Senior Development Finance Advisor

Job Description

Position Description

The U.S. Global Development Lab (the Lab) seeks a highly qualified and motivated individual to serve as a Senior Private Enterprise Officer (FSL-01 level) for Private Sector Engagement (PSE) in the Center for Transformational Partnerships (LAB/CTP). This position supports USAID’s approach to engaging the private sector and assisting countries and communities in achieving development and humanitarian outcomes at scale. This is based on the premise that mobilizing private capital and enterprise driven development are among the most powerful forces for lifting lives, strengthening communities, and accelerating countries to self-reliance. Global development challenges are enormous and the financing gap to meet these needs is massive. This position is a lead voice for USAID in mobilizing the private sector to address development goals and tasked with creating processes and approaches that facilitate USAID’s access to the development finance tools at the new U.S. International Development Corporation (DFC).

The Private Enterprise Officer will serve as Senior Development Finance Advisor with responsibility to lead and support the delivery of investment expertise and strengthen interagency relationships. This position serves as the primary U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) Liaison for USAID and success includes (1) facilitating an increased use of DFC’s transaction tools by USAID operating units across all regions and all sectors; (2) ensuring that all processes to access DFC tools and services are efficient and as streamlined as possible; (3) integrating development finance approaches into USAID regional and sectoral strategies and projects; and (4) maintaining a positive relationship with the DFC that leads to more finance being directed towards USAID development objectives. An increased, effective, and consistent transactional and programmatic partnership between USAID and the DFC is the ultimate measure of success of this position.

The Senior Development Finance Advisor will help lead, provide vision, and enhance USAID’s leadership in mobilizing private capital for development and build a significant portfolio of transactions in partnership with the DFC.

The Senior Development Finance Advisor will work across the Agency (in Washington and with Field Missions) to accomplish the following:

• Support USAID operating units/missions in the design, structuring, implementation, monitoring, and close-out of USAID-sponsored DFC finance transactions based on market knowledge and intelligence. As appropriate, seek to design and implement global (cross-regional, cross-sectoral, etc.) transactions with the DFC that address market inefficiencies that a bilateral or regional Mission would not develop on their own.
• Bolster USAID’s reputation as a thought leader in the international community engaged in development finance work through research; networking; new transaction development, speaking engagements and high-level representation, and rigorous monitoring, evaluation and learning.

• Engage with a broad network of stakeholders including businesses, financial institutions, think-tanks, and other development finance organizations, to develop and support development finance interventions.
• Provide direction and guidelines to technical teams and implementing partners in the development and execution of a robust pipeline of development financing transactions. The incumbent will provide technical and managerial inputs, guidance and oversight to implementing partners.
• Fosters a robust USAID Development Finance Corporation network of liaisons globally, ensuring all USAID missions and operating units have an engaged DFC liaison who is empowered and tasked with increasing their mission’s access of DFC tools and services. This may include leading and/or supporting activities related to the dissemination of guidance and training documents and tools, maintaining a database of DFC liaisons globally, ensuring continuity of DFC liaisons at missions and operating units, and working closely with the DFC to ensure accurate and effective process and training material gets to all USAID DFC liaisons.
• Serve as principal lead for any joint USAID/DFC programmatic and transaction MOUs, especially as they relate to overall guidance on subsidy transfer, technical assistance funds transfer, transaction notes, environmental policy review, USAID legal support, and other issues related to joint USAID/DFC transactions. Ensure joint MOU seeks to provide efficient, streamlined access of DFC tools and services by USAID operating units.
• Fosters and leads an efficient and streamlined use of DFC tools, which may include supporting Mission transaction notes, environmental policies, credit due diligence, implementation of transactions, monitoring and evaluation, and communications.
• Supports USAID leadership in issues related to development finance, including Agency priorities, transaction opportunities, representational events, and/or sector or regional issues, and USAID’s Automated Directive System (ADS), the source of USAID’s policy directives, required procedures, and internal guidance.

• Support quality assurance of technical services and deliverables; contribute to the publication of technical studies, case studies, policy and program briefs.
• Identify, build, and maintain relationships with development finance experts, consultants, and partners who can provide technical expertise in development finance.

This position will be expected to build on the launch of the new U.S. Development Finance Corporation (DFC), which brings together the current Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and USAID’s Development Credit Authority (DCA) to expand the U.S. Government’s focus on catalyzing private investment to achieve development outcomes in collaboration with our partner countries. The DFC will offer USAID teams an expanded toolbox of development finance instruments. Effective use of and integration with the DFC will be critical to the success of USAID’s Private Sector Engagement team. To that end, this position will also serve as a lead liaison to the DFC for USAID, establishing processes and approaches for effectively working together across Agencies. Competitive candidates will be strongly familiar with USAID’s Private Sector Engagement Policy, development finance, and a broad range of financial instruments and will have demonstrated exceptional skills in building relationships to forge pathways for cooperation across large, complex organizations. It’s an exciting time to join USAID, as we embark on a new era of expanded development cooperation across government, civil society, and private sector actors.

Qualified candidates will show evidence of:

• Graduate-level degree in a business, finance, international affairs, international development, public policy, or development finance related field;

• Minimum of five years of experience leading and motivating teams; giving sound advice, counsel, and instruction on both work and administrative matters; providing or arranging for needed development and training of team members; and developing performance standards;

• Minimum of five years of experience in program or project management, particularly as it relates to development finance, including proposal/application review, work plan development, transaction development/management, consultancy services related to transactions, and grants and/or contract management (as an A/COR or Activity Manager).

• Minimum of two years of experience in budget formulation, execution, and reporting for diverse project portfolio(s);

• Experience and knowledge of interagency dynamics and developing recommendations for leadership;
• Expertise in structuring, implementing and/or advising financial transactions in emerging or frontier markets;

• Proven success leading or supporting deal closure of complex investments and/or impactful implementation of development finance transactions;

• Strong analytical, organizational, written and oral communication skills, attention to detail, and ability to prioritize tasks and work efficiently;
• Solutions-oriented, customer-service motivated team player who is also able to work independently and on own initiative; and

• Outstanding interpersonal skills and the ability to develop relationships and navigate complex, multi-stakeholder partnerships.

Appointment Type: Foreign Service Limited (FSL)

Position Title: Supervisory Private Enterprise Officer

Grade: FP-01

Open Period: January 22 - February 5, 2020

Duty Location: USAID, Washington, DC

If you are interested in applying for this position, please submit a letter of interest, resume, and contact information for three references (one of which must be a current or former supervisor) no later than February 5, 2020 via email to lab-ctp-fsl-supervisory-priv-ent-officer-applications@usaid.gov. Applicants selected for an interview will also be asked to provide a writing sample.

About the Organization

USAID's new Private Sector Engagement policy signals an intentional shift to pursue market-based approaches and investment as a means to accelerate countries’ progress on the Journey to Self-Reliance. On this basis, the policy calls for USAID and our partners to ask and address the following questions every time we approach a development or humanitarian issue:

• Can the private sector solve this problem by itself?
• Could there be a market-based approach to addressing this challenge?
• What are the roles and interests of the private sector in addressing this challenge?
• Are there factors constraining the private sector from involvement and investment?
• Is there a role for USAID to help alleviate or eliminate these constraints?

By asking these questions in this order, USAID will focus on seeking more-sustainable and enterprise-driven outcomes from the outset of our planning and programming. In addition, we will look for how and why the private sector might be interested in collaborating to address an issue, and what unique capabilities and resources different private-sector actors might bring. Finally, we will actively identify ways in which we can work with the private sector to understand and address barriers to investment and market-development, which is essential to building countries’ capacity for self-reliance.