Company Overview:
This confidential private investment and lending firm provides financing to companies working with the U.S. government across defense, aerospace, space, cybersecurity, biotech, and energy.
About the Role:
Position: The Senior Associate – Credit Analyst (private debt underwriting, portfolio)
Salary: $150K base + $50K discretionary bonus.
Location: Huntington Beach, CA (onsite)
Reports to: COO
This is not a large-deal, traditional commercial banking role; ideal candidates have experience in specialty lending, private credit, venture debt, SBA lending, or government contract finance.
Must Have:
- Solid credit analysis and underwriting fundamentals
- 6+ years of progressive credit analysis, credit risk, or portfolio monitoring experience
- Experience with deal sizes in the $5-15M range (does not want large deal size, if their average deal is $250M they are not a fit)
- Background in specialty lending, private credit, BDC, venture debt, SBA lending, or government contract finance. NOT traditional commercial banking.
- Understands loan covenants. This has stumped candidates. Basic stuff, but it is a hard filter.
- Portfolio monitoring or credit surveillance experience, not just deal origination
- Strong personality, direct communicator, thrives in a high-trust team of former military operators and athletes. Ted would rather leave the seat empty than hire the wrong personality. He already passed on one technically strong candidate for culture misfit.
Nice to Have:
- Restructuring experience. Ted will feel an immediate connection.
- Troubled portfolio or workout experience. Ted runs workout internally. If someone speaks that language, they are speaking his language.
- People management exposure. Not required. No direct reports initially. But they will be interacting with people lower on the totem pole and functioning as a de facto manager.
- Government contracts, SBIR awards, or federal receivables as collateral or lendable assets
- CFA or CPA (nice to have only, not required, six CPAs already on staff)
Responsibilities
- Oversee portfolio performance across 60+ borrowers and proactively identify risks or issues
- Document restructurings or workouts and provide post-mortem analyses for internal review and auditors
- Conduct quarterly portfolio reviews with deep-dive analysis supporting internal reporting and audits
- Support re-underwriting when borrowers request line extensions or additional financing
- Identify patterns and trends across the portfolio, comparing new opportunities (~1 deal/week) to historical performance
- Evaluate credit risk across existing positions, typically lending at 50% LTV
- Collaborate across the firm in a high-trust, direct culture
