He knows and knows.Make sure the Director knows you want that job and will do great.
Then let him take care of the need for manager approval.
??????
Profit.
VP > Director. I make up 3 people worth of sales and am responsible for training new people (who are best performers and of which we have 4 starting in the next 2 months), no way the VP will give approval to move out of dept early.
Wait 5 months.
Profit.