Impact Investing Manager

Job Description

The Opportunity

The Fund is seeking a Manager, Impact Investing to join the growing WES Mariam Assefa Fund team. The Manager will play a central role in helping build out the Fund’s impact investing portfolio and shape WES’ broader mission investing strategy. This role will provide a unique and exciting opportunity to execute the end-to-end deal flow process for new investments, structure a broad range of investment tools (e.g., debt, equity, guarantees, recoverable grants), demonstrate a new investment approach which shifts power to proximate leaders, support WES’ investee partners, and collaborate with leading organizations in the impact investing and philanthropic fields.

They will report to the Principal, Impact Investing, work closely with members of the Fund and broader WES team, and have significant exposure to members of WES Senior Leadership Team, and members of the WES Board of Directors. This role is remote and open to candidates located in either the U.S. and Canada. We are seeking candidates who are willing to travel to the Fund’s offices in New York City and Toronto periodically, as needed. For more details about impact investing please visit the link.

Duties included but not limited to:

Impact Investing & Portfolio Management – 60%

• Proactively source and vet new investment opportunities, including analyzing industry trends, understanding the competitive landscape, conducting impact and financial due diligence, and determining the value and optimal structure under various finance and operating scenarios.
• Present opportunities and deals, including writing high-quality screening and investment memos and supporting materials, for WES leadership consideration and approval.
• Establish and manage trust-based relationships with the Fund’s investee partners: provide strategic support, design and oversee capacity building initiatives, design and facilitate cohort meetings, track and review investee partner deliverables and outcomes.
• Select and manage relationships with external consultants and strategic advisors.
• Partner with WES’ Finance team and external counsel on structuring and negotiating the financial and legal terms of new investments.
• Analyze and track the performance, financial and social reporting, and payments from portfolio companies, including synthesizing data into financial models, impact dashboards, and presentations.

Mission Investing Strategy Development – 20%

• Partner with the Principal, Impact Investing and external consultants/advisors to design and implement WES’ nascent mission investing strategy, including the development of key policies, investment theses, processes, indicators, and more.
• Manage project management tools to support WES leaders in meeting and managing key milestones and goals related to its mission investing portfolio.
• Develop materials that enable decision-making and present updates to the WES Senior Leadership and Board.

Knowledge Management and Thought Leadership - 10%

• Design and execute approaches to enable dynamic learning and knowledge sharing among the Fund’s investee partners, other WES teams and departments, and the broader field.
• Act as an internal connector and advocate for impact investing within the WES ecosystem, operating as a knowledgeable resource and fostering integration across WES’ teams and departments.
• Serve as a thought-leader in specific strategy areas (e.g., edtech, future of work, ownership models, participatory investing, trust-based philanthropy) drafting blogs and opinion writing to highlight the Fund’s investees, synthesizing and lifting up insights from across the field with support from Communications colleagues.
• Represent the Fund at external events, working groups, and other forums to disseminate key learnings from the Fund’s work and raise the visibility of the Fund’s investee partners and supported initiatives.
• Develop written content and copy for including blogs or social media, and talking points that can be utilized by WES’s Strategic Communications team.

Ad-Hoc Organizational Support - 10%

• Manage graduate interns with the potential to manage more junior team members as the Fund team grows.
• Occasional travel to meet with partners, attend conferences and to WES’ NYC and Toronto offices.

The Ideal Candidate will:

• Have a deep commitment to WES’ mission, the Fund’s four impact areas, and centering JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) in our work.
• Bring lived experience from immigrant and refugee communities and communities of color, as well the issues that the Fund focuses on.
• Have a deep-rooted intellectual curiosity, an openness to diverse ideas and perspectives, and a continued interest in learning and professional development.
• Bring a “can-do” attitude, have a willingness to stretch up and down in their role, take on additional responsibilities, and quickly establish credibility in new areas of work.
• Build collaborative, trust-based working relationships with colleagues and external partners, mobilizing people at all levels towards collective goals.
• Bring an entrepreneurial mindset to generate new approaches, spot innovative opportunities, take calculated risks, and initiate action.
• Thrive in an environment that values transparency, accountability, collaboration, and an orientation for results.

Requirements:

• An investment professional with experience in impact investing or an adjacent field such as venture capital, venture philanthropy, private equity, community development financing, fund investments, social enterprise development, investment banking, and/or private debt.
• 7+ years of related work experience or 5+ years of work experience with an MBA or Master’s degree in a similar field is
• Demonstrated analytical skills to assess situations, break down complex problems, identify strategic tradeoffs, and apply learnings in a larger context.
• Exceptional project manager who thrives on a dynamic team, delivers high-quality work, enjoys managing multiple projects, and has a strong learning orientation.
• Comfort working with and drawing insights from financial data and models.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills that convey complex information, including quantitative and qualitative data, to stakeholders in compelling and adaptive formats.
• Good interpersonal skills, including tact, diplomacy, and flexibility, and demonstrated experience building trust with diverse stakeholder groups.
• Strong command of technology tools, including Microsoft Office (especially PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and OneDrive), Salesforce or other CRM systems, Tableau, and Google Apps.

EOE Statement: World Education Services provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, World Education Services complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

• Department: WES Mariam Assefa Fund
• Travel: Periodically as needed
• Location: Remote (US Based Candidates only)