Program Officer, Lending

About LISC

LISC is one of the country’s largest community development organizations, helping forge vibrant, resilient communities across America. LISC works with residents and partners to close gaps in health, wealth, and opportunity so that people and places can thrive. We act as a conduit for grants, loans and equity and provide technical assistance and capacity building to locally rooted organizations that carry out the work in communities.

LISC Greater Kansas City seeks a self‑motivated and skilled lending professional to serve as a Program Officer (PO). The Program Officer coordinates deployment of LISC loan capital to low‑income communities, developers, and entrepreneurs who have faced challenges accessing capital. The officer grows LISC Greater Kansas City’s lending pipeline from loan origination to underwriting, closing, and asset management, supporting LISC’s strategic priorities.

• Originate, structure, and underwrite financing requests for real estate projects that create more affordable housing, commercial development, and small business support in the Kansas City region, including identifying project opportunities, providing technical assistance to potential borrowers, vetting projects, structuring financing, and maintaining key relationships and partnerships with non‑profit and for‑profit developers.
• Conduct due diligence and financial analyses, draft credit memoranda, and present loan recommendations to LISC’s national lending staff and credit committees, as applicable. Manage the closing process with in‑house and external counsel.
• Manage the deployment of capital and reporting to funders on local revolving loan funds such as the KC Pre‑development Fund, NE Preservation Fund, and other developmental funds.
• Lead the origination and deployment of capital from the KC Regional Housing Fund in coordination with the Executive Director, LISC colleagues, and partners involved with the Regional Housing Partnership.
• Work with community development partners to help them craft financing strategies, access public subsidies, and secure private financing to ensure successful project execution.
• Evaluate mission alignment of proposals, management capacity of entities, organizational structure, and financial feasibility.
• Develop and implement a local lending strategy that responds to unmet needs in the housing, commercial, and small business markets, and collaborate with other LISC staff to design appropriate programs, applications, and collateral.
• Originate loans that bolster LISC KC’s investments with local programming and initiatives.
• Coordinate internal and external relationships critical to the growth of the office’s lending portfolio, including relationships with LISC national and local staff, originators of LIHTC and NMTC transactions via LISC affiliates, and financial institutions.
• Develop strategic collaborations with local public sector agencies.
• Work with LISC national and local staff, stakeholders, and funders to identify challenges and opportunities for risk‑mitigating strategies, including reserves, guarantees, and other forms of credit enhancement.
• Support LISC national and local staff’s small business lending initiatives.
• Provide technical assistance to community development corporations, mission‑aligned partners, and emerging developers, and assist in facilitating and convening meetings, trainings, workshops, and other events to increase community awareness and build partners’ capacity and access to resources.
• Represent LISC as an expert on community development lending and share best practices with partners and stakeholders, including at regional and national conferences, trainings, and events. In‑person attendance at meetings and events is a required dimension of this work.
• Perform all other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university with a concentration in Business, Finance, Real Estate, Planning, Community Development, Urban Studies, or related fields (equivalent experience). Master’s degree preferred.
• Minimum 5 years of relevant work experience in lending, finance, affordable housing, community development,…