Senior Commercial Credit Analyst

At Community Financial System, Inc. (CFSI), we provide friendly, personalized, high-quality financial services and products through our retail division, Community Bank, N.A., which operates more than 200 customer facilities across Upstate New York, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Western Massachusetts. In addition to retail banking, we offer commercial banking, wealth management, investment management, insurance and risk management, and benefit plan administration. We are committed to our employees with competitive compensation, great benefits, and professional development and advancement opportunities.

Responsibilities

• Independently analyze and underwrite the Bank’s most complex commercial credit relationships, including multi-entity borrowers, multiple guarantors, layered debt structures, and non-standard repayment sources.
• Prepare high-quality, final or near-final credit memoranda for new credit requests, renewals, modifications, and annual reviews.
• Perform advanced financial analysis, including global cash flow, stress analysis, sensitivity analysis, and forward-looking risk assessment.
• Identify elevated risks, structural weaknesses, and emerging concerns, clearly articulating conclusions and recommended mitigants.
• Evaluate appropriateness of credit structure, covenants, collateral, and guarantor support.
• Serve as a senior analytical resource to Credit Officers and relationship managers on complex or higher-risk transactions.
• Provide effective and constructive challenge to assumptions, structures, and risk assessments presented in credit requests.
• Influence credit decisions through depth of analysis, sound judgment, and professional credibility.
• Participate in complex deal discussions, internal credit reviews, and portfolio-level risk conversations.
• Monitor assigned portfolio segments for performance trends, concentrations, and emerging risk.
• Assist with risk rating assignments and ongoing assessment of rating accuracy.
• Identify early warning signals of deterioration and escalate concerns appropriately.
• Support portfolio analytics, trend reviews, and targeted risk assessments.
• Accompany relationship managers on customer calls to support financial discussions, clarify credit considerations, assess borrower operations and management, and enhance overall credit understanding.
• Provide senior-level analytical support for criticized and classified commercial credits.
• Assist with analysis related to renewals, restructures, modifications, workouts, and exit strategies.
• Support monitoring and action plans for higher-risk or deteriorating relationships.
• Contribute to enhancements in credit processes, analytical tools, and underwriting consistency.
• Support implementation or refinement of credit systems, reporting, or workflows.
• Undertake special projects related to the job function, as determined by credit management.
• Maintain current knowledge of commercial credit practices, borrower industries, and financial analysis techniques.
• Provide assistance wherever necessary to help the Credit Department and the Bank achieve their goals.

Requirements

• BS or BA degree in Finance, Accounting, Business Administration, or a related field plus specialized education in credit analysis and commercial lending.
• Minimum of 8 years of experience in commercial credit analysis, underwriting, or credit risk roles.
• All applicants must be 18 years of age or older.

Skills

• Proficient reading, writing, grammar, and mathematics skills; proficient interpersonal relations and communications skills.
• Thorough knowledge of financial statement analysis, loan structuring, current laws/regulations applicable to commercial lending, and loan policies and procedures of the Bank.
• Demonstrated management, supervisory, and training skills.
• Well-developed project management skills; ability to accomplish stated goals and work productively with varying levels of management and staff.
• High degree of initiative and ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Demonstrated experience evaluating complex, cash-flow-based commercial credit relationships.
• High proficiency with Microsoft Excel and Word.

Benefits

• 11 paid holidays
• Paid vacation
• Medical, Vision, and Dental insurance
• 401K with generous match
• Pension
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Banking discounts

Pay

Minimum USD $72,000.00/Year. Maximum USD $124,686.00/Year.

Physical Requirements

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be required to stand, walk, or sit.
• Use hands and fingers, handle or feel, reach with hands or arms, and speak and hear.
• Occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds.
• Specific vision abilities required include close vision and the ability to focus.