Director, Financial Sponsors Coverage

About the role

The Director, Financial Sponsors Coverage will be a senior member of the Americas Financial Sponsors Coverage team, supporting the origination, execution, and ongoing management of strategic client relationships across financial sponsors, sovereign wealth funds, and sponsor-backed portfolio companies. The role is designed for a commercially minded banker with strong Corporate Finance, Structured Finance and/or Leveraged Finance experience who can operate as a developing Coverage Banker / Global Account Manager, with increasing ownership of client relationships and revenue delivery over time.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the execution of the Americas Financial Sponsors strategy, aligned to the global Financial Sponsors and CIB strategic agenda.
• Develop a clear understanding of priority sponsor clients, sovereign wealth funds and portfolio-company opportunities across the Americas and inbound network corridors.
• Contribute market intelligence, client insight and transaction feedback to help shape client prioritization, account planning and origination strategy.
• Help identify differentiated opportunities across the Bank’s footprint markets, balancing growth ambitions with capital discipline, risk appetite and return requirements.
• Own and actively manage a defined portfolio of sponsor, sovereign wealth fund, inbound and portfolio-company relationships, including selected smaller client names and new-to-bank prospects.
• Act as secondary coverage lead on larger strategic Financial Sponsors relationships, supporting senior Coverage Bankers / Global Account Managers with origination, client engagement, execution and follow-up.
• Drive pipeline development for priority opportunities across leveraged and acquisition finance, infrastructure and project finance, fund finance, structured credit, Global Markets, Transaction Banking and other relevant products.
• Partner with Product, Risk, Credit, Client Management and network Coverage teams to deliver coordinated, multi-product solutions to clients.
• Support delivery of revenue, returns, risk-weighted asset efficiency and wallet-share objectives for the assigned portfolio and broader Americas Sponsors business.
• Build and maintain trusted client relationships across investment, financing, treasury and portfolio-management stakeholders within sponsor organizations and related entities.
• Lead or support structured client engagement, including account planning, client strategy sessions, senior meeting preparation, pitch development and post-meeting follow-up.
• Translate client objectives into actionable product opportunities, ensuring Product partners are engaged early and that coverage activity is coordinated across regions and business lines.
• Maintain high-quality client materials, call reports, relationship plans and opportunity tracking to support consistent execution and senior management visibility.
• Originate and support execution of financing and advisory opportunities across the Financial Sponsors franchise, including new-to-bank names and portfolio-company situations.
• Provide end-to-end transaction support, including client research, financial analysis, pitch development, internal approvals, credit documentation coordination, limit loading, fee letter coordination and drawdown support.
• Apply strong credit, structuring and financial analysis skills to assess client opportunities, financing structures, risk-adjusted returns and investment suitability.
• Coordinate across Coverage, Product, Credit, Legal, Compliance and Operations to ensure transactions are executed efficiently, safely and in line with Bank standards.
• Track market, competitor and client activity to help position the Bank’s value proposition effectively with sponsor clients.
• Proactively manage assigned client relationships and portfolio exposures to optimize limit utilization, revenue generation, returns and risk-adjusted outcomes.
• Partner with Credit Analysts and Risk colleagues to monitor client performance, covenant compliance, early warning indicators and emerging credit concerns.
• Support portfolio reviews, client strategy reviews and risk discussions, ensuring clear articulation of business rationale, client strategy, exposure profile and risk mitigants.
• Ensure all activity is conducted within approved risk appetite, internal policies, regulatory requirements and relevant governance standards.
• Support disciplined execution of the account planning process, including preparation, documentation, follow-up and stakeholder coordination.
• Maintain strong information flow across client teams, Product partners, network Coverage teams and functional stakeholders.
• Ensure client data, pipeline information, call reports and internal records are accurate, timely and fit for management review.
• Identify process improvements that reduce friction, improve execution quality and increase client-facing capacity for the Coverage team.
• Build strong working relationships across Coverage, Product, Client Management, Credit, Risk, Legal, Compliance, Operations and network teams.
• Act as a role model for junior colleagues by demonstrating commercial ownership, strong execution discipline, sound judgement and high standards of conduct.
• Share knowledge and best practices across the team, including coaching Analysts, Associates, Interns and Graduates where appropriate.
• Contribute to an inclusive, collaborative and high-performance team culture.

Skills and Experience

• Strong Corporate Finance, Structured Finance, Leveraged Finance, Infrastructure Finance, Fund Finance or Financial Sponsors coverage experience.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze complex financing situations, financial statements, capital structures, credit risks and transaction economics.
• Strong understanding of banking products relevant to sponsor clients, including lending, capital markets, Global Markets, Transaction Banking and risk management solutions.
• Ability to build trusted client relationships and operate credibly with senior internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong origination mindset, commercial judgement and ability to identify actionable opportunities from client dialogue and market activity.
• Strong execution discipline, including the ability to coordinate complex transactions across multiple teams, geographies and approval processes.
• Sound understanding of risk management, regulatory requirements, conduct standards and financial crime controls relevant to institutional banking.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to produce high-quality client materials and concise senior management updates.
• Strong financial modelling, credit analysis, presentation and project-management skills.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent; advanced degree or relevant professional qualification preferred.
• Significant relevant experience in Corporate Finance, Structured Finance, Leveraged Finance, Financial Sponsors Coverage, Investment Banking or a comparable client-facing institutional banking role.
• International banking experience and experience working across regions, products and matrixed teams strongly preferred.