Corporate Development Associate

Job Title: Corporate Development Associate
Location: El Segundo, CA or Remote (preference for Pacific or Mountain time Zones, USA)
Start Date: Immediate
Compensation: $150k - $175k/year + annual performance bonus

ABOUT COAST

Coast is a rapidly growing commercial and industrial (“C&I”) solar energy firm. By offering innovative systems which provide dependable solar energy to commercial businesses, Coast is disrupting the way commercial building owners purchase electricity. 

Through the backing of its financial sponsor, Crosstimbers Capital Group, Coast expects to finance, develop, own, and operate $400+ million of commercial solar projects across the United States over the next several years. Coast owns the solar systems installed on the roofs of commercial buildings and sells solar electricity to building owners at a rate that is typically less than their current electricity provider. We are looking for talented, results-oriented, self-starters who will consistently deliver exceptional results to our customers and investors in pursuit of becoming the leading C&I solar provider in the United States.

COAST’S BELIEVES IN PEOPLE

We believe people should feel appreciated and part of a broader—mission-based organization—where their experience and talents are nurtured, and their full potential is realized. Coast seeks to cultivate a culture that enables talented individuals to thrive by autonomously utilizing their unique abilities and extraordinary work ethic within a highly collaborative environment that fosters innovation, creativity, and teamwork. We view it as one of our greatest responsibilities to enable, lead, and help individuals grow into the best versions of themselves. Our team shares a common vision of becoming the best version of ourselves and building the best company we can create, while transitioning our country to clean, renewable energy. 

EXPECTED OUTCOMES AND REQUIREMENTS

The Corporate Development Associate role facilitates continuous improvement in Coast Energy’s overall financial outcomes, supporting multiple facets of business and financial analysis across corporate finance, project finance and treasury.  The position will develop and/or improve existing financial models covering anticipated outcomes for all stakeholders, including the Company’s financial sponsor, debt providers, tax equity providers and others. The position will take lead in creating presentations for sponsors and the senior management team, playing a pivotal role in analyzing asset-level and corporate-wide performance in terms of backward-looking analysis (budget versus actual) as well as forward-looking scenario analysis. Responsibilities include:

Reporting:
Manage all reporting activity, including:

• All sponsor reporting, including board decks, monthly operations analysis and ad-hoc analysis.
• Coordinate the preparation and timely delivery of Investment committee memos to the management team and investment committee.
• Reporting to tax equity and debt providers as outlined in the section below.
• Senior management reporting and analysis in partnership with the senior management team.

Modeling & Analysis:  

• Maintain and improve Coast Energy’s “corporate model” to ensure proactive management of capital strategy and timing, including heightened transparency of capital needs from the Company’s sponsor(s).
• Develop and maintain various financial models at the corporate, sponsor, project and departmental level to empower better decision making. Reconcile project-level data housed in the Company’s SiteTracker platform against the Company’s ERP and live Excel portfolio analysis models.
• Drive improvements to the Company’s tax equity and related models in partnership with the CFO and other team members.
• Support the continuous improvement in project-level pricing models in collaboration with the originations pricing analyst team.
• Develop benchmarks and key performance indicators for financial and operating performance of the Company including enterprise valuation, budget-versus-actual reporting and other analyses.
• Ad hoc projects such as (i) supporting due diligence activities on multiple fronts; (ii) underwriting operating asset acquisitions, framing-up the Company view on a repower strategy from a financial underwriting perspective, energy storage systems, etc.

Treasury:

• Drive the optimization of the Company’s capital stack in collaboration with the CFO and other team members by developing smart strategies to reduce Coast Energy’s cost of capital.
• Manage liquidity planning, analysis and reporting. Proactively identify debt and tax equity financing gaps and critical timelines and strategies to bridge anticipated gaps in financing.
• Track and report timely debt and tax equity compliance.
• Timely create and execute sponsor equity capital calls and debt facility draws.
• Review, verify and execute the flow of funds for all equity/debt transactions in partnership with the CFO and other team members.
• Create and maintain models to facilitate the determination of future project spending and the reconciliation of actual project spending versus project budget.

Knowledge & Leadership:

• In collaboration with the other team members, ensure Coast Energy remains at the forefront of key industry developments affecting its business.
• Proactively research and participate in critical learning exercises, including listening/viewing relevant podcasts, interviews, earnings reports, industry announcements as well as reading analyst and research reports. Provide management with timely, concise and insightful notes of such “market learnings”.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• 3+ years experience as an associate at an investment bank or private equity firm focused on financial services, energy or similar 
• 3+ years of solar project finance experience; strong preference for experience in the commercial and industrial solar sector.
• Strong technical Excel modeling skills, including extended timeframe modeling of income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements.
• Flexible to work extended hours as needed to deliver projects on time.
• Detail-oriented with a high degree of accuracy.
• MBA and/or CFA preferred.