SVP - Director of Research

Company
Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Senior Vice President & Director of Research
For consideration for this role, please apply via our search partners Spencer Stuart, by submitting your resume to: [email protected]
ABOUT THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF BOSTON
The Federal Reserve System (System) was founded by Congress in 1913 and serves as the central bank of the United States. Its fundamental mission is to foster the stability, integrity, and efficiency of the nation's monetary, financial, and payment systems to promote optimal economic performance.
As part of the nation's central bank, the Boston Reserve Bank promotes sound growth and financial stability in New England (Connecticut - except Fairfield County, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) and the nation. The Bank's unique contributions to its local communities, region, and the nation are founded on high-quality research and bank supervisory activities, excellence in supporting financial services and financial markets stability, leadership in payments innovation, and a commitment to supporting economic well-being in communities. The Bank holds several key System roles, including leading the Financial Support Office, which manages the System budget. The Bank also develops and leads innovative payments programs and played a central leadership role in the Federal Reserve's crisis responses both during the Great Financial Crisis (2008) and global pandemic (2020). The Bank is a thought leader and innovator in numerous areas. Among its most critical responsibilities:

• Conducting leading-edge research and education on monetary policy, financial markets and stability, and important regional and national economic concerns.
• Providing financial stability expertise through a deep knowledge of money markets and the institutions key to those markets.
• Conducting dynamic, comprehensive bank supervision through on-site examination and by monitoring banking conditions, practices, and emerging issues.
• Providing efficient, high-quality payments services for depository institutions.
• Transforming the nation's payments system by leading the development of the FedNowSM Service ("FedNow"), a real-time gross payments settlement system.
• Pursuing cooperative endeavors with business, community, and government leaders to address key local and regional economic issues, often with a focus on community development and economic opportunity.
• Supporting and improving economic outcomes for the broader community, particularly low- and moderate-income individuals. This commitment is reflected in our research on race and its link to economic well-being, our Working Places community development programs, and our initiative to improve the quality of low-wage jobs.
• Building institutional expertise and flexibility by identifying, engaging, and developing a highly trained and diverse staff.
• Providing leadership to System initiatives and interacting with other regulatory bodies and central banks.

The Bank is a business leader in Greater Boston and throughout the First District. We serve as an important business community advisor in areas of economic and workforce development. Our President and Bank leaders are engaged with numerous organizations that support the First District community, including professional associations and academic boards.
The Bank's approximately 1,300 employees are based mostly in the First District. Its annual budget in 2023 is over $400 million. We are proud of our strong organizational culture, which is built on our four core values: integrity, leadership, diversity and inclusion, and innovation.
The Bank's Research Division has approximately 80 employees including nearly 30 economists as well as research assistants, policy analysts, and administrative and support staff. It is organized into several functional sections including the New England Public Policy Center, which is focused on regional economic policy issues. The Research Division has a budget approaching $22 million.
Our diverse workforce and inclusive work environment respect and fully value our staff's individual strengths, including their different backgrounds, personalities, and thought processes. Diversity and inclusion work best together. Each day, we see how diverse perspectives ultimately yield more creative approaches and tangible outcomes for everyone. The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is committed to a diverse workforce and to providing equal employment opportunity to all persons without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, genetic information, disability, or military service.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (Bank) is seeking a strong leader for its Research Division. The ideal candidate will be an experienced executive with proven success in leading an economic research team, as well as designing and executing strategies within a complex organization and/or multiple functions within an organization. The candidate must possess the strengths, attributes, skills, and vision necessary to enhance the Bank's role as a thought leader and policymaker in the Federal Reserve System (System). In addition, the successful candidate must have a strong commitment to public service.
The Senior Vice President and Director of Research reports directly to the Bank's President and Chief Executive Officer and has several executives reporting to them. This person is a member of the Bank's Executive Committee, contributes to the formulation of overall organizational strategy and policy, and is involved at the highest level in Bank and System initiatives. They lead by example in support of the Bank's diversity agenda to create an inclusive and equitable environment in the Research Division and throughout the organization.
The Director of Research will provide strategic direction and leadership for all the division's research and policy priorities. They will shape the vision of a division that advances the Bank's mission through economic and monetary policy expertise, collaborative thought leadership, and path-breaking academic and policy contributions. The division's work will inform and influence Federal Open Market Committee policy, as well as the broader public discussion on a wide range of economic policy issues facing the System, the region, and the nation - thereby enhancing the Bank's reputation.
They will inspire and support a group of outstanding economists, policy and data analysts, research assistants, editors, librarians, and support staff. The Director will advance the division's inclusive culture of research excellence by recruiting, developing, and retaining diverse talent, while fostering personal and team networks across other leading academic and policy research institutions.
In addition to their core responsibilities, the Director of Research will have the opportunity to pursue their own research agenda.
The Boston Fed's President and Board of Directors are committed to maintaining the Bank's longstanding reputation as a center of empirical research and policy excellence, with a particular focus on economic issues central to the Federal Reserve's First District.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
The scope of the role includes, but is not limited to:
Advisor to the Bank President

• Ensure the Research Division supports the Bank President by providing high-quality economic policy advice and analysis, effective briefing materials, and materials for presentation.
• Serve as a thought partner to the President on key policy issues and strategy.
• Provide effective FOMC-related support, deepening understandings of economic conditions and developing substantive, insightful perspectives on policy options; attend FOMC meetings in Washington.
• Lead and support high-priority economic policy initiatives for the Bank; ensure that the Bank is focused on key economic policy issues that help it fulfill its mission and its role in the First District.
• Work with the Bank President, other subject matter contributors, and the Bank's public affairs team to ensure effective communications to stakeholders, including the public, on complex economic issues.
• Assist the President in supporting the Bank's Board of Directors in its policy-related responsibilities.

Research Division Leadership and Administration

• Build on the Bank's strong academic research tradition by fostering an innovative, collaborative, and inclusive environment that promotes cutting-edge research.
• Actively lead the recruitment, development, and retention of outstanding and diverse researchers.
• Engage the research team in the mission of the Bank and the System, maximizing the influence of the team's superb academic work on policy issues, and of policy issues to stimulate further impactful research by team members that results in publications and references in scholarly outlets such as peer-reviewed journals.
• Provide effective research support and input to a wide range of Bank efforts.
• Foster collaboration with other areas of the Bank to advance its mission (such as by working with the Reserve Bank's community development function on economic issues related to lower-income populations, with the banking supervision and regulation team on issues related to financial stability, and with public affairs on communicating complex economic issues to lay audiences).
• Possess a proven record of creating a compelling vision and establishing clear priorities for a complex organization; motivating, empowering, mentoring, and developing team members; effectively overseeing the management of administrative obligations, including multi-million budgets; ensuring the timely and successful delivery of individual and team priorities and commitments.

Strategic Leadership

• Actively participate in the Bank's executive leadership team, helping guide overall strategy and long- and short-term Bank priorities and operations.
• Lead inside the Bank through vision, presence, and citizenship.
• Mentor and support staff.
• Develop the diverse talent pipeline essential for the Bank's current and longer-term success.
• Lead by example in support of the Bank's diversity agenda, expecting accountability from oneself and others for the creation of an equitable, inclusive work environment.
• Build connections throughout the System to enhance the Bank's role as a thought leader; partner with key stakeholders to ensure alignment with System strategies and priorities.
• Enhance relationships with leading economic research institutions to ensure the Bank is aware of and can contribute to evolutions in thinking, especially related to monetary policy.
• Actively represent and promote the Bank's research and policy ideas in the public arena by making speeches, participating in media interviews, as well as hosting and contributing to conferences.

KEY REQUIREMENTS

• Ph.D. in economics.
• Deep interest in improving public policy and advancing the mission of the Federal Reserve System.
• Significant experience as a contributor in a policy environment, such as the Federal Reserve, U.S. Treasury Department, International Monetary Fund, or Council of Economic Advisers.
• Strong academic record of impact in economics, through publications and engagements.
• Proven ability to work collaboratively, with strong interpersonal and relationship-building skill.
• At least five years of leadership experience at a senior level; excellent managerial skills; experience leading Ph.D. economists, policy analysts, and support staff.
• Intellectual curiosity.
• Demonstrated commitment to fostering a culture of inclusion.
• Excellent written and verbal communicator; able to communicate effectively with all levels of the organization and across a range of external constituents; adept at public speaking before large audiences and with media.
• Leads with integrity, engendering respect.

Core CAPABILITIES
Economic Research Impact & Acumen
Recognized expertise in a one or more economic research areas. Demonstrated success developing, producing, and disseminating economic research in coordination with relevant stakeholders, across a breadth of issues. Able to draw conclusions from research and translate them into lessons for policy. Skilled at connecting policy insights to exciting research.
Strategic Acumen
A strategic thinker, able to use critical and innovative thinking to solve complex problems, identify exciting opportunities, and plan for the future.
Driving and Delivering Results
Able to motivate a team to deliver on ambitious, impactful goals within agreed upon timeframes. Identifies and acts on new approaches when they arise, enabling performance targets to be exceeded.
Collaborating & Influencing Skills
Demonstrated collaborative mind-set, both initiating and participating in partnerships. Engages effectively across all relevant stakeholder groups through empathy, compassion, and respect.
People Management
Effectively and inclusively hires, trains, and leads through empowerment and engagement. Motivates and inspires followership to achieve ambitious goals. Creates an inclusive, welcoming, and supportive environment.
Enterprise Leadership
Interest in understanding an organization's various functions and influencing the broader strategic direction. Appreciates the key internal and external environmental factors impacting the entire organization. Exhibits resolve to collaboratively work across silos to create an organization that is more than the sum of its parts.
OTHER REQUIREMENTS

• Eligibility for a top-secret-level security clearance which necessitates the candidate be a US Citizen.
• Residency in the First District within commuting distance of the office to manage a team with a frequent on-site presence.
• Willingness to travel, both domestically and internationally.

BENEFITS
The Bank provides comprehensive and highly competitive benefits.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace and to provide equal employment opportunities to all persons without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, genetic information, disability, or military service.
All employees assigned to this position will be subject to FBI fingerprint/ criminal background and Patriot Act/ Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) watch lists at least once every five years.
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work required of this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or skills associated with this position or the personnel so classified. While this job description is intended to be an accurate reflection of this position, management reserves the right to revise this or any job description at its discretion at any time.
ETHICS CONSIDERATIONS & PROHIBITED ACTIVITIES
It is indispensable to the proper functioning of, and the maintenance of public confidence in, the Federal Reserve, for the Bank and the System to function properly and maintain high public confidence, it is essential for every employee to perform his or her duties with honesty, integrity, and impartiality, without improper preferential treatment of any person or organization. Bank employees are subject to federal criminal statutes that prohibit financial conflicts of interest, e.g., an employee working on any matter in which he/she or certain affiliated parties has a financial interest. In addition, the Bank's code of conduct generally prohibits activities such as:

• Outside activities that are inconsistent with the employee's duties and responsibilities, e.g., holding a position as a director of a publicly traded company
• Certain partisan political activities, such as fundraising or holding partisan elected office

The Research Director is subject to stringent investment and trading rules detailed in the Federal Reserve Board's Investment and Trading Policy for FOMC Officials. Federal Open Market Committee-Investment and Trading Policy for FOMC Officials (federalreserve.gov)
For consideration for this role, please apply via our search partners Spencer Stuart, by submitting your resume to: [email protected]
Full Time / Part Time
Full time
Regular / Temporary
Regular
Job Exempt (Yes / No)
Yes
Job Category
Work Shift
First (United States of America)
The Federal Reserve Banks believe that diversity and inclusion among our employees is critical to our success as an organization, and we seek to recruit, develop and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool. The Federal Reserve Banks are committed to equal employment opportunity for employees and job applicants in compliance with applicable law and to an environment where employees are valued for their differences.
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