Impact Investment Associate

About Pursuit

Our mission is to create economic transformation. By training low-income adults to launch & advance careers as software engineers, we help our Fellows go from earning $18,000 to over $90,000 starting salary on average, adding an estimated $2M in lifetime earnings. Pursuit partners with leading companies like Blackstone, USV, Citi, Peloton, & Uber to employ Fellows in career-defining engineering roles & supports them with on-the-job training to ensure potential translates to performance. Since 2013, Pursuit has created ~$1B in total lifetime wage gains, creating lasting economic mobility that spans generations. 

Pursuits proven solution is built on two interconnected components: training (which includes community development, Core pre-job training, & Commit on-the-job training) & a financial product (known as Bond). However, growing training alone will not meet the magnitude of need nor solve new societal challenges ahead. The typical expectation is to expand our training to other cities, but this will not come anywhere close to creating good jobs for millions of low-income Americans. Instead, our strategy for scaled impact is to evolve our financial product & create tools for other organizations, jobs, & places. We believe that this will not only create good jobs for millions of low-income Americans but will also generate a new trillion-dollar market directly tied to results in the long term.

We are One Big Team

The passionate & collaborative team at Pursuit gives its all to achieve our mission. And it's not just staff. We work with employer partners that love hiring our Fellows because they are so well prepared, ranging from big financial firms to scrappy startups, & everything in between. We also activate & engage thousands of volunteers who come from all areas of the tech industry & beyond. At Pursuit, we are committed to breaking traditional barriers, focusing on potential rather than pedigree, & providing hands-on experience to empower participants in ways never seen before. Please be sure to review our company values, posted on our website, which will help provide further context on additional concepts that impact how we work here at Pursuit. 

Position Overview: We are in search of an energetic & thoughtful Impact Investment Associate who will drive all impact investment campaigns & projects for a spectrum of unique & creative blended capital raises. Distinct from most raises these funds will include forgivable grants, recoverable grants, impact debt & equity, & market-rate debt & equity. 

Most notably, the Impact Investment Associate will help to drive the progress of establishing & scaling the Pursuit Bond, Pursuits innovative financing vehicle for workforce development, as a national standard in the workforce development industry. The Pursuit Bond utilizes outcomes-driven financing to open access to capital for training & workforce development organizations that traditionally rely on limited funding streams. We believe that scaling the Pursuit Bond will significantly expand & grow the efficacy of social impact-driving organizations. (The Pursuit Bond - https://www.pursuit.org/fellowship-bond)

In this role, you will be an integral part of the team managing relationships with existing & new investors, lenders, & donors ranging from the Macquarie Group, BlackRock, Deutsche Bank, etc. In order to succeed, this person will need to be a superior project manager, team player, & financial analyst to help close meaningful deals & large multi-year contracts. The candidate will report directly to Pursuit's Co-Founder & CEO (Jukay Hsu) and  CFO (Yong Kang) & work closely with the VP of Partnerships & Business Development as part of a high-performance team that will scale Pursuits fundraising capabilities to meet their goals over the next 3 years. Pursuits fundraising team offers a unique opportunity to pioneer new & exciting, mission-driven, financial products while opening up new markets for companies looking to create genuine social impact.

Key Responsibilities:

• Fundraising Strategy: Work with senior leadership, investors, & other stakeholders to provide operational value-add & strategic input to investment structures & situations
• Fundraising Initiatives & Goals: Execute & drive coordination with all advisors (financial & legal) & partners both internal & external. Manage cross-functional teams seamlessly, including the creation & management of data rooms, while drafting Q&A in response to investor queries. Coordinate & participate in investor roadshow presentations
• Partner Relationships: Manage strong relationships with investor counterparts & managers. Promote & effectively communicate Pursuits long-term vision & strategy, core mission, & value proposition to stakeholders. Help the team develop strong, lasting relationships with investors & donors by understanding their business objectives & aligning our offerings to meet their company's strategic goals
• Financial Analysis & Presentations: Create & manage pitchbook materials & all analysis, & financial models to support investment opportunities & close transactions. Independently research & analyze the market & competitive dynamics to create thoughtful & valuable potential investor & partner opportunities for the organization
• Impact Investment Best Practices: Develop fundraising best practices for the rest of the organization
• Investor Relations: Support investor relations & CFO to help provide monthly & quarterly financial & impact analysis reporting for all existing & new investors 

Qualifications:

• MBA plus 3 years of experience in capital markets, impact investing, investment banking, or corporate finance role,  or 7+ years with experience on both the buy & sell side of banking. Consulting experience is a plus.
• 3+ years of professional experience developing financial models, analysis, & fundraising marketing presentations for executive review.
• Deep commitment to Pursuits mission to help underserved & underrepresented communities achieve financial independence. 
• Strong project management expertise & experience. 
• Experience working closely & building consensus with organizational leaders to achieve desired results.
• Experience presenting directly to investors & senior executives.

Where you'll work:

• Hybrid: On-site in long Island City, NY
• Staff will be working on-site in our Long Island City Office 2 days/week

Pursuit offers:

• Great culture where transparency, respect, teamwork, & kindness are valued
• Competitive compensation in base, plus bonus & a full benefits package
• Unlimited PTO & a week-long Summer break & holiday during the summer & the last week of December

Salary & Benefits: 

The salary for this role is $135,000-$200,000 annually with additional performance-based incentive compensation. 

The compensation range above is for the expectations as laid out in the job description, however, we are often open to a wide variety of profiles & recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description as posted.  If that ends up being the case, the updated salary range will be communicated to you as a candidate.

Pursuit values diversity:

Our team has a wide range of backgrounds & experiences, & we value the richness that diversity brings to our organization. We welcome new perspectives & affirm that all employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, national origin, age, familial or marital status, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy, gender identity or expression, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other classification protected by federal, state, or local law. Pursuit is an equal opportunity employer.