Associate Director - Sovereign & International Public Finance Ratings, Madrid

S&P Global; Madrid; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health care coverage

Flexible downtime

Continuous learning

Retirement planning

Family-friendly perks

Job summary

S&P Global Ratings in Madrid seeks an experienced public finance analyst to own a portfolio of sovereign and regional government credits. You will conduct site visits, lead surveillance, and present rating recommendations to committees with well-evidenced analysis.

Responsibilities include coaching junior staff, coordinating workflow, and ensuring rigorous methodology while leveraging approved AI tools. Travel within Europe may be required.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in public finance analysis or related field.
• Proven credit portfolio management with minimal supervision.
• Strong writing and oral communication for committees.
• Experience embedding AI tools with governance and validation.
• May involve travel across Europe for meetings.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end credit analysis for sovereign and public finance credits.
• Coach junior analysts and oversee portfolio workflows.
• Engage with issuers and investors to translate research into market narratives.
• Ensure rigorous methodology, confidentiality, and data governance.

Skills

Public finance analysis

Credit portfolio management

Organizational skills

Written and verbal communication

Generative AI tools experience

Process standardization / automation

Spanish fluency

English fluency

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree or CFA (valued)

Job description

About the Role:

Grade Level (for internal use):

12

About the Role

S&P Global Ratings' Sovereign and International Public Finance (Sov/IPF) team delivers independent credit analysis across ratings in Western and Southern Europe and Western Africa, covering sovereign, regional, and local governments and related entities. Based in Madrid, you will take analytical ownership of a portfolio covering local and regional governments and government-related entities across Spain and other European countries — conducting site visits, leading timely rating surveillance, and presenting well-evidenced rating recommendations to credit committees. This is a high-impact role at the intersection of public finance, macroeconomics, and market intelligence, with strong potential to shape how investors and policymakers understand European public sector creditworthiness.

What You'll Do

Impact

You will contribute to independent credit opinions that markets, governments, and investors around the world depend on. Your analytical work will maintain the rigor and consistency of S&P Global's sovereign and public finance ratings, your stakeholder engagement will strengthen S&P Global's credibility across Europe, and your coaching of junior analysts will help build the lasting capability that sustains excellence across the team.

Responsibilities

Team Contribution & Capability Building

• Act as a senior reference for junior analysts, coaching on credit fundamentals, financial modeling, data quality, and responsible AI use; coordinate portfolio workflows, proactively manage capacity and quality risks, and drive continuous improvement through refined processes and the governed rollout of new tools.

Core Analytical & Delivery

• Lead end-to-end credit analysis across a defined portfolio of sovereign and public finance credits, conducting site visits, leading surveillance, and presenting rating recommendations to credit committees with clear reasoning and validated evidence.
• Use approved generative AI tools to accelerate research, comparisons, and drafting, maintaining rigorous validation and full accountability for all analytical outputs.

Stakeholder & Market Engagement

• Translate complex, data-informed research into market-facing narratives for issuers, investors, and market participants; build trusted stakeholder relationships and contribute to thought leadership with senior team input.

Risk Management & Operations

• Maintain strict adherence to methodology, confidentiality, and data governance in a highly regulated environment; elevate emerging risks early and embed responsible AI practices throughout all workflows.

What We're Looking For

Required Skills and Experience

• Extensive experience in public finance analysis or a related analytical field, with strong skills in comparative economic and financial analysis, public policy, and financial markets.
• Proven credit portfolio management skills, with a track record of delivering high-quality outputs with limited oversight and experience developing junior analysts through structured feedback and quality review.
• Strong organizational skills, meticulous attention to detail, and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a regulated analytical environment.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills for committee-ready documentation and senior-level engagement with issuers, investors, and market participants.
• Practical experience embedding generative AI or large language model tools into analytical workflows, with disciplined governance, validation, and responsible use.
• A continuous improvement mindset, with experience simplifying processes through standardization, tooling, or automation.
• Spanish: Fluent (able to conduct meetings, collaborate effectively, and communicate clearly in writing and verbally) — Required.
• English: Fluent (able to conduct meetings, collaborate effectively, and communicate clearly in writing and verbally) — Required.

Preferred or Helpful Experience

• An S&P Global employee at this level would typically have 5 to 10 years of relevant experience in public finance, sovereign credit analysis, or a related analytical field.
• Education: Bachelor's degree or equivalent required. A master's degree or professional certification (such as CFA) is highly valued. We welcome candidates from traditional finance disciplines as well as diverse academic backgrounds that support innovative and critical thinking.
• Italian and/or French: Professional working proficiency (able to communicate clearly at work in everyday situations and write professional messages) — Preferred.
• Willingness to travel within Europe for in-person meetings with issuers and stakeholders.

Additional Information

• We require all candidates who reach the final stage of our interview process to attend at least one in-person interview, which is ordinarily at your nearest S&P Global Ratings office. This must be completed before we can proceed to an offer.
• Employees are required to work from the office a minimum of two days per week.

About S&P Global Ratings

At S&P Global Ratings, our analyst-driven credit ratings, research, and sustainable finance opinions provide critical insights that are essential to translating complexity into clarity so market participants can uncover opportunities and make decisions with conviction. By bringing transparency to the market through high-quality independent opinions on creditworthiness, we enable growth across a wide variety of organizations, including businesses, governments, and institutions.

S&P Global Ratings is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI). S&P Global is the world’s foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help many of the world’s leading organizations navigate the economic landscape so they can plan for tomorrow, today.

For more information, visit www.spglobal.com/ratings

What’s In It For You?

Our Mission:

Advancing Essential Intelligence.

Our People:

We're more than 35,000 strong worldwide—so we're able to understand nuances while having a broad perspective. Our team is driven by curiosity and a shared belief that Essential Intelligence can help build a more prosperous future for us all.From finding new ways to measure sustainability to analyzing energy transition across the supply chain to building workflow solutions that make it easy to tap into insight and apply it. We are changing the way people see things and empowering them to make an impact on the world we live in. We’re committed to a more equitable future and to helping our customers find new, sustainable ways of doing business. Join us and help create the critical insights that truly make a difference.

Our Values:

Integrity, Discovery, Partnership

Benefits:

We take care of you, so you cantake care of business. We care about our people. That’s why we provide everything you—and your career—need to thrive at S&P Global.

Our benefits include:

• Health & Wellness: Health care coverage designed for the mind and body.
• Flexible Downtime: Generous time off helps keep you energized for your time on.
• Continuous Learning: Access a wealth of resources to grow your career and learn valuable new skills.
• Invest in Your Future: Secure your financial future through competitive pay, retirement planning, a continuing education program with a company-matched student loan contribution, and financial wellness programs.
• Family Friendly Perks: It’s not just about you. S&P Global has perks for your partners and little ones, too, with some best-in class benefits for families.
• Beyond the Basics: From retail discounts to referral incentive awards—small perks can make a big difference.

For more information on benefits by country visit: https://spgbenefits.com/benefit-summaries

Global Hiring and Opportunity at S&P Global:

At S&P Global, we are committed to fostering a connected andengaged workplace where all individuals have access to opportunities based on their skills, experience, and contributions. Our hiring practices emphasize fairness, transparency, and merit, ensuring that we attract and retain top talent. By valuing different perspectives and promoting a culture of respect and collaboration, we drive innovation and power global markets.

S&P Global has a Securities Disclosure and Trading Policy (“the Policy”) that seeks to mitigate conflicts of interest by monitoring and placing restrictions on personal securities holding and trading. The Policy is designed to promote compliance with global regulations. In some Divisions, pursuant to the Policy’s requirements, candidates at S&P Global may be asked to disclose securities holdings. Some roles may include a trading prohibition and remediation of positions when there is an effective or potential conflict of interest. Employment at S&P Global is contingent upon compliance with the Policy.

S&P Global is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race/ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, marital status, military veteran status, unemployment status, or any other status protected by law. Only electronic job submissions will be considered for employment.

If you need an accommodation during the application process due to a disability, please send an email to: [e-mail] and your request will be forwarded to the appropriate person.

US Candidates Only: Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal