Head of Physical Risk and Geospatial RandD

Your Team Responsibilities

MSCI is seeking a visionary and entrepreneurial leader to head our Physical Risk & Geospatial R&D team. This role is central to defining the future of MSCI’s physical climate risk, nature risk and geospatial solutions — helping investors, banks, and insurers understand, manage, and act on the risks posed by a changing climate. We are looking for a market-facing innovator who can bridge the worlds of banking, insurance, and investing with climate science and geospatial technology. The ideal candidate will combine client fluency with technical credibility, guiding world-class specialists to deliver solutions that meet the evolving needs of financial institutions and regulators.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Client-Centered Vision: Define and champion MSCI’s strategy for physical risk and geospatial solutions, grounded in the real needs of banks, insurers, and investors.
• Product Innovation: Translate client use-cases and regulatory requirements into scalable, investment-relevant solutions. Roll up sleeves to help design and shape offerings that deliver measurable impact.
• Leadership: Inspire, mentor, and direct a high-performing team of climate scientists, geospatial data experts, and risk modelers, leveraging a strong bench of senior deputies.
• Thought Leadership: Represent MSCI as a senior voice with clients, regulators, and industry groups, shaping the market dialogue on physical climate risk.
• Execution & Growth: Oversee product development cycles, ensure data quality and usability, and pursue strategic partnerships that expand and strengthen MSCI’s offering.

Your skills and experience that will help you excel

• Market Experience: Deep experience working with banks or insurers on climate or geospatial financial risk — either in-house or as a vendor/consultant.
• Risk & Technical Fluency: Background in physical risk modeling, NatCat modeling, or exposure/vulnerability analytics; ability to lead geospatial and climate data experts credibly.
• Financial Acumen: Strong grasp of risk frameworks, economics of climate change, and regulatory expectations for financial institutions.
• Leadership Style: Entrepreneurial builder with proven ability to inspire experts, synthesize across teams, and deliver innovation at scale.
• Communication: Exceptional ability to engage with C-suite stakeholders and translate technical insights into financial impact.

Advanced degree in climate science, geospatial sciences, economics, risk management, or related field preferred.

About MSCI

What we offer you:

• Transparent compensation schemes and comprehensive employee benefits, tailored to your location, ensuring your financial security, health, and overall wellbeing.
• Flexible working arrangements, advanced technology, and collaborative workspaces.
• A culture of high performance and innovation where we experiment with new ideas and take responsibility for achieving results.
• A global network of talented colleagues, who inspire, support, and share their expertise to innovate and deliver for our clients.
• Global Orientation program to kickstart your journey, followed by access to our Learning@MSCI platform, LinkedIn Learning Pro and tailored learning opportunities for ongoing skills development.
• Multi-directional career paths that offer professional growth and development through new challenges, internal mobility and expanded roles.
• We actively nurture an environment that builds a sense of inclusion belonging and connection, including eight Employee Resource Groups.

At MSCI we are passionate about what we do, and we are inspired by our purpose – to power better investment decisions. You’ll be part of an industry-leading network of creative, curious, and entrepreneurial pioneers. This is a space where you can challenge yourself, set new standards and perform beyond expectations for yourself, our clients, and our industry.

MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 50 years of expertise in research, data, and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process.