Director, Project Debt & Portfolio Controlling

RWE Clean Energy, LLC
To start as soon as possible, full time, permanent

Functional area: Finance / Controlling
Remuneration: Exempt

At RWE Clean Energy (RWECE), utility-scale renewable energy assets are financed via external project financing, specifically traditional term loans (debt financing), tax equity financing, and/or joint-venture partnerships.  These financings are a key contributor to RWECE’s growth and financial objectives allowing RWECE to monetize federal tax incentives for renewable energy assets and to continue to invest in and build new assets. 

The management of RWECE’s debt financings include complying with all debt-related agreements, ensuring debt service is timely paid, managing debt service coverage ratios, and overseeing relationships with admin, depositary, and collateral agents. The management of RWECE’s tax equity financings and joint-venture partnerships include handover of the financing and agreements from RWECE’s deal team, complying with all financing and partnership agreements, managing investor returns and partnership flip dates, oversight of operating cash flow and calculation of cash distributions, serving as main point of contact to investors and partners.
  
The Director, Project Debt & Portfolio Controlling's primary responsibility will be ownership of RWECE’s debt financings, ensuring payment of debt service, compliance with all contractual obligations, and day-to-day collaboration with the Project Debt Manager as their Team Lead. The Director will serve in a supporting capacity on tax equity financings and joint-venture partnerships, including evaluation of tax equity buyouts, standardization of buyout models and presentation materials, participate in calls with tax equity investors and/or joint-venture partners, support tax credit transfers, amendments to Key Project Documents, monthly cash distributions, and special projects as needed. The ideal candidate will need to have an understanding of commercial and operational topics for renewable energy assets, effectively collaborate and facilitate discussions with external and internal stakeholder groups such as Asset Management, Legal, Tax, Accounting, Structured Finance and maintain strong relationships with external stakeholders.

Role Responsibilities:

• Project Debt: 
  • Responsibility for administration of debt finance agreements to ensure compliance with contractual obligations
  • Ownership of monthly withdrawal certificate process required under Debt and Depositary Agreements
  • Responsibility for payment of quarterly debt principal, interest, letter of credit, and swap invoices, including understanding of how they are calculated so that all debt services invoices can be validated
  • Oversight and coordination of cash flow forecasts to ensure appropriate funding for operating expenses, debt service payments and owner cash distributions
  • Responsibility for quarterly debt service coverage ratio calculations
  • Build rapport with lenders to maintain positive working relationships and ability and willingness to work together to resolve any potential challenges
  • Analyze and review data, aggregate and provide reports and information to third parties per contractual requirements
  • Support future potential project debt origination (e.g. data collection / analysis, contract review, model review) and make recommendations around debt pre-payments
  • Respond to internal and external inquiries that impact financing contracts
• Tax Equity & Joint-Venture Partnerships:
  • Administer tax equity finance and joint-venture partnership agreements to ensure compliance with contractual obligations
  • Review materials for and participate on calls with tax equity investors and joint-venture partners to discuss project-level operational and financial performance and commercial issues
  • Evaluation of tax equity buyout transactions including standardization of buyout financial model and presentation materials
  • Support tax credit transfers including LLCA amendments, deliverables to buyers and distribution of proceeds
  • Review of monthly cash distributions
  • Support team on asset-specific commercial and operational performance topics
  • Coordinate responses to questions from external financing parties in a timely and professional manner
• Continuous process improvement: Process mapping and supporting potential improvement opportunities, documentation, model standardization and improvements
• Other ad hoc duties as assigned (i.e. special projects, analytical support)

Job Requirements and Experiences:

• BA / BS degree in Finance / Accounting / Economics / Business or related fields
• Minimum 10 years of overall professional work experience, of which 6+ years of experience in project finance, tax equity, term loans/debt financing, or loan servicing
• Experience in banking or treasury a plus
• Strong leadership and communication, and ability to meet deadlines
• Is detail-oriented, well-organized, has strong business acumen, and a sound understanding of business concepts
• Strong interest in finance and understanding of financing agreements
• Moderate to advanced Excel skills and ability to accurately synthesize data, create models
• Able to understand and summarize contractual terms and obligations
• Excellent interpersonal skills required to interact and collaborate with a wide variety of internal and external stakeholders in a professional manner
• Strong attention to detail, ability to learn quickly and problem-solving mentality
• Continuous process improvement mindset
• Capable of working in a fast-paced environment and quickly adapting to changing priorities
   

Pay range: The annual base salary range for this position in Illinois is $157,000 - $235,000. The listed salary range represents our good faith estimate for this position and represents the range for new hire salaries across all U.S locations. Please note that the salary information is a general guideline only. RWE considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate’s education & work experience, training & certifications, and key skills as well as market and business considerations at the time of the offer.

Benefits offered: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, 401(k) match, Flexible Spending Accounts, EAP, Education Assistance, Parental Leave, Paid time off, and Holidays. Eligible employees also participate in short-term incentives, in addition to salary.

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Any questions? Contact HR: rwece_recruiting@rwe.com

We look forward to meeting you. Of course, you can find us on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Xing, too.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

RWE Clean Energy is one of the biggest names in the US renewables industry – and No.2 in solar. With a 1,500-strong team, the business has over 15 years’ experience of developing, constructing and operating renewable energy facilities, and ambitious plans for the future.

As part of the RWE Group’s Growing Green strategy to expand globally its green portfolio to more than 65 GW of installed capacity and to invest globally more than EUR 55 billion gross by 2030, RWE Clean Energy is determined to significantly increase its operating asset base in the U.S. This is backed by a project pipeline of more than 24 GW in onshore wind, solar and battery storage which provides for one of the largest development platforms in the United States.

Every project brings constantly-evolving technical, practical and social challenges – and drives a culture where everybody thrives, has fun and feels excited by each day. Our financial stability also means you’ll have the freedom to act with conviction and courage as we pivot to new technologies – and continuously improve, together.