(Senior) Vice President of Lending

Housing Accelerator Fund

Position : Lending Role - Vice President / Senior Vice President

Current Location : Hybrid - 1-2 days / wk in SF office

Full JD : Website :

Website : Who We Are :

Who We Are :

HAF is an innovative nonprofit lender and Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI). Established in 2017 by the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, we create public-private partnerships and leverage private, philanthropic, and public capital to stem displacement of low-income and working families and accelerate the production of new affordable housing across the Bay Area.

The Role :

We’re looking for a new team member to play a leading role in new, high-impact affordable housing transactions. That means everything from early-stage conversations with borrowers and feasibility assessments to creative deal structuring and loan closings.

Position title, and specific responsibilities will be determined based on an individual’s background and experience.

You’re a great fit for the role if you :

• Have 5-15 years of experience in a lending / finance or real estate role
• Have demonstrated interest in addressing the Bay Area’s housing affordability and homelessness crisis
• Possess analytical skills and the ability to complete detail-focused quantitative work on deadline
• Excel in a highly collaborative, entrepreneurial environment
• Have excellent facility with Microsoft Excel and demonstrated skill with general real estate and affordable housing project proformas and underwriting
• Are experienced at analyzing and mitigating credit risk from both a capital structuring and real estate development perspective
• Have proven success as a resourceful self-starter comfortable working in a start-up environment
• Are able to coordinate multiple projects at once and execute critical-path project management
• Are passionate about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging and committed to embedding equity in how we work with our borrowers and the types of projects that we finance

We know that there is a skills gaps in the affordable housing sector, and we want to help train the next generation of affordable housing leaders.

If you don’t meet all of the job description requirements but are passionate about our mission, we still strongly encourage you to apply.

In the hiring process, we can speak to the professional development resources we can offer to support your growth.

The Work :

Lending and Investing - New Transactions (70%)

• Loan Originations
• Underwriting and closing loans to developers for acquisition, new construction, or rehabilitation of affordable housing developments.
• Perform feasibility analyses of early-stage financing requests
• Guide borrowers through underwriting and due diligence processes
• Structure capital solutions for projects maximizing the impact of HAF’s lending products for our borrowers
• Prepare development and financing budgets with borrowers and negotiating permanent takeout funding with private and public sector providers
• Underwrite sponsors’ financial and organizational capacities
• Prepare and present Credit Memoranda for HAF’s internal Credit Committee, Investment Committee, and / or Board of Directors to gain approval for new funding
• Provide guidance to Associate Loan Manager during the loan closing process, including on closing checklist and due diligence, loan documentation, and coordination with borrowers, legal counsel, other financing partners, and title / escrow officers
• Coordinate with external partners and lenders, such as local government staff, private banks and CDFIs
• Lending Operations
• Contribute to the refinement of HAF’s lending policies and procedures to support HAF’s growth as a high-impact, regional lender
• Coordinate with the HAF portfolio management team to ensure proper hand-off of projects for loan monitoring and compliance
• Maintain internal systems and databases related to loan pipeline and projects in underwriting
• Participate in and support the quarterly Loan Risk Rating process in preparation of quarterly loan reviews
• Mentor junior level lending staff and interns regarding lending practices

Remaining 30% of role will depend on the candidate and may include :

• Analyze real estate market trends to inform policy and investment decisions
• Model expansion of HAF’s affordable housing lending products or replication to new markets
• Financial modeling of new programs that leverage new opportunities in land use changes, new funding streams, and the emergence of new funding partners and / or borrowers
• Project management of cross functional initiatives and special projects

Our Values & Personality :

Mission-driven, collaborative, & optimistic. Above all, we believe everyone has a role to play in addressing our affordability crisis.

Our sense of shared responsibility drives us to bring new collaborators into this work, and to center cross-sector partnerships in all that we do.

Bold, nimble, & relentlessly solutions-oriented . We are creative and entrepreneurial, always looking for new ways to continuously improve.

We successfully innovate because we take smart risks that leverage our expertise, relationships, and resources. On our small team, we all wear many hats, and are ready to stretch ourselves and lend a hand to collectively make an impact.

Learning, unlearning, & disrupting towards equity . Our team has diverse backgrounds, but

we’re all drawn to work by a commitment to housing equity and justice. We know that housing outcomes in the Bay Area are both a cause and effect of racist wealth inequality.

We seek to drive change on a person level, project level, and system level. As such, we're actively learning and unlearning within our organization about how systems and structures allow for change that supports individuals and communities farthest from opportunity.

Of Note :

• While our primary scope of work has focused on the City of San Francisco, we are actively expanding to the broader Bay Area and we encourage candidates who bring knowledge of affordable housing in the broader Bay Area to apply.
• We are an Equal Opportunity Employer. HAF is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage and seek applications from women-identifying individuals, BIPOC, multilingual and multicultural individuals, as well as members of the LGBT+ communities.
• Our benefits package includes comprehensive, employee-selected insurance coverage (medical, dental, vision, life); 100% coverage for employees and 50%-80% for dependent coverage;
• a 401(k) plan with employer match; generous PTO beginning at 18 days plus paid holidays; cell phone, internet, and fitness stipends;

FSA & Commuter Savings accounts, and more.

What the Role Looks Like :

First Week

Get to know your teammates and external partners; we’ll go on a walkthrough of current portfolio projects as well as projects in active underwriting so you can see your impact up close.

Within A Month

You are up to speed on our underwriting guidelines and process and are underwriting your first project. You and your manager will develop a road map of 6-month and 12-month goals, with defined resources to support you.

With your manager, you will define the focus areas and a workplan for the 30% portion of your role.

Within Three Months

You have fielded your first new loan request and are moving the loan through due diligence. And, you have closed your first loan in partnership with your teammates.

Based on your experience closing your first loan, you have identified lending operations systems refinements and improvements and present your early findings and recommendations to the rest of the team for feedback and implementation.

For your focus areas, you will present your early findings to the rest of the team and coordinate internal and external staffing assignments as needed.

Within Six Months

You closed two more loans and have worked on a variety of projects in SF and the Bay Area. For your focus areas, you will have made tangible progress and will produce key deliverables (e.

g. pilot of new loan product, new borrower partnerships, written report) to the lending and investing team.

Within One Year

Depending on level of seniority, you are supporting or driving new product development or designing new programs. You are not only underwriting deals using HAF’s existing financial products, you are structuring loans outside of HAF’s existing product set.

You are the internal subject matter expert in your focus area and are working with the rest of the team to integrate your focus area into the core lending and investing activities at HAF.

The Hiring Process :

Step 1 : Applications

We’ll accept applications on a rolling basis through Monday May 6, 2024. You MUST apply via email to be considered. To apply, send your resume, Linkedin profile, and a brief email note detailing your interest in HAF and fit for the role to Kati Vastola ( [email protected] ).

Step 2 : Intro Calls

We’ll reach out to select candidates to schedule 20-30 minute getting to know you calls. We’ll let the rest of the candidates know they won’t be moving forward in the process.

Step 3 : Additional Interviews

Candidates will have between 2 - 3 conversations with members of the HAF team, partners, and board.

Step 4 : Exercise + Work Sample

We will send candidates a proforma to review and answer questions about, and also request a work sample that you are proud of.

Step 5 : Offer

Our goal is to extend an offer by May / June 2024

Compensation :

Title : ( Senior) VP of Lending

Relevant Exp : 5-15+ years

Total Compensation Range :

$110,000 - $170,000 + up to 10% bonus potential

To Apply : Please send your resume, Linkedin profile, and a brief email note detailing your interest in HAF and fit for the role to Kati Vastola ( [email protected] ).