Financial Underwriter (Hybrid) at Summit in Washington, DC, USA

Job description

• Washington, DC-Based | Energy and Infrastructure Finance | 5–10 Years of Experience
• Summit is seeking an experienced Financial Underwriter with 5 to 10 years of experience to support federal energy and infrastructure finance work. This position is based in Washington, DC. The selected applicant will contribute to financing, underwriting, and analytical activities involving energy, utility, and infrastructure assets that support economic opportunity, system reliability, affordability, resiliency, and long-term community benefit.
• The work requires the ability to evaluate asset-level financial performance, borrower or sponsor capacity, cost reasonableness, operating assumptions, repayment capacity, and the strength of supporting documentation. Direct experience with project finance and/or municipal finance transactions is preferred.
• The strongest candidates will bring advanced financial judgment, mature underwriting discipline, strong technical writing skills, and the ability to evaluate complex asset and borrower information in a clear, well-documented, and defensible manner. Candidates should be comfortable assessing both quantitative financial indicators and qualitative considerations, including sponsor capacity, implementation risk, documentation quality, operating risk, reasonableness of assumptions, and alignment with stated financing objectives.

Responsibilities

• Lead or independently perform financial due diligence for energy, utility, and infrastructure assets, including renewable generation, battery energy storage, electric distribution and transmission systems, grid modernization assets, and related community-serving infrastructure.
• Review and interpret financial statements, operating statements, budgets, sources and uses of funds, debt schedules, capital expenditure plans, asset-level cost documentation, and other materials to assess applicant, borrower, or sponsor capacity.
• Evaluate the financial reasonableness of asset investments, including capital costs, financing structures, projected revenues, operating expenses, repayment capacity, reserve assumptions, useful life considerations, and long-term sustainability.
• Analyze borrower creditworthiness, liquidity, leverage, operating performance, cash flow, and ability to meet proposed financing obligations, including the ability to identify and explain material credit risks.
• Review loan, grant, credit, or financial assistance application materials for completeness, consistency, documentation quality, and alignment with applicable financing requirements.
• Identify documentation gaps, financial inconsistencies, unsupported assumptions, asset-level risks, borrower risks, and follow-up questions needed to support a complete underwriting review, and recommend practical paths for resolution.
• Assess complex financial and operational risks, including sponsor capacity, asset feasibility, construction or implementation considerations, operating assumptions, cost escalation risk, repayment risk, and adequacy of supporting documentation.
• Prepare client-ready underwriting narratives, financial summaries, risk assessments, issue papers, recommendation memoranda, and decision-support materials for both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Review the work of junior analysts or underwriters for accuracy, completeness, consistency, and clarity, and provide constructive feedback that improves the quality of underwriting deliverables.
• Monitor a review pipeline, prioritize competing assignments, and promptly support new submissions, revised materials, resubmittals, and client requests.
• Work in a team environment with other underwriters, business intelligence analysts, project managers, and client stakeholders to contribute to overall processing goals and consistent application review standards.
• Communicate analysis in oral and written formats to respond to immediate, short-term, and long-term client and colleague requests, including the ability to brief key risks, assumptions, and recommendations clearly.

Requirements

• A bachelor's degree in finance, accounting, economics, business, public policy, energy policy, engineering, or a similar program.
• Five to ten years of experience in financial underwriting, credit analysis, commercial lending, project finance, infrastructure finance, public finance, energy finance, federal loan or grant program support, or a similar analytical role.
• Demonstrated ability to independently evaluate complex financial statements, cash flow, credit risk, repayment capacity, financial ratios, asset-level budgets, and supporting documentation.
• Experience assessing capital budgets, financing assumptions, operating projections, sources and uses of funds, borrower or sponsor financial capacity, and the reasonableness of underlying assumptions.
• Working knowledge of energy, utility, or infrastructure asset considerations, such as capital cost drivers, operating costs, revenue assumptions, useful life, resiliency, maintenance needs, system reliability, and long-term financial sustainability.
• Ability to identify, document, and communicate material financial, credit, operational, implementation, and documentation risks in a clear and defensible manner.
• Advanced analytical and technical writing skills, including grammar, editing, and proofreading skills, to complete underwriting narratives, financial summaries, risk assessments, issue papers, and recommendation materials with limited revision.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint, including the ability to work with financial schedules, summarize quantitative results, and prepare polished written deliverables.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage multiple complex application reviews or underwriting assignments at the same time.
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues and clients and communicate effectively in technical and non-technical settings.
• Ability to exercise sound professional judgment, elevate issues appropriately, and support consistent underwriting practices across a portfolio of application reviews.
• Experience supporting federal lending, grant, credit, loan guarantee, or financial assistance programs, including application review, underwriting, credit assessment, or portfolio support.
• Familiarity with energy, utility, infrastructure, clean energy, electric cooperative, public power, Tribal, community-serving, or rural asset finance.
• Experience reviewing renewable generation, battery energy storage, electric distribution or transmission, grid modernization, utility system, or other infrastructure assets involving multiple funding sources, complex financing structures, or significant public-sector documentation requirements.
• Experience preparing or reviewing underwriting packages, credit memoranda, financial risk assessments, loan committee materials, recommendation memoranda, or client-facing decision-support materials.
• Ability to assess both quantitative financial metrics and qualitative asset risks, including applicant capacity, implementation risk, documentation quality, asset readiness, operating assumptions, reasonableness of costs, and long-term sustainability.
• Experience mentoring junior analysts or underwriters, reviewing analytical work products, or helping teams apply consistent underwriting standards.
• Familiarity with infrastructure or project finance concepts, including sources and uses of funds, capital stacks, debt service coverage, repayment capacity, operating projections, reserve assumptions, useful life considerations, and sensitivity analysis.
• Ability to translate complex financial, technical, and asset-level information into concise, client-ready narratives that support sound financing and program decisions.

Skills

Required

• Financial underwriting
• Credit analysis
• Commercial lending
• Project finance
• Infrastructure finance
• Public finance
• Energy finance
• Federal loan or grant program support
• Financial statement analysis
• Cash flow analysis
• Credit risk assessment
• Repayment capacity analysis