have led and developed product professionals and can build high-performing, accountable teams in a matrixed organization. 

• You are skilled at influencing executives and aligning technical and business stakeholders around complex priorities and investment decisions. 

• You have strong knowledge of Agile and product-led delivery practices, with experience using tools such as Jira to support execution and transparency. 

• You have experience with data platforms, AI-enabled products, APIs, cloud-based capabilities or other technology-driven solutions. 

• You use data, client insight and business outcomes to guide prioritization and measure product success. 

• You have exceptional written and verbal communication skills and can translate complex concepts for technical, business and executive audiences. 

• You have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience. 

What Would Make You Stand Out 

• Demonstrated success translating enterprise strategy into scalable platform capabilities and measurable business outcomes. 

• A strong customer-centric mindset combined with sound commercial judgment and an enterprise-wide perspective. 

• Experience leading platform transformation, product operating model evolution or large-scale adoption across a global organization. 

• Knowledge of Fitch systems, products, data or client workflows. 

• Demonstrated initiative, intellectual curiosity and a commitment to continuous learning and talent development. 

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

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.

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. 

Expected base pay rates for the role will be between $190,000 and $230,000 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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