Finance & Investment Advisor, SAMI/Southern Africa Mobilizing Investment, USAID

Job Description

This Opportunity:

Palladium is seeking a Finance and Investment Advisor to lead key components of the USAID-funded program, Southern Africa Mobilizing Investment (SAMI) project. This project, currently valued by USAID at $28 - $32 Million, is expected to be based in Johannesburg or Pretoria, South Africa with regional activity throughout Southern Africa (i.e., Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). SAMI will be an investment facility and technical assistance platform that will make substantial use of grants to provide incentives to multiple market actors, partner with businesses and capital providers, as well as private equity and venture capital funds and non-bank financial intermediaries, and support the ability of investors and funds to catalyze and mobilize greater volumes of private capital. Ultimately, this project is designed to increase employment, decrease poverty, and reduce inequality within the Southern Africa region.

The objectives of SAMI are:

• Mobilize catalytic capital to establish sustainable investment flows into sectors that were previously underserved by investors.
• Develop the capacity of fund managers that would traditionally have difficulty accessing capital.
• Work with financial and non-financial intermediaries to identify and perform the due diligence necessary for bankable investment opportunities, and;
• Facilitate connections between the U.S. and Southern African capital providers.

The ideal candidate is someone who has had a meaningful impact in international investment facilitation in emerging economies, specifically in Southern Africa. The candidate is from or has lived in Southern Africa and has had significant experience working with the private sector in the region. The candidate would likely have substantive experience in industry, overseeing efforts to promote capital mobilization and investment in new or underserved markets, especially agriculture.

Location: Johannesburg or Pretoria, South Africa

You and Your Career:

If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have expertise in finance and investment, we are interested in hearing from you. We are a learning organization and provide growth opportunities from the start. We pride ourselves on giving you the freedom, resources, and guidance to chart a fulfilling career!

Reporting and Supervision:

The Finance and Investment Advisor will report to the Chief of Party (COP). The successful candidate will be responsible for identifying and establishing relationships and partnerships with and between potential businesses and investors. They will lead a team in the development of activities and partnerships for investment facilitation and capacity development.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership

• Engage with institutional investors, asset managers and DFIs to mobilize capital for private equity, and venture funds based in Southern Africa.
• Support the emergence of new fund managers in Southern Africa.
• Engage with transaction advisors and equity investors to facilitate investment into the region on a sustainable basis.
• Ensure gender-forward project activities, including the active participation and integration of women entrepreneurs and investors among project beneficiaries and partners.

Project Leadership

• Contribute to the vision and strategy for the project in partnership with USAID and build consensus around that vision and strategy internally and externally.
• Engage with USAID bureaus, USAID missions, and other USG agencies to promote project activities, successes, collaboration, and learning.
• Develop and manage a growing network of implementing partners (subcontractors and sub awardees) to enhance USAID’s access to new partners.
• Ensure effective communication of project successes and results to broad audiences
• Coordinate effectively with other donors supporting parallel programs globally.

Team Leadership

• Lead those designated as supervisees in setting and achieving project lifetime and annual goals, in collaboration with USAID.
• Manage supervisees to ensure effective staffing and performance at the highest levels.

Key Competencies Required:

• Master’s degree in finance, economics, business administration, or related field.
• Minimum of ten years of experience in investment banking, investment promotion, and/or investment facilitation in the private or public sector.
• Minimum of five years of management experience.
• Must demonstrate capacity to form innovative partnerships.
• Demonstrated excellent oral, written, and interpersonal skills.
• Fluency in English.
• Must have strategic, analytical, financial, and business acumen capabilities and be able to use insight to facilitate decision making.

Professional Expertise/Competencies Preferred:

• Experience designing and implementing strategies for investment mobilization, especially targeting underprivileged and underserved markets, such as early-stage enterprises, women-owned enterprises, and into sectors will substantial real or perceived risks of marginal commercial viability, such as agriculture, education, or healthcare
• Experience in the use of blended finance, grants, challenges, and prizes as a tool to solve complex challenges and problems.
• Experience in identifying and building pipelines of investment opportunities.

About the Organization

About Palladium:

Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 3,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities. 

Palladium Americas:

Our Americas’ business team has brilliant and passionate colleagues working in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America as well as the Caribbean, fulfilling projects and assignments for clients from institutions, corporations, governments, and foundations based in the Americas. We have offices in Washington, DC, New York City, and Raleigh-Durham, NC.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status. 

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com.

Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse.  All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.