Consultant, Capital Access Focus

Northspan Group, Inc.; Duluth (MN); On-site; USD 72,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off (PTO)

Parking allowance

Cell phone reimbursement

SEP retirement plan

Wellness benefit

Job summary

Northspan Group, Inc. is seeking an experienced Consultant focused on Capital Access to help Indigenous communities access capital through underwriting, loan packaging, and business valuation.

You will engage with Tribal nations across Northeast Minnesota and Northwest Wisconsin, leveraging relationships to support entrepreneurial clients. The role emphasizes a rare mix of technical underwriting and strong cultural fluency, with opportunities to develop finance skills on the job and contribute

Qualifications

• Requires 5+ years of progressively responsible experience in banking, underwriting, finance, business, accounting, consulting, analytics, or economic development.
• Preference for candidates with relationships and cultural understanding of Native Nations.
• Financial and underwriting skills are important and teachable; strong relationship-building with Tribal communities is essential.

Responsibilities

• Assist clients with access to resources and underwriting for loan funds.
• Research client organizations and industries; conduct interviews, focus groups, and workshops.
• Analyze data, develop hypotheses, and present recommendations to decision makers.
• Build and maintain relationships with Tribal governments and Indigenous-owned businesses.
• Support Northspan's DAWN program by engaging with entrepreneurial clients across the region.

Skills

Banking experience

Underwriting

Finance

Business analysis

Accounting

Consulting

Statistics/Analytics

Community development

MBA or higher

Tribal relations

Education

Bachelor's degree in business

MBA or higher

Tools

Microsoft Word

Excel

PowerPoint

Forms

Outlook

Zoom

Monday.com

Survey Monkey

LinkedIn

Job description

Position: Consultant, Capital Access Focus

Status: Full Time

Reports to: Vice President

FLSA: Exempt, Open to Full or Part Time Flexibility

Join our team! Northspan is seeking a Consultant with experience working in and with Indigenous communities and Native Nations, along with a background in underwriting and financial analysis. We recognize this is a distinctive combination of skills and if you bring deep relationships and cultural fluency with Tribal communities but are still building your technical finance background, we still want to hear from you.

This position will focus on Capital Access, including underwriting, loan and grant packaging, and business valuation, while also supporting Northspan's DAWN (Driving Access to Wealth & Networks) program by building relationships with entrepreneurial clients and Indigenous communities across Northeast Minnesota and Northwest Wisconsin, including the following Native Nations:

• Bois Forte Band of Chippewa
• Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe
• Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe
• Red Lake Nation
• Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa
• Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa

We are an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering systems that provide voice and opportunity for all, especially for those most marginalized in our society. We strongly encourage applications from those marginalized by society and/or who are members of marginalized communities.

JOB DESCRIPTION

If you are an ambitious business school graduate, advanced degree holder, or experienced professional with underwriting and financial analysis experience who also brings relationships with and cultural understanding of Native Nations, we want to work with you. We know few candidates will check every box. Technical underwriting and financial skills can be developed on the job. The trust, relationships, and cultural competency required to work effectively with Tribal communities cannot be built quickly and are essential to how we do this work well. If you bring the latter, we encourage you to apply even if your finance background is still developing.

Every day is different, but here's a sample of what you can expect to experience and accomplish:

• Work with businesses to help them access resources and assist clients with the creation of and underwriting for loan funds to support businesses.
• Research the client's organization and industry, including interviewing, conducting focus groups and facilitating workshops with client employees, management teams and other stakeholders
• Identify issues, develop hypotheses, and execute analysis, translating data into meaningful insights and presenting recommendations to key decision makers
• Move the client to action with a plan to implement the strategic recommendations and manage the execution
• Build and maintain relationships with Tribal governments, Indigenous-led organizations, and Native-owned businesses across the region

Consultant Major Roles, Responsibilities, and Essential Duties

PROJECT & CLIENT MANAGEMENT & DEVELOPMENT

Northspan Management, Support & Coordination

• Formatting, preparing, coordinating, proofreading, and editing contracts, proposals, reports, applications, and other documents
• Mentors and supports associate consultants

Northspan Consultants co-manage and develop skills across three areas of work: forming connections, building capacity, and accessing capital. While this position focuses on accessing capital, consultants can also build skills and support Northspan work across all areas found here: https://www.northspan.org/expertise/

III. Qualifications and Skills

A note on qualifications: This role requires a rare combination of technical and relational expertise. While we value both, we prioritize candidates with genuine, established relationships and experience working with Tribal governments and Indigenous communities. Financial and underwriting skills are important and teachable. The trust and cultural fluency needed to do this work will take much longer to develop. We encourage candidates who are strong in the relationship-building and community engagement side, even without a traditional finance background, to apply.

SKILLS OF INTEREST

We require a combination of skills below. Given the nature of this role, we place particular weight on demonstrated relationships and experience with Tribal communities and economic development; we are able to support growth in technical underwriting and financial analysis skills over time.

• We require 5+ years' of progressively responsible experience in relevant fields such as banking, underwriting, finance, business, accounting, consulting, statistics/analytics, community or economic development AND/OR that you hold a business degree (i.e., management, economics, finance, marketing, accounting, or other business field) and/or a Master of Business Administration (MBA) or higher business degree from an accredited college or university.
• Experience related to underwriting loans
• Experience working in and with Indigenous communities, including Tribal governments, in areas of community engagement and economic development
• Apply basic accounting principles in the interpretation of customer financial statements
• Combination of analytical, decision making, and interpersonal skills
• Interact with public and private clients and present technical information precisely and clearly
• Ability to work as a part of a team and under minimal supervision
• Good problem-solving ability and organization skills
• Good analytical, numerical, and research skills
• Microsoft Office 365 Suite including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Forms, and Outlook, and video conferencing (Zoom)
• Ability to prioritize and organize a daily workload
• Must be able to meet deadlines in a fast-paced quickly changing environment
• A proactive approach to problem-solving with strong decision-making skills
• Professional level verbal and written communications skills
• Timely, detailed, and process oriented
• This position requires access to a vehicle for travel to Tribal communities and partner meetings across the region
• Monday.com CRM and Survey Monkey, which are regularly used in our organization
• Digital social platforms including LinkedIn
• Interest in becoming a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA)

Other duties may be assigned to this position periodically as required by company need.

COMPENSATION

• Salary negotiable range $72,000 – $85,000, based on experience
• Northspan pays 85% of the health premium cost for single or family coverage
• Northspan pays 100% for your single or family dental, 100% of your short- and long-term disability, and 100% of the premium for life insurance in an amount equal to your salary
• In recognition of the diverse heritage of each employee and to support an inclusive workplace, full-time employees have seventeen (17) PTO days or 136 hours to use each year, to be used at the employee's discretion. PTO can be used for office closed holidays, Earned Sick and Safe Time (ESST), a mental health day, or a personal day off. PTO will be prorated for part time employees, based on hours scheduled to work. In compliance with Minnesota's ESST regulations, employees have at least one hour for every 30 hours worked, up to 48 hours of PTO per year. Unused PTO does not carry over from year-to-year and will not be paid upon separation of employment.
• A monthly parking reimbursement of up to $80.00 per month
• A monthly cell phone reimbursement of up to $80.00 per month
• Northspan contributes 7% of your full-time annual pay to a SEP Retirement Plan
• A Wellness Benefit reimbursement of up to $400 per calendar year
• Vacation benefit accrual rate per full pay period of 4.5 hours, there are 24 pay periods a year which equals about 13.5 days (this is based on 40 hours, it is pro-rated for less than 40 hours). After your first year of employment this increases to 6 hours/pay period or 18 days/year.