What are the responsibilities and job description for the Analyst, Underwriter position at Principal Financial Group?
What You'll Do
Principal Alternative Credit (Direct Lending) launched in 2020 and our team is still growing! Our success depends on the unique experiences, backgrounds, and talents of our employees – individually and all of us together. The Direct Lending team has a growth mindset that believes in developing the talents of all our employees. We welcome fresh perspectives and are looking for someone with the skills, work ethic and positive attitude to inspire change and help us through our next phase of growth. You will gain a ton of meaningful experience with a team that’s invested in your personal success.
We’ll help you build a successful career through:
Responsible for assisting in the due diligence, credit underwriting, execution, and portfolio monitoring of private debt investments. Assist in providing research insights and credit rating recommendations to support team members in making informed investment decisions. Analyst will assist underwriting team in their evaluation of new transactions and investment opportunities, aid in the development of detailed financial models and sensitivity analyses of borrowers and provide analytical support for investment committee materials. Analyst will aid in monitoring the active investment pipeline, preparing for weekly investment team meetings, assisting with marketing material preparation, and tracking business development activities.
Areas of focus include, but not limited to:
Salary ranges below reflect targeted base salaries. Non-sales positions have the opportunity to participate in a bonus program. Sales positions are eligible for sales incentives, and in some instances a bonus plan, whereby total compensation may far exceed base salary depending on individual performance. Actual compensation for all roles will be based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer.
Salary Range (Non-Exempt expressed as hourly; Exempt expressed as yearly)
$89300 - $152400 / year
Salary Details
The following locations are examples of market-specific salary ranges across the 3 locations:
Flexible Time Off (FTO) is provided to salaried (exempt) employees and provides the opportunity to take time away from the office with pay for vacation, personal or short-term illness. Employees don’t accrue a bank of time off under FTO and there is no set number of days provided.
Pension Eligible
No
Location(s)
We are only hiring for the Chicago IL, Des Moines IA, and New York NY offices at this time.
Work Environments
This role offers hybrid (blending at least three office days in a typical workweek) work arrangements.
Work Authorization/Sponsorship
At this time, we're not considering applicants that need any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States. This includes, but IS NOT LIMITED TO: F1-OPT, F1-CPT, H-1B, TN, L-1, J-1, etc. For additional information around work authorization needs please use the following links.
Nonimmigrant Workers and Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants
Investment Code of Ethics
For Principal Asset Management positions, you’ll need to follow an Investment Code of Ethics related to personal and business conduct as well as personal trading activities for you and members of your household. These same requirements may also apply to other positions across the organization.
Experience Principal
At Principal, we value connecting on both a personal and professional level. Together, we’re imagining a more purpose-led future for financial services – and that starts with you. Our success depends on the unique experiences, backgrounds, and talents of our employees. And we support our employees the same way we support our customers: with comprehensive, competitive benefit offerings crafted to protect their physical, financial, and social well-being. Check out our careers site to learn more about our purpose, values and benefits.
Principal is an Equal Opportunity Employer
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.
Posting Window
We will accept applications for 3 full days following the Original Posting Date, after which the posting may remain open or be removed based upon applications received. If we choose to post the job again, we will accept additional applications for at least 1 full day following the Most Recently Posted Date. Please submit applications in a timely manner as there is no guarantee the posting will be available beyond the applicable deadline.
Original Posting Date
6/2/2026
Most Recently Posted Date
6/2/2026
Principal uses artificial intelligence tools to assist in reviewing and evaluating job applications, fraud prevention, and candidate matching and comparisons. These AI tools support our human recruiters in the initial review process but do not make final hiring decisions without human involvement. By submitting your application, you acknowledge this use of AI in our recruitment process. Please review our Workforce (U.S.) Privacy Notice for more details on our practices and your data privacy rights.
Principal Alternative Credit (Direct Lending) launched in 2020 and our team is still growing! Our success depends on the unique experiences, backgrounds, and talents of our employees – individually and all of us together. The Direct Lending team has a growth mindset that believes in developing the talents of all our employees. We welcome fresh perspectives and are looking for someone with the skills, work ethic and positive attitude to inspire change and help us through our next phase of growth. You will gain a ton of meaningful experience with a team that’s invested in your personal success.
We’ll help you build a successful career through:
- Coaching from senior team members who are invested in your success.
- Promoting training and development opportunities that help you build new skills or take on additional responsibility.
- Providing resources and technology to help you work smarter, not harder.
- Providing you opportunities to volunteer, attend targeted networking events and through strategic introductions to expand your network inside and outside of Principal.
Responsible for assisting in the due diligence, credit underwriting, execution, and portfolio monitoring of private debt investments. Assist in providing research insights and credit rating recommendations to support team members in making informed investment decisions. Analyst will assist underwriting team in their evaluation of new transactions and investment opportunities, aid in the development of detailed financial models and sensitivity analyses of borrowers and provide analytical support for investment committee materials. Analyst will aid in monitoring the active investment pipeline, preparing for weekly investment team meetings, assisting with marketing material preparation, and tracking business development activities.
Areas of focus include, but not limited to:
- Work with assigned Underwriter and/or Sr. Underwriter on all transactions in assigned sector. Evaluate new transactions and investment opportunities, attend management presentations, review deal terms and credit agreements. Prepare written investment committee memorandum and presentations.
- Participate in key areas of due diligence, including business and quantitative analysis as well as industry and competitive research.
- Assist with development of detailed financial models and sensitivity analyses to assess performance scenarios and capital structure alternatives.
- Provide responses to basic inquiries from back office, origination, and marketing. Actively monitor portfolio company performance and report concerns related to underwriter/senior underwriter.
- Collaborate and consult with peers, colleagues, and managers to resolve issues as they arise and achieve goals.
- Participate in internal initiatives to ensure the business is well-managed and operates efficiently.
- Bachelor's degree in a technical field (i.e. finance, accounting, economics, statistics, engineering, data science, business analytics).
- Undergraduate GPA of 3.5 or above and progress towards CFA preferred.
- Background or experience in investment banking, leveraged finance, private debt or equity, and/or related transactional experience, preferred.
- Must be able to understand basic accounting principles and economic theory, interpret financial statements, and efficiently and effectively research, compile and analyze information.
- Excellent abilities in the areas of communication (verbal and written), time management, analytics and use of Excel required.
- Must be collaborative, able to build and maintain strong relationships, manage expectations, attend to details, multi-task and prioritize effectively.
- Keen sense of curiosity and open-minded thought process desired.
- This position may be subject to SEC restrictions on personal political contributions.
- Previous experience with Bloomberg preferred.
- Knowledge of financial markets and fixed income strategies, including general knowledge of bond mechanics and pricing calculations is preferred.
- Familiarity with database structures, big data techniques (i.e. Cassandra, Spark and Hadoop), and programming languages (i.e. Python, MATLAB, R) a plus.
- Previous internship in finance preferred.
Salary ranges below reflect targeted base salaries. Non-sales positions have the opportunity to participate in a bonus program. Sales positions are eligible for sales incentives, and in some instances a bonus plan, whereby total compensation may far exceed base salary depending on individual performance. Actual compensation for all roles will be based upon geographic location, work experience, education, licensure requirements and/or skill level and will be finalized at the time of offer.
Salary Range (Non-Exempt expressed as hourly; Exempt expressed as yearly)
$89300 - $152400 / year
Salary Details
The following locations are examples of market-specific salary ranges across the 3 locations:
- Des Moines, IA: $89,300 - 120,650 / year
- Chicago, IL: $103,400 - $139,700 / year
- New York, NY: $112,800 - 152,400 / year
Flexible Time Off (FTO) is provided to salaried (exempt) employees and provides the opportunity to take time away from the office with pay for vacation, personal or short-term illness. Employees don’t accrue a bank of time off under FTO and there is no set number of days provided.
Pension Eligible
No
Location(s)
We are only hiring for the Chicago IL, Des Moines IA, and New York NY offices at this time.
Work Environments
This role offers hybrid (blending at least three office days in a typical workweek) work arrangements.
Work Authorization/Sponsorship
At this time, we're not considering applicants that need any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States. This includes, but IS NOT LIMITED TO: F1-OPT, F1-CPT, H-1B, TN, L-1, J-1, etc. For additional information around work authorization needs please use the following links.
Nonimmigrant Workers and Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants
Investment Code of Ethics
For Principal Asset Management positions, you’ll need to follow an Investment Code of Ethics related to personal and business conduct as well as personal trading activities for you and members of your household. These same requirements may also apply to other positions across the organization.
Experience Principal
At Principal, we value connecting on both a personal and professional level. Together, we’re imagining a more purpose-led future for financial services – and that starts with you. Our success depends on the unique experiences, backgrounds, and talents of our employees. And we support our employees the same way we support our customers: with comprehensive, competitive benefit offerings crafted to protect their physical, financial, and social well-being. Check out our careers site to learn more about our purpose, values and benefits.
Principal is an Equal Opportunity Employer
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.
Posting Window
We will accept applications for 3 full days following the Original Posting Date, after which the posting may remain open or be removed based upon applications received. If we choose to post the job again, we will accept additional applications for at least 1 full day following the Most Recently Posted Date. Please submit applications in a timely manner as there is no guarantee the posting will be available beyond the applicable deadline.
Original Posting Date
6/2/2026
Most Recently Posted Date
6/2/2026
Principal uses artificial intelligence tools to assist in reviewing and evaluating job applications, fraud prevention, and candidate matching and comparisons. These AI tools support our human recruiters in the initial review process but do not make final hiring decisions without human involvement. By submitting your application, you acknowledge this use of AI in our recruitment process. Please review our Workforce (U.S.) Privacy Notice for more details on our practices and your data privacy rights.
Salary : $89,300 - $152,400