What are the responsibilities and job description for the Commercial Lender position at Northern Initiatives?
Company Description Northern Initiatives (NI) is a non-profit Community Development Financial Institution that provides access to capital, information and markets to advance and connect small businesses and their communities. Northern Initiatives supports entrepreneurs, businesses, manufacturing firms, banks, educational institutions, and non-profit organizations in a common effort to strengthen the economy of Michigan.
Role Description The Commercial Lender is responsible for developing and maintaining a portfolio of new and existing relationships in the assigned territory within Michigan. The Lender acts as the borrower’s advocate by recommending suitable credit products, guiding them through the loan underwriting and approval process, securing technical assistance, where appropriate, and providing periodic financial review and feedback. Commercial Lenders should be self-motivated, willing to travel within their assigned territory and have a passion for working with small businesses.
Must be based in Midland, Bay City, Saginaw or Flint, Michigan. This is hybrid work with frequent travel throughout the service area (Tri-Cities & Flint areas), occasional travel/in-person meetings within Michigan including the lower and upper peninsulas, and in-office/in-person time required as needed for business success.
Job Duties and Responsibilities This position will develop and maintain relationships with potential and current referral sources, with the primary goal of developing and growing the loan portfolio. It also provides appropriate due diligence and oversight to the existing portfolio to minimize loss.
Business Development and Customer Consulting
• Make new business development calls and follow up on referrals. This includes attending functions that business owners and referral partners typically attend.
• Interview and guide loan applicants through the loan application process.
• Respond to inquiries for information as requested by customers and applicants.
• Identify opportunities to provide technical assistance to borrowers.
• Refer customers to other Northern Initiatives’ staff and contract service providers as appropriate.
Due Diligence and Underwriting
• Conduct due diligence on loan applicants, analyze financial data in order to determine credit worthiness and capacity to repay and meet other requirements per the Loan Policy.
• Research industry and market sectors to understand applicant’s business industry, key risks and challenges.
• Present recommendation for loan approvals to the appropriate Loan Committee.
• Ensure documentation of all loans is compliant with the committee’s loan approval policy, as well as the regulations of Northern Initiatives’ funding agencies.
• Prepare loan memos, environmental assessments, and business valuations as applicable, consistent with NI’s Loan Policy.
• Lead or support loan closings and remain alert to indicators of fraud throughout the lending process. Monitoring and Collections
• Maintain regular contact with borrowers, review financial statements as required by loan agreements, properly document customer contact and proactively identify borrower’s future financial needs.
• Monitor all loans in the Lender’s portfolio to identify problem accounts, working with the Loan Asset Administrator and borrowers to develop an action plan to avoid delinquencies.
• Responsible for monitoring borrower risk ratings and adjusting when warranted.
• In regular contact with all Northern Initiatives staff, specifically the lending department and business services coaches, to fulfill critical duties within Northern Initiatives. Lender must maintain positive working relationships within the organization, as well as Board members.
• External contacts involve maintaining a relationship with customers (potential and existing), title companies, insurance companies, or bankers by discussing and resolving problems or gathering comments which could lead to proposing measures to enhance services and proactive solutions.
• Connections with outside sources to raise awareness about NI. These outside sources include customers, established partners (banks, economic development groups, etc.), prospective partners and donors, and community organizations.
Administrative Functions
• Coordinate and communicate with department staff to ensure loan customers’ technical assistance needs are met and tracked. Responsible for reporting as required.
• Assist with collection, tracking and reporting of loan metrics
• Assist with development of grants and completion of reports, as required by funders.
• Provide guidance to lenders and staff as needed.
• Attend and actively participate in all team meetings, staff meetings and culture trainings, Clifton StrengthsFinder, planning sessions, staff retreats and other virtual or in-person meetings as needed; follow NI’s Teams meeting expectations (being on camera, etc) for professional communication
• Represent Northern Initiatives in a professional manner
• This is not an exhaustive list of job responsibilities; all other duties as assigned and/or needed for business continuity.
Physical and Schedule Requirements
Meetings are virtual meeting via Teams or similar platform, or in-person at NI office or other meeting locations
• Long stretches of time are spent on computer work, typing, meetings and similar desk-based work
• Reliable team member with a consistent schedule and dependable for clients and team
• Have a distraction-free work environment for all remote work to ensure work consistency and a professional meeting environment
• Employee must have reliable internet access that they maintain for use throughout this position to ensure on-camera meetings, large file uploads, and other business needs are consistently met.
• Schedule is typically M-F, business hours similar to our financial partners, with occasional evenings or weekends for meetings, travel or other business needs
• Travel within Michigan twice per year for 1 week each for all staff retreats (usually May/June and late Sept/early Oct)
• Majority of meetings and work for this role are during business hours of the Eastern Time Zone
• Driving is necessary for this position, and the employee is responsible for coordinating their own transportation for work needs (expenses for this will be budgeted/approved ahead of time by the supervisor, and payment options will be planned or reimbursement available to the employee for those costs). Reasonable accommodations for travel/transportation will be considered through the interactive process.
• If driving for work purposes, employee must maintain a valid driver’s license and vehicle insurance. It is the employee’s responsibility to ensure that full coverage vehicle insurance is current and meets all state requirements. Northern Initiatives may ask at any time for a copy of employees’ drivers licenses and/or vehicle insurance for business purposes.
Experience Requirements
Years of Experience
Minimum 3 years of direct experience required; 4 years of direct experience preferred
• Bachelor degree required in Business, Finance, Economics or related field
• Bilingual (Spanish) preferred depending on territory/business services needed
Type of Experience
Minimum 3 years of experience in Commercial Lending/Banking
• Economic Development experience a plus
• Considerable previous experience required in same or similar positions
Send your resume & cover letter to careers@northerninitiatives.org