In this role, you will support the efforts of our clients, including cities, counties, regional authorities, state departments of transportation, transit agencies, and water, wastewater and stormwater utilities to identify appropriate infrastructure investments, develop funding and rate plans to enable implementation of the recommended projects, and supporting clients in implementing the recommended financing plans for those projects. A key part of this work is anticipated to include developing economic and financial models, such as benefit-cost studies and pro forma financial model projections, to support clients in developing competitive federal and state funding applications to secure grants and low-interest rate loans to support the projects. You will collaborate with diverse teams at Jacobs such as our federal grant writing experts, government relations team, transportation and water planners and engineers, fellow economists, resiliency specialists, and many others to understand our clients’ infrastructure projects and funding needs, and ultimately to develop technical economic and financial analyses to support competitive federal and state grant applications. You will also support clients in securing funding from the municipal bond market and rate and fee increases.
Typical assignments that the Economic and Financial Consultant is envisioned to support include the following:
• Gather, organize and process data and information needed to conduct economic and financial analyses and studies;
• Develop business case analyses, financial pro forma projections, benefit-cost analyses, cost of service, rate and valuation models and other related forms of economic and financial analysis under the direction of more senior members of the financial services team;
• Develop documentation and write-ups of the economic and financial models to support technical memoranda, project reports, grant application narratives, cost of service and rate study reports and other client project deliverable requirements, under the supervision and direction of more senior members of the team.
• Support development of presentations to clients and stakeholder groups of the findings of economic and financial analyses.
• Support outside funding strategy studies by helping to assess the potential competitiveness of client capital projects for grant and loan programs
• Support development of overall funding and financing strategies for client capital and operating programs under the supervision of more senior members of the financial services consulting team.
• Training in principles of economics and finance, including business case analysis, benefit-cost analysis, and financial forecasting.
• Strong spreadsheet and database modeling skills, preferably Microsoft Excel and Access, including modeling applied to real-world projects
• Proven ability to work successfully in multi-disciplinary teams such as teams that include engineers, planners, economists and scientists all contributing to their respective elements of a project
• Strong writing skills, including the ability to draft write-ups of the findings of economic and financial analyses.
• Bachelor’s degree in Economics, Finance, or related field and minimum of 1 years of professional experience required. Master’s degree preferred.
• Experience in developing and documenting economic and financial analyses to support successful grant applications to State and Federal agencies in the United States is preferred but not required.
Compensation is commensurate with training and experience relative to the position.
