Associate, Project Finance

ABOUT AVANTUS

Avantus develops, owns, and operates utility-scale clean energy projects across California and the Desert Southwest. Our development pipeline represents one of the nation's largest portfolios of solar with integrated storage, capable of providing dispatchable power to 17 million Americans, day and night. With over a decade of industry leadership and strategic investment from KKR and EIG, Avantus delivers affordable, reliable clean energy solutions that meet America’s growing energy demand.

ABOUT THE POSITION

We are seeking a highly motivated and organized candidate for the Associate, Project Finance position. The successful candidate will demonstrate sound industry knowledge, superior communications, and detail-oriented organizational skills. 

The Associate would support a team of Project Finance professionals who source, negotiate, and execute project sales and structured financings, including whole or partial cash equity sales, construction financing, back leverage debt, and tax equity financing. The position requires an individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment, constantly collaborating with various internal and external teams to meet project and transaction deadlines. The individual would ultimately be responsible for supporting day-to-day execution of these transactions and performing analysis on the market and investors to develop project-specific valuations and economic sensitivities.  

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

Project Valuation and Modeling:  

• Able to work independently and collaboratively with a cross-functional team. 
• Own every aspect of the project financial model for both mid-stage and late-stage development assets, including significant time working on project offtake bidding and structuring. 
• Monitor the debt, tax equity, and cash equity markets for appropriate valuation techniques and pricing 
• Prepare and explain capital structure sensitivities, becoming intimately familiar with the potential capital permutations and value levers  
• Understand the various development, construction, and operational inputs to the model, working closely with cross-functional experts in various functional groups such as Origination, Land Acquisition, Development, Construction, Engineering/Optimization, Storage, Interconnection, etc. 

Transaction Support:

• Support (and eventually lead) various aspects of a project sale and financing, including but not limited to:  
• Due Diligence
• Process Timelines 
• Data room Management  
• Term Sheet and Transaction Document Support  
• Market/Transmission Reports 
• Appraisal and Cost Segregation Reports 
• Insurance Consultant Reports  
• Project Closing activities
• Support Project Finance lead on marketing of project capital structure to outside parties, interacting with lenders, tax equity investors, infrastructure funds, and strategic buyers
• Preparation and delivery of materials for Investment Committee and Risk Committee review and approval  

Transaction Monitoring:  

• Support projects that are in construction or operational and financed by Avantus, including construction loan draws, refinancing activities, consent processes, financing document compliance, and modeling 
• Apply learnings from closed financial transactions and Avantus’ operational project portfolio to revise financial underwriting assumptions for development asset modeling and pricing  

Marketing Analysis: 

• Macroeconomic analysis, including impacts of tax law change, interest rate environments, and broader sector trends 
• Monitoring of the power markets, including structured energy transactions, to help ensure project finance ability and valuation  

Cross-Functional Support and Collaboration: 

• Support other functional areas in ways such as: 
  • PPA Pricing and Finance ability analysis
  • Design/Engineering Optimization  
  • EPC and O&M Contract Negotiations  
  • Corporate FP&A Rollup analysis  
  • Lease vs. Buy analysis  

Other Responsibilities:  

• Support transaction team in various approval stage-gate and committee review processes 
• Manage various tracker and tool updates and dissemination, as needed  

REQUIRED SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum 1-2 years of project finance, corporate finance, or investment banking experience in renewable energy or similar industry
• Familiarity with project finance structures, including tax monetization, tax credit financing, construction financing, and back-leverage; 
• Demonstrated ability to work with cross-functional teams, including managing the financial, legal, and internal review 
• Strong communication skills with proven track record in building relationships and working in cross-functional collaborative teams
• Comfortable working in a fast-moving and dynamic environment 
• Familiary with various discounted cash flow analysis, including pre-tax, after-tax, unlevered, and levered returns 

NICE TO HAVES

• Experience creating project marketing materials, including teasers, CIMs, and managing data rooms
• Demonstrated ability to bring closure to complex and high value business transactions under tight timeframes; investment banking experience a plus 

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