Agricultural Credit Manager

The Agricultural Credit Manager for The First Bank and Trust Company serves as the leader of the Agricultural Credit Analyst team, providing strategic credit analysis support, overseeing underwriting workflow, and guiding the development of agricultural credit expertise across the Division. This role works closely with the Ag Division Manager and Ag Credit Officers to ensure effective lender–analyst pairings, sound underwriting practices, timely credit delivery, and consistent portfolio quality. For the ideal applicant this position could be located at any First Bank and Trust branch location. 

The position functions as the lead analyst for complex agricultural credit relationships while managing the assignment, development, and performance of Agricultural Credit Analysts. The Agricultural Credit Manager also contributes to the creation of commodity‑specific underwriting standards, templates, benchmarking tools, and portfolio monitoring practices across key agricultural sectors such as cattle, poultry, dairy, row crops, and swine. In addition, the role supports recruiting and training efforts in conjunction with the Ag Division Manager for analysts and helps build credit skills among trainees, Portfolio Managers, and other personnel. 

The position further assists in coordinating pipeline management between the Agricultural Division and the Commercial Credit Department to ensure efficient workflow and optimal use of analytical resources. Success in this role requires strong leadership, deep agricultural lending and credit expertise, excellent organizational and communication skills, and a commitment to collaboration across the Bank’s lending and credit functions.

Responsibilities

• Lead agricultural credit analysis by serving as the primary analyst for complex ag loan relationships and guiding lenders and analysts in structuring, underwriting, and evaluating sophisticated credit requests.
• Promote underwriting consistency by supporting sound credit practices and ensuring high‑quality, uniform loan presentations across the division.
• Assess agricultural risks by identifying and evaluating commodity price volatility, weather exposure, disease risk, counterparty risk, and input cost variability.
• Support credit enhancements by evaluating and documenting tools such as FSA/SBA guarantees, crop insurance assignments, LRP, DRP, and other mitigation strategies.
• Collaborate with credit leadership to ensure safe, sound, and strategically aligned agricultural portfolio growth.
• Lead and mentor analysts by supervising Agricultural Credit Analysts, managing workflow and priorities, and providing coaching, training, and performance evaluations.
• Develop team capabilities by supporting recruiting, onboarding, and ongoing development of analysts and related personnel.
• Build commodity expertise by encouraging analysts to deepen commodity‑specific knowledge and supporting training for trainees, lenders, and junior analysts.
• Manage underwriting pipeline by coordinating analyst assignments, balancing workloads, and ensuring efficient underwriting flow.
• Identify and explore business development opportunities within the community.
• Represent the bank in the community to develop business and promote The First Bank and Trust products and services.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, Business Administration, Agriculture, Agricultural Economics, or related field.
• Minimum of 10 years of experience in agricultural lending, agricultural credit analysis, or related banking experience.
• Demonstrated experience in agricultural underwriting, portfolio management, and team leadership preferred.

Benefits:

• PTO Leave is 25 Days for officers per year earned monthly. 
• The First Bank and Trust Company recognizes 11 paid holidays, when the holidays occur during the work week. 
• Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance coverage starts the 1st day of the month after hire date. 
• Employees are automatically enrolled in the bank's 401K/ESOP Plan.   
• The First Bank and Trust Company provides basic life insurance coverage equal to two times an employees' base salary.

• First Bank and Trust provides long-term disability Insurance coverage.

  The First Bank and Trust five core values are (1) High Quality Customer Service (2) Motivated Employees (3) Profits (4) Honesty and (5) Enjoyment

  First Bank and Trust is an Equal Opportunity Employer                       EOE/AA/M/F/Disabled/Veteran