Director - Credit

National Equity Fund; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Comprehensive benefits package

Job summary

National Equity Fund, Inc. (NEF) seeks a Director of Credit in Chicago to lead credit reviews for LIHTC projects, analyze sponsor and guarantor entities, and support bid approvals across 200+ projects per year.

You will collaborate with Project Management, Originations, and Investor Relations to ensure timely and accurate analysis. The ideal candidate has 5+ years in underwriting/structuring real estate deals, with knowledge of Section 42, strong Excel skills, and excellent written/verbal

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, real estate, or business; Master’s degree desirable.
• At least 5 years experience in underwriting and/or structuring real estate projects including credit analysis.
• Specific knowledge of Section 42 projects required.
• Experience in financial analysis of real estate developers.
• Excel spreadsheet experience required.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and ability to work in a team-oriented environment.

Responsibilities

• Conduct initial credit reviews of LIHTC projects as part of a bid review process.
• Analyze operating budgets, market assumptions, services, subsidies, and rehab scope prior to bid approval.
• Participate in credit reviews for NEF non-LIHTC investments (solar, preservation loans, etc.).
• Utilize NEF’s database system to request information and coordinate responses.
• Coordinate with Investor Relations, Originations, and Credit to prepare bids for timely launch.
• Work with Modeling Managers to troubleshoot technical issues in bid reviews.
• Evaluate prior NEF history with developers to assess terms and reasonableness.
• Review underwriting exceptions with the Chief Credit Officer and authorize investments.
• Prepare detailed launch memos with approved terms and language.
• Help formalize bid review analyses for terms and underwriting considerations.

Skills

Excel

Financial analysis

Credit analysis

Education

Bachelor’s degree in accounting/finance/real estate/business

Tools

MS Excel

Job description

Job Details: Job Location: Corp. Office - Chicago, IL - Chicago, IL 60661, Position Type: Full Time, Education Level: 4 Year Degree, Job Category: Real Estate, National Equity Fund, Inc. (NEF), a leading non-profit syndicator of low-income housing tax credits (LIHTC), is seeking a Director of Credit to conduct a wide range of new business initiatives. The LIHTC program is the most important resource available today for creating affordable housing in the United States. NEF uses its extensive experience, talent, and resources to create sustainable affordable housing.

The Director of Credit will play a key role in approving NEF bids for 200+ LIHTC projects/year, as part the NEF Credit team. Provide in-depth written and verbal analysis of sponsor and guarantor entities in a consistent manner that provides clarity in determining approval of LIHTC projects. Work in a collaborative team environment with Project Management, Originations, and Investor Relations departments.

Essential duties

• Responsible for initial credit review of proposed LIHTC projects as part of a dynamic, interactive bid review process. Credit review will include an analysis of project-level underwriting criteria, sponsor and guarantor capacity analysis, investor-specific requirements and deal-specific characteristics to determine critical questions to be raised and addressed prior to bid approval.
• Analysis of project-level underwriting criteria will include proposed operating expense budgets, market assumptions, required services and tenant targeting, subsidy programs, and rehabilitation scope of work, as well as other project-specific information, prior to bid approval.
• Participate in initial credit review for investments via NEF’s non-LIHTC businesses, including solar credit investments, preservation loans, preservation equity and other business lines.
• Utilize NEF’s database system during bid review process to request additional information and coordinate internal responses and signoffs.
• Take initiative to coordinate outside of the database system, when necessary, with Investor Relations, Originations, and Credit to facilitate review of a project for bid and ensure projects can be ready to launch in a timely manner.
• Work concurrently with Modeling Managers to troubleshoot technical issues for projects going through bid review.
• For each bid, evaluate previous NEF history with the developer to determine reasonableness of deal terms proposed by originator for the bid.
• Work with manager and Chief Credit Officer to review underwriting exception requests and determine reasonableness of investments prior to authorizing.
• Provide detailed launch memo for each bid with approved terms and language.
• Work on formalizing the bid review analyses, including deal-specific, developer-specific, and investor-specific terms and underwriting considerations.
• Other duties as assigned.

The ideal candidate

• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, real estate, or business; Master’s Degree desirable.
• At least 5 years experience in underwriting and/or structuring real estate projects including credit analysis. Specific knowledge of Section 42 projects required.
• Experience in financial analysis of real estate developers.
• Ability to produce accurate and timely information by self-reviewing work and meeting defined time deadlines.
• Ability to exercise initiative, mature judgment, and work as a strong team player within a collaborative process. Ability to work effectively under time-critical conditions.
• Significant Excel spreadsheet experience required.
• Must have excellent verbal and written communication skills and ability to work in a team-oriented environment

We offer a competitive salary, along with a comprehensive benefits package.

NEF IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER