How to hire a project finance analyst

How to hire a project finance analyst, step by step

Here's a step-by-step project finance analyst hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a project finance analyst job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new project finance analyst
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a project finance analyst do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you start hiring a project finance analyst, identify what type of worker you actually need. Certain positions might call for a full-time employee, while others can be done by a part-time worker or contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A project finance analyst's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, project finance analysts from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of project finance analysts.

   Type of Project Finance Analyst	Description	Hourly rate
   Project Finance Analyst	Financial analysts provide guidance to businesses and individuals making investment decisions. They assess the performance of stocks, bonds, and other types of investments.	$25-51
   Risk Analyst	As a risk analyst, you will oversee the identification, assessment, and monitoring of risks that your company has been exposed to. You will evaluate financial documents, potential clients, and economic conditions to determine the level of risk in business decisions... Show more	$28-53
   Finance Analyst-Operations Finance	Financial analysts are professionals who are in charge of the financial operations of businesses. The analysts analyze results, monitor variances, determine trends, and suggest management-related actions to improve corporate finances... Show more	$20-51

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Financial Analysis
   • Project Management
   • Financial Data
   • Strong Analytical
   • Hyperion
   • Financial Management
   • Renewable Energy
   • Work Breakdown Structure
   • GAAP
   • Variance Analysis
   • Financial Models
   • Reconciliations
   • Accruals
   • Revenue Recognition

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Lead a reconciliations project team responsible for the implementing new systemic reconciliations replacing manual and legacy processes.
   • Develop, maintain financial models/applications (VBA Excel/Access) to automate and streamline business processes and perform financial analysis.
   • Work with the accounting team to ensure revenue recognition rules where in compliance with GAAP and internal policy.
   • Ensure that budgets are loaded into ERP properly and tie to control totals
   • Complete coursework through PeopleSoft in order to thoroughly understand each module's processes.
   • Identify and implement optimal manner of extracting, purging and transferring data from old systems to PeopleSoft.

   More project finance analyst duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the project finance analyst job description is a good way to get more applicants. A project finance analyst salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a project finance analyst in South Dakota may be lower than in Pennsylvania, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level project finance analyst. Additionally, a project finance analyst with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average project finance analyst salary

   $77,005yearly

   $37.02 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level project finance analyst salary

   $54,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 5, 2025

   Average project finance analyst salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$92,718	$45
   2	Pennsylvania	$89,799	$43
   3	Arizona	$88,889	$43
   4	Minnesota	$88,323	$42
   5	Washington	$86,757	$42
   6	Texas	$84,551	$41
   7	District of Columbia	$82,046	$39
   8	New York	$80,867	$39
   9	Missouri	$80,738	$39
   10	New Jersey	$78,508	$38
   11	Massachusetts	$77,457	$37
   12	Maryland	$77,106	$37
   13	Virginia	$76,762	$37
   14	North Carolina	$74,815	$36
   15	Illinois	$71,840	$35
   16	Nebraska	$71,436	$34
   17	Colorado	$69,381	$33
   18	Florida	$69,167	$33
   19	Alabama	$67,028	$32
   20	Georgia	$66,437	$32

   Average project finance analyst salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Google	$124,468	$59.84	23
   2	Meta	$124,463	$59.84	32
   3	SAP	$114,902	$55.24	14
   4	Agilent Technologies	$111,234	$53.48	2
   5	NRG Energy	$106,998	$51.44	11
   6	Rivian	$103,140	$49.59	1
   7	Mayer Brown	$100,596	$48.36	3
   8	General Electric	$99,886	$48.02	12
   9	Florida Power and Light	$99,621	$47.89	21
   10	Daimler Trucks North America	$99,569	$47.87	9
   11	Precise Software Solutions	$97,083	$46.67
   12	MUFG EMEA	$96,917	$46.59
   13	Ecolab	$95,836	$46.08	8
   14	Parexel International	$95,138	$45.74	3
   15	Advent Software	$93,310	$44.86
   16	Booz Allen Hamilton	$90,736	$43.62	56
   17	Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group	$90,182	$43.36
   18	NTT Data International L.L.C.	$90,027	$43.28	14
   19	HCSC	$89,301	$42.93
   20	Columbia University in the City of New York	$87,580	$42.11	5

4. Writing a project finance analyst job description

   A job description for a project finance analyst role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a project finance analyst job description:

   Project finance analyst job description example

   Emrgy develops and deploys hydropower in the 140,000+ miles of water conveyance infrastructure in the United States. The Company’s patented modular hydropower turbines grew out of Department of Defense and Department of Energy research and are designed to maximize power output in canals and channels.

   The Job

   We are hiring a Project Finance Analysts to support our mission of deploying 100s of MWs of new hydro power annually across the United States. This is an opportunity to have an immediate impact on the energy transition. Canals and channels are brownfields for permitting and have a categorical exception from FERC hydro requirements. This exemption allows an Emrgy project to be developed and deployed in months, unlike the years required for front of the meter solar, wind or traditional hydropower. The most important carbon to avoid emitting is the carbon emitted today.

   Location : Remote (preference for candidates in Minneapolis or Atlanta)

   Salary: $75 - $95k base depending on experience

   Benefits: Full

   Travel: 10%

   Role

   This role is perfect for someone who enjoys solving problems, thinking commercially and making numbers dance in excel and other statistical programming languages. The project finance analyst will run our project model to support negotiating power purchase agreements, project sales and pipeline prioritization. There will be a significant amount of on-the-job training and the expectation to take formal professional development courses.

   Competitive attributes

   - 1 – 3 years professional experience in finance

   - Bachelor degree in math, finance, or accounting

   - Basic understanding of non-recourse project finance

   - Familiar with the FAST standard of financial modeling

   - Enjoy data visualization and know why pie charts should be avoided

   - Basic understanding of VBA

   - Basic understanding of Power BI

   - Enormous drive for winning

   - Comfortable giving and receiving frank but respectful feedback

   - Focus and perseverance

   - Humility and kindness

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right project finance analyst for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with project finance analysts they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit project finance analysts who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your project finance analyst job on Zippia to find and attract quality project finance analyst candidates.
   • Use niche websites such as efinancialcareers, financialjobsweb.com, careerbank, financial job bank.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   During your first interview to recruit project finance analysts, engage with candidates to learn about their interest in the role and experience in the field. During the following interview, you'll be able to go into more detail about the company, the position, and the responsibilities.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new project finance analyst

   Once you've found the project finance analyst candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's also important to follow up with applicants who do not get the job with an email letting them know that the position is filled.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new project finance analyst. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a project finance analyst?