Sector Strategist, Infrastructure & Climate

About BII

British International Investment is the UK’s development finance institution, owned by the UK Government. With a mission to solve the biggest global development challenges, we aim to create a virtuous circle of investment and impact. Your contribution will be essential. 

It won’t be easy: we do the hardest work in the most complex markets. Be prepared to test your skills, get creative and say your piece as you take on high-profile work as part of a diverse team of exceptionally smart, passionate people. 

In return, you can take your career to all-new places in a culture that rewards curiosity and collaboration, and balances high performance with wellbeing.

BII at a glance

Over 75 years supporting sustainable business growth in developing and emerging markets

More than £8.8 billion in net assests

1,400+ businesses invested in

950,000 workers in the businesses we support 

650+ people in our diverse global team

3 key development objectives: Productive | Sustainable | Inclusive

Team overview

The Infrastructure & Climate Group

• BII invests via three investment verticals: Infrastructure & Climate, Financial Services, and Industries, Technology, and Services. Within each of these verticals, we invest across the capital structure via debt, equity, and funds.
• The Infrastructure and Climate (I&C) vertical at BII typically accounts for one-third of our annual investment and focuses on a range of sectors including power (generation, transmission and distribution as well as renewable energy derivatives such as green hydrogen), ports & logistics (including cold chain), water/waste treatment and e-mobility. Under BII’s 2022-26 Strategy, I&C has led the organisation’s shift into climate finance as well as its expansion into Southeast Asia, and most I&C investment volume is now in climate-aligned sectors.

The I&C vertical is organised by product and region, with six investment teams:

• Infrastructure Equity Africa and Infrastructure Equity Asia
• Project Finance Africa and Project Finance Asia
• Energy Access & Efficiency
• Infrastructure & Climate Funds

The Sector Strategist role

• Given the critical importance of basic infrastructure to economic development, and the volume and variety of new investments that are needed to help our markets combat climate change and respond to its effects, the Sector Strategist plays a key role within the I&C team. The core role of the Sector Strategist is to help support BII build a successful and high-impact Infrastructure portfolio that covers the full breadth of infrastructure and climate needs across our markets, by developing knowledge, networks, perspective and reputation.

 The Infrastructure Sector Strategist works towards this goal by:

• Collaborating across the BII I&C teams to identify common themes and trends and help articulate “house” views on countries/sub-sectors to ensure a coherent investment strategy across different product lines (equity/project finance/funds), as well as supporting investment teams in developing new relationships in nascent sub-sectors
• Providing more clarity on BII’s goals and capabilities in Infrastructure to external market participants, co-investors and partners, as well as wider stakeholders

 Key responsibilities of the Sector Strategist include:

• Managing the I&C strategy definition process by working with I&C leadership to identify gaps in our approach to the Infrastructure sector and undertaking work to define how to fill these gaps. This happens through an annual stock-take as well as ongoing and ad hoc projects in response to evolving market trends.
• Leading or supporting more detailed sub-sector strategy development projects focused on emerging themes and/or market mappings. These will generally be in-house projects managed by the Strategist, with occasional contracted-out work overseen by the Strategist.
• In collaboration with deal teams, communicating I&C’s strategy and full set of capabilities (including our track record, portfolio, etc) in conversations with prospective clients, co-investors, industry actors, and local stakeholders in our markets
• Representing I&C in BII-wide strategy exercises and new initiatives; past examples include working with the Climate team on our Net Zero strategy and our approach to managing climate risk, working with the Risk team on our evolving risk framework, and working with Corporate Strategy on the annual target-setting and business planning exercise.
• Promoting I&C-wide collaboration by monitoring and socializing market trends, enhancing internal knowledge sharing and supporting I&C’s “Centres of Excellence”, cross-product working groups focused on key sub-sectors
• Connecting with external expertise – for example, by developing an external network of sector experts, through external engagement efforts (speaking opportunities or publications), or managing relationships and projects with our shareholder FCDO
• Raising I&C’s presence in the industry by ensuring our representation at key industry conferences and working to prepare I&C leadership, country directors, and BII leadership for infrastructure-related speaking and media opportunities.

Other roles the Sector Strategist may play from time to time include:

• Developing methodologies for investment teams to use in novel analyses or transaction-related research
• Providing technical, transactional advice to Infrastructure investment teams on sourcing and structuring climate-related investments.
• Leading or supporting new strategies or product design efforts focusing on using our concessional and blended finance resources to achieve greater impact in infrastructure
• Managing updates to the Infrastructure Pitchbook and marketing materials
• Carrying out country-level research and feeding into country-specific sector plans (for the biggest markets)
• Supporting overall corporate priorities such as climate change and gender lens investing, and overall corporate strategy development, including BII’s annual Business Plan process and upcoming 2027-31 Strategy development process and external collaborators
• The main ‘internal client’ of the Sector Strategist will be the Infrastructure & Climate investment teams. The Sector Strategist will be product agnostic and will need to develop close working relationships with leadership of the various equity, debt, and funds investment teams. (S)he will be embedded alongside investment colleagues, while working closely with other BII teams including the Impact Group, country teams and the Corporate Strategy team.
• Externally, the sector strategist will maintain close contact with sector experts, peers in other like-minded investment and development finance institutions, and BII’s own shareholder FCDO. Developing networks with sponsors and companies active in our markets will be important although investment teams will own the relationship for specific deals and portfolio companies.
• This is a mid-senior level role at BII pitched at the Manager (or senior Executive) level.

About you:

• (S)he will have extensive commercial and/or strategy experience in development finance, emerging markets investment, or infrastructure (including consulting, investment and/or strategy functions, and ideally climate-related transaction/investing experience); this experience may be via a mix of the following settings:
• Strategy consultancy within a practice area focused on a particular industry or sector
• Developer or operating companies (possibly in a business development or corporate strategy role)
• Investment organizations or investment banks with in-house sector expertise or a sector-focused investment strategy
• There will be a strong preference towards experience gained in African and/or Asian markets.

If you are the successful candidate, you are likely to exhibit:

• Considerable Infrastructure sector knowledge – with an emphasis on breadth of knowledge rather than very in-depth knowledge of a particular part of a sector
• Understanding of climate themes relevant to Infrastructure investments
• Analytical yet pragmatic approaches to problem-solving and comfort with both qualitative and quantitative research & analysis.
• Independence and comfort with working as an individual contributor with responsibility for both the details and the strategic direction of a project
• High standards for project delivery and strong project management skills
• Experience working in a multi-stakeholder environment, an excellent coordinator
• Strong social and interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to influence across a range of stakeholders and at different levels to build consensus
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and experience with senior executive and Board-level communication
• You will be strongly motivated by BII’s mission and ideally demonstrate some commitment to international development through previous professional or personal activities.

Our cultural values

We look for team members who aspire, as we do, to work at our best and to be:

• Impact-led, commercially rigorous
• Tenacious in the face of challenges
• Collaborative and caring

British International Investment is committed to diversity and inclusion and welcomes all applicants regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation or educational background.   

Please provide a cover letter with your application