Assistant Deputy Superintendent For Climate Resilience

Preferred Qualifications

• A proven track record in getting diverse stakeholders to work together, being a connector and a facilitator with strong stakeholder management ability.
• Experience working with disadvantaged communities.
• An understanding of what systemic changes are needed to enable greater climate resilience.
• A proven track record in designing, leading, and implementing complex projects.
• Direct climate adaptation or resilience-related professional experience.
• Comfort in developing a new program without a blueprint.
• Strong willingness and patience to share your knowledge with others who may be novice in the field.
• An advanced degree is preferred.

• Ability to convey technical and scientific concepts in wording for a less-knowledgeable audience. • Meticulous in execution, attention to details.
Appointment method:
Candidates must meet the minimum qualifications listed below in order to be eligible for appointment.
Non-Competitive: A Bachelor’s Degree in accounting, actuarial sciences, auditing, banking, business, business administration, business and technology, commerce, computer information systems, computer science, consumer sciences, criminal justice, cyber security, econometrics, economics, finance, financial administration, health, health administration, information systems, information systems engineering, information technology, internal controls, international or public affairs, law, market analysis, mathematics, public administration, public policy, risk management, statistics, taxation, or technology and eight (8) years of financial services experience with: 1) a regulated entity who has a regional, national and/or international presence; or 2) a governmental regulatory entity. This experience must include practical and technical knowledge about State, federal and/or international financial services laws, rules and regulations. Three (3) years of the experience must have been at a managerial level.
Substitutions: A J.D. or a Master’s degree may substitute for one (1) year of specialized experience; and a Ph.D. may substitute for two (2) years of specialized experience.

Duties Description

The New York State Department of Financial Services seeks to build an equitable, transparent, and resilient financial system that benefits individuals and supports business. Through engagement, data-driven regulation and policy, and operational excellence, the Department and its employees are responsible for empowering consumers and protecting them from financial harm; ensuring the health of the entities we regulate; driving economic growth in New York through responsible innovation; and preserving the stability of the global financial system.
Overview of the Department of Financial Services and the Climate Division
The Department of Financial Services (DFS) supervises and regulates the activities of nearly 1,800 insurance companies with assets of over $5.5 trillion and more than 1,400 banking and other financial institutions with assets totaling more than $2.9 trillion. DFS has established itself as a national leader in climate-related financial supervision. It is the first U.S. financial regulator to establish expectations for banks and insurers on managing the financial risks from climate change and the first to issue detailed guidance for insurers on managing climate risks and opportunities.
The Climate Division was established in November 2021 to position DFS at the forefront of climate action in the financial sector, fulfilling DFS’s mandate to ensure the safety and soundness of its regulated entities as they manage the climate risks while supporting financial institutions’ role in advancing the low-carbon transition and enhancing communities’ resilience. The Climate Division works in collaboration with all divisions of DFS.
The Climate Division is seeking an Assistant Deputy Superintendent of Climate Resilience to lead the development of a new program to activate the financial service industry’s power to support climate resilience, with a focus on disadvantaged communities.
Job description
The recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighted the devastating impacts of climate change which are worse than anticipated and are fast outpacing our efforts to adapt. Climate change poses wide-ranging risks to the financial system and communities. Economically vulnerable communities, often minorities and communities of color, are particularly threatened with respect to physical devastation such as flooding. The financial service industry can play a positive role in supporting communities’ climate resilience, especially disadvantaged communities. DFS is in a unique position to activate such positive force of the financial service industry.
DFS is looking for someone who is keen to make an impact, resilient and persistent in the face of obstacles, understands the complexity of factors driving human/community decision making (which are beyond facts and monetary incentives) as well as the interaction of forces impacting community resilience, and strives to find solutions with benefits for communities, various levels of government, and the financial service industry where others stall.
Duties include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Participates in and contributes to relevant national and international networks;
• Stays abreast of trends in the intersect between climate resilience and the financial service industry and updates stakeholders and agency management on a periodic basis; and
• Represents DFS at public events and networks;
• Works with other state and federal agencies, state and local communities, and other diverse stakeholders to advance climate resilience, particularly via the Banking and Insurance industry;
• Is a resource and a champion to DFS regulated entities in their effort of supporting climate resilience;
• Works across the Banking, Insurance, Capital Markets, and Research and Innovation Divisions to identify the unique roles that DFS can play in promoting communities’ resilience, and to formulate, develop, and execute on a climate resilience program;
• Designs and implements interventions/partnerships that activate the financial service industry (insurers, banks, asset managers…) to enhance communities’ climate resilience, especially disadvantaged communities;
• Is a thought leader and positions DFS at the forefront of climate resilience;
• Other duties as assigned.

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