Manager, Project Finance

About Us Highland Electric Fleets is a comprehensive turnkey solutions provider that delivers electric school buses (EVSB) to school districts and third-party managed fleet providers (3PMs).

We offer a model involving financing, infrastructure, vehicle deployment, and maintenance in an easily digestible, economic format that enables EVSB acquisition at traditional diesel cost of ownership.

Our mission is to eliminate the barriers to better student health and cleaner air.

We aim to mitigate risk for our customers, increase EVSB market penetration, and deliver positive impacts across a broad spectrum of stakeholders: students, communities, school districts, fleet operators, manufacturers, and utilities.

Job Description:

The Manager / Senior Manager would support a team of Project Finance professionals who source, negotiate, and execute structured financings, including leases, construction financing, term debt, tax equity financing, and tax credit sales. The position requires an individual who thrives in a fast-paced, unstructured environment, constantly collaborating with various internal and external teams to meet transaction deadlines. The individual would ultimately be responsible for managing day-to-day negotiation and execution of these transactions and performing analyses on the market and our competitors to develop project-specific valuation methodologies.

Responsibilities:

Transaction Leadership:

• Lead various aspects of a project financing, including but not limited to: Due Diligence; Term Sheet and Transaction Document Negotiation; Consultant Reports (Independent Engineer, Appraisal/Cost Segregation, and Insurance); Dataroom Management; Project Closing activities
• Support and lead marketing of project capital structure to outside parties, interacting with project finance banks, tax equity investors, and infrastructure funds
• Preparation of applications and leading discussions or negotiations with governmental financing entities such as the Department of Energy or State Green Banks to provide unique capital to Highland’s projects
• Preparation and delivery of materials for Investment Committee review and approval

Project Analysis and Bankability:

• Comparison of financing proposals to understand structuring levers and the cost of capital
• Monitor the equipment finance markets for appropriate structuring techniques and pricing
• Prepare and explain capital structure sensitivities, becoming intimately familiar with the potential capital permutations and value levers
• Understand the various inputs to the model, working closely with cross-functional experts in various functional groups such as Origination and Fleet Operations
• Macroeconomic analysis, including impacts of tax law change, interest rate environments, and broader sector trends

Cross-Functional Support and Collaboration

• Support other functional areas in ways such as: Revenue Contract Negotiation; Grant applications; Design and Equipment Evaluation; Corporate FP&A Rollup analysis; Lease vs. Buy analysis

Other Responsibilities:

• Support transaction team in various approvals and committee review processes
• Credit analyses of potential customers and suppliers as needed
• Manage various tracker and tool updates and dissemination, as needed

Qualifications:

• Minimum ~5 years in Renewables/Power & Utilities, Finance, or Capital Markets, with an emphasis on leading, structuring and closing deals
• Previous investment banking, project finance banking, government financing, or similar experience
• Finance, economics, engineering, or similar degree
• Expert proficiency in Microsoft Office, especially Microsoft Excel, including experience with project financial modeling
• Candidates will be expected to provide and speak to a list of deals they have worked on
• Experience managing large projects with multiple stakeholders on tight timelines
• Ability to present complex information succinctly and efficiently to audiences internal and external, including financing counterparties