Chief Investment Officer - DG Solar Company

Chief Investment Officer

• Department: Finance
  

• Location: Toronto or US East Coast Remote
  

Overview

The Chief Investment Officer will lead capital formation, structured finance, investment underwriting, capital allocation, and financial planning activities. This executive will be responsible for developing and executing financing strategies that support continued growth as a developer, owner, and operator of community solar, distributed generation, and energy storage assets.

Key Responsibilities

Capital Markets and Capital Formation

• Develop and execute capital markets strategy in partnership with the Chief Executive Officer and executive leadership team.
  

• Lead capital-raising activities across project, portfolio, asset, and corporate financing structures.
  

• Evaluate and execute financing alternatives, including construction debt, term debt and back-leverage facilities, tax equity, tax credit transfers, preferred equity, corporate debt and revolving credit facilities, growth equity, joint ventures, portfolio financings, structured capital solutions, asset-level refinancing, and other strategic financing arrangements.
  

• Develop financing strategies that balance cost of capital, liquidity, execution certainty, covenant requirements, risk allocation, and long-term enterprise value.
  

• Lead negotiations with commercial banks, institutional investors, infrastructure funds, tax equity providers, private credit providers, investment banks, rating agencies, and other capital partners.
  

• Maintain strong relationships with existing capital providers while expanding access to new sources of institutional capital.
  

Project and Portfolio Capitalization Strategy

• Evaluate projects based on development maturity, interconnection status, permitting, site control, subscriber readiness, offtake arrangements, revenue certainty, construction requirements, tax credit eligibility, financing availability, and projected returns.
  

• Partner with Development, Engineering, Procurement and Construction, Asset Management, Subscriber Management, Legal, Tax, Accounting, and Operations to assess project readiness and financing risk.
  

• Create and maintain a prioritized capitalization roadmap for the development pipeline and operating portfolio.
  

• Recommend the optimal timing, structure, and grouping of projects for financing.
  

• Determine whether projects should be financed individually, aggregated into portfolios, placed into warehouse facilities, contributed to joint ventures, or funded through corporate capital.
  

• Assess the benefits and risks of deploying limited capital across community solar, commercial and industrial solar, standalone storage, and hybrid solar-plus-storage opportunities.
  

• Identify capital constraints, portfolio concentration risks, funding gaps, and dependencies that may affect construction schedules or commercial operation dates.
  

• Recommend corrective actions or alternative financing structures when projects do not meet established capitalization requirements.
  

• Monitor capitalized projects against underwriting assumptions, financing milestones, budgets, and expected returns.
  

Project Underwriting and Investment Analysis

• Lead and oversee financial underwriting for community solar, distributed generation, energy storage, and related investment opportunities.
  

• Establish consistent underwriting standards, investment criteria, risk classifications, and minimum return requirements.
  

• Evaluate project and portfolio economics, including development costs, construction costs, operating expenses, generation and production assumptions, subscriber acquisition and management costs, power purchase agreement terms, community solar credit values, renewable energy incentives, Investment Tax Credits, tax credit adders, interconnection costs, debt-sizing assumptions, tax equity economics, merchant and contracted revenue exposure, and residual and terminal value.
  

• Assess project risks associated with development status, interconnection, permitting, construction, supply chain, revenue, customer concentration, regulatory requirements, financing conditions, and operating performance.
  

• Ensure investment recommendations incorporate both quantitative analysis and an informed assessment of execution risk.
  

• Develop and maintain underwriting templates, approval thresholds, risk-assessment methodologies, and investment review procedures.
  

• Review actual project and portfolio performance against original underwriting assumptions.
  

• Identify the financial causes of performance variances and recommend appropriate corrective actions.
  

• Ensure lessons from operating performance and completed financings are incorporated into future underwriting standards.
  

Financial Modeling and Sensitivity Analysis

• Provide executive-level oversight of project, portfolio, financing, and enterprise financial models.
  

• Personally review, understand, modify, and challenge complex financial models rather than relying exclusively on model outputs.
  

• Manipulate financial models to evaluate alternative capital structures, financing terms, project groupings, development schedules, and operating assumptions.
  

• Conduct sensitivity, scenario, and downside cases.
  

• Evaluate key return metrics, including internal rate of return, net present value, return on invested capital, cash yield, debt-service coverage, leverage, and payback period.
  

• Ensure financial models are accurate, transparent, auditable, and aligned with approved corporate assumptions.
  

• Establish model governance, version control, review standards, ownership expectations, and approval protocols.
  

• Translate complex financial analyses into concise conclusions and actionable recommendations for senior decision-makers.
  

• Oversee the continued development of an integrated enterprise model connecting the development pipeline, operating assets, financing obligations, liquidity requirements, and long-range business plan.
  

Investment Committee Leadership and Communication

• Lead the financial preparation and presentation of project capitalization and investment recommendations to the Investment Committee.
  

• Prepare and oversee Investment Committee memoranda, underwriting summaries, financing comparisons, risk assessments, and approval materials.
  

• Clearly articulate the investment opportunity, strategic rationale, proposed capitalization structure, expected financial returns, key assumptions, principal risks, sensitivity and downside cases, capital requirements, and recommended approval conditions.
  

• Present complex financing and investment matters in a concise, decision-oriented format.
  

• Respond credibly to questions and challenges from Investment Committee members, investors, lenders, executive leadership, and Board members.
  

• Distinguish between financial-model outputs, management assumptions, market information, and areas requiring judgment.
  

• Ensure recommendations clearly identify the decision requested, alternatives considered, principal risks, and management's preferred course of action.
  

• Maintain accurate records of Investment Committee decisions, conditions, follow-up requirements, and approved changes to underwriting assumptions.
  

• Monitor approved investments and financings against Investment Committee commitments and report material variances.
  

Financial Planning and Analysis

• Provide executive leadership and strategic direction to the FP&A function.
  

• Oversee annual budgeting, periodic forecasting, long-range planning, liquidity forecasting, management reporting, and financial performance analysis.
  

• Integrate project financing, development spending, construction activity, operating performance, and corporate expenses into the consolidated financial outlook.
  

• Partner with the Senior Director of FP&A to establish planning calendars, reporting standards, financial assumptions, and management accountabilities.
  

• Develop multi-year capital deployment plans supporting strategic and growth objectives.
  

• Evaluate the financial implications of organic development, project acquisitions, portfolio acquisitions, platform investments, storage deployment, asset sales, and refinancing opportunities.
  

• Provide executive leadership with timely analysis of liquidity, capital needs, forecast risks, financing dependencies, and business-plan performance.
  

• Improve forecasting accuracy by ensuring financial plans reflect project-level milestones, financing assumptions, development probabilities, and operating performance.
  

• Establish reporting that connects business activities and operational outcomes to financial performance and capital requirements.
  

• Identify emerging financial risks and recommend actions to preserve liquidity, manage leverage, and maintain access to capital.
  

Cross-Functional and Executive Partnership

• Serve as a strategic finance advisor to the CEO, executive leadership team, and Investment Committee.
  

• Work closely with Development to understand project pipeline maturity, capital requirements, and investment priorities.
  

• Partner with Project Finance and external advisors on debt, tax equity, structured finance, and refinancing initiatives.
  

• Partner with Corporate Development on the underwriting and financing of project, portfolio, platform, and corporate acquisition opportunities.
  

• Collaborate with Asset Management and Operations to incorporate actual operating performance into financing assumptions and investment decisions.
  

• Coordinate with Legal, Tax, and Accounting to ensure proposed transactions are appropriately structured, documented, and reported.
  

• Provide objective financial challenge when proposed projects, investments, or capital structures do not meet risk-adjusted return or strategic requirements.
  

• Build alignment among stakeholders with differing operational, commercial, and financial priorities.
  

Team Leadership and Function Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop the Project Finance, FP&A and investments teams.
  

• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, decision rights, performance expectations, and development plans for direct reports.
  

• Build a collaborative, analytical, commercially disciplined, and high-accountability finance culture.
  

• Strengthen team capabilities in financial modeling, project underwriting, capital markets, investment analysis, forecasting, executive communication, and transaction execution.
  

• Ensure the team can support simultaneous financing, planning, underwriting, and Investment Committee workstreams.
  

• Establish scalable processes, documentation standards, and quality-control procedures.
  

• Determine the future organizational capabilities and resources required to support continued growth.
  

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, Business, Engineering, or a related field required.
  

• MBA, CFA, CPA, or other relevant advanced degree or professional credential preferred.
  

• Minimum of 15 years of progressive experience in capital markets, project finance, structured finance, infrastructure investing, investment banking, renewable energy finance, private equity, corporate finance, or a related field.
  

• Significant experience within renewable energy, power, infrastructure, or distributed generation strongly preferred.
  

• Demonstrated success raising and structuring capital for solar, community solar, energy storage, independent power, or comparable infrastructure assets.
  

• Direct experience with multiple forms of capital, such as project debt, corporate debt, tax equity, preferred equity, private credit, joint ventures, growth equity, or structured capital.
  

• Demonstrated ability to determine project and portfolio readiness for financing.
  

• Advanced experience underwriting projects and evaluating risk-adjusted investment returns.
  

• Expert-level understanding of project, portfolio, and enterprise financial models.
  

• Experience preparing and presenting investment or financing recommendations to an Investment Committee, Board, executive leadership team, lenders, or institutional investors.
  

• Strong understanding of renewable energy tax incentives, project revenue structures, financing documentation, and capital-provider requirements.
  

• Proven ability to lead and develop FP&A, investment, financial analysis, or transaction teams.
  

• Experience working in a growth-oriented, entrepreneurial, or private-capital-backed organization preferred.