Research Data Products Sales Director

About the role

Morningstar, Inc., a leading global provider of independent investment research, is seeking an experienced sales professional to join Morningstar’s CRSP Research Data Products (RDP) business within the Indexes Group. The RDP suite is a market-leading source of research-quality historical market and returns data, trusted by more than 600 institutions across 35 countries. Clients include leading financial institutions, government agencies, and top-tier research universities.

Responsibilities

• Own and grow a commercial book of business across asset managers, hedge funds, trading firms, banks, and wealth platforms.
• Consistently meet and exceed revenue targets, with a focus on new sales, expansions, and repricing opportunities.
• Identify, qualify, and develop short-term opportunities and long-term strategic partnerships.
• Lead consultative sales conversations around data usage, licensing scope, and value intensity.
• Collaborate closely with Product, Legal, and Customer Success teams to structure optimal commercial solutions.
• Develop a strong understanding of client workflows, including data needs for research, portfolio construction, trading, risk, and analytics.
• Deliver compelling product demonstrations and clearly articulate the value of Morningstar RDP datasets.
• Maintain accurate pipeline management, forecasting, and activity tracking in CRM.
• Build trusted relationships with senior decision-makers, including PMs, quants, risk teams, and heads of research.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 5+ years’ experience in market data, index data, financial analytics, or adjacent data products.
• Willingness to travel up to 30%.

What You Will Bring

• Direct experience selling financial data, analytics, or market data to institutional clients (asset managers, hedge funds, banks, or trading firms).
• Demonstrated success closing new business and expansion deals in a quota-carrying role.
• Experience selling complex, data-driven solutions with non-standard pricing and licensing structures.
• Strong consultative selling skills with the ability to understand client use cases and translate them into commercial opportunities.
• Ability to engage credibly with sophisticated clients across research, investment, trading, and risk functions.
• Familiarity with data licensing models, enterprise agreements, or usage-based pricing.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to present technical concepts clearly and persuasively.
• Highly organized, proactive, and comfortable managing multiple opportunities simultaneously.