Head, Macro Systems & Foresight

Head, Macro Systems & Foresight

Location: London, UK, New York or Washington DC (preferred), with Charlottesville, VA or select US East Coast locations (GA, FL, NC) also considered.

Reports to: Managing Director, Research & Policy Center

CFA Institute is hiring a Head, Macro Systems & Foresight to lead a newly forming capability that helps the organization and the profession understand the structural forces reshaping global finance. You will examine how disruption transmits through markets, capital allocation, institutions, investment practice, professional roles, and standards; build scenario-based frameworks; and translate that work into internal decision support and high-quality external thought leadership across the Research & Policy Center.

What You'll Do

• Lead systematic analysis of the major structural disruptions reshaping finance, prioritizing material changes already affecting the industry while maintaining disciplined horizon scanning for emerging developments and distinguishing meaningful change from noise.
• Translate structural change into transmission mechanisms, questions, hypotheses, critical uncertainties, and plausible future states, and develop scenario frameworks exploring what alternative trajectories could mean for markets, investment practice, the profession, and CFA Institute.
• Partner with RPC functional leaders to stress-test research agendas, standards, guidance, advocacy positions, and other assets against structural change, identifying where assumptions may no longer hold, where relevance may weaken, what evidence is needed, and which changes in external conditions should trigger reassessment.
• Partner across RPC and relevant CFA Institute teams to ensure structural insights inform downstream research, standards, advocacy, practitioner guidance, regional application, and other relevant responses.
• Produce timely structural landscape assessments and executive-ready framing, alongside deeper analysis and high-quality external thought leadership, translating complex and uncertain developments into clear, decision-relevant conclusions, implications, and questions for further action.
• Engage and convene senior internal and external stakeholders to challenge assumptions, test emerging hypotheses, incorporate diverse perspectives, and sharpen the team's structural understanding.
• Represent CFA Institute credibly in senior industry forums and convenings where structural transformation and the future of finance are being debated.
• Lead, coach, and develop a small, specialized, multidisciplinary team, setting priorities, allocating work, integrating specialist perspectives around shared structural questions, and ensuring coherent, high-quality collective output.

What We're Looking For

• Deep expertise in foresight and systems thinking, demonstrated through macro foresight, structural macro analysis, long-horizon strategy, or related work.
• A strong track record of producing rigorous, decision-useful analytical outputs on a regular and disciplined basis, including published thought leadership and substantive work delivered to senior decision-makers.
• Proven experience constructing and stress-testing scenario frameworks for structural or regime change, identifying transmission mechanisms, critical uncertainties, assumptions, and the evidence needed to test them.
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing a high-performing multidisciplinary team, including setting direction, developing talent, allocating work, and integrating specialist expertise.
• Exceptional executive communication skills, with the ability to lead with conclusions and distill complex structural analysis and uncertainty into clear implications and recommendations appropriate to the audience.
• Strong understanding of global finance, capital markets, and investment practice, or demonstrated ability to lead and integrate specialist domain expertise effectively.
• Strong strategic judgment and systems thinking, with the ability to distinguish material structural change from noise and translate broad questions into clear priorities, workplans, and outputs.
• Strong cross-functional leadership, facilitation, and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to challenge constructively, build trust, and enable other teams to use foresight effectively.
• Demonstrated intellectual independence and disciplined judgment, including the willingness to challenge prevailing financial theories, institutional norms, and market conventions while remaining grounded in current market realities and observable evidence.