Manager/Executive (FSG) – Gender & Diversity Finance (12m FTC)

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 and role overview

As a development finance institution, BII has a dual mandate to create both investment and development impact. In the context of BIIs 2022-26 five-year strategy, BII has prioritised promoting gender equality and increased representation of women in our portfolio at all levels as well as Black ownership and leadership in our investments in sub-Saharan Africa.

We approach our Gender & Diversity lens investing by focusing on three pathways:

• Mainstreaming consideration of diversity elements as a core factor in investment decision-making and portfolio management
• Originating with a gender and diversity lens to intentionally target our capital to enterprising, financial institutions and funds that meaningfully support women and black African business leaders.
• Value creation across our portfolio by partnering with our investees to make changes to improve gender balance and diverse representation across the business.

The role

This job description relates to the duties, tasks and responsibilities of the Gender & Diversity Finance Manager or Executive position – the level will be determined based on previous experience and qualifications. Role responsibilities will vary overtime depending on activities and evolving priorities across the Gender & Diversity Finance team and will, of necessity, remain flexible as workplans evolve. 

The ideal candidate will be a self-starter who is highly collaborative and a good communicator, with strong analytical skills and high attention to detail. The candidate will have a demonstrated interested in gender and diversity finance, and how the private sector can drive impact across these themes in BII’s markets and portfolio. The candidate will ideally come from a commercial or development background with expertise across gender, finance/business and sustainability more broadly.

Responsibilities

Supporting the implementation of BII’s Gender & Diversity strategy and executing cross-cutting projects will involve working closely with both investment and impact teams. This role will focus on working with the Financial Services team, working across debt, equity, trade finance, and fund products.

Management responsibilities:

• Contributing to the execution of BII’s G&D Finance Strategy including working closely across teams to ensure that BII’s G&D offering is fully embedded across all systems, governance documents, operating procedures; ensure effective roll out of key products developed by the team including those related to training and capacity building, tools
• Oversee the FSG pipeline and ensure that G&D targets are being met, including regular tracking and collaborating with the Portfolio Management team and reporting up to the Inclusion Steering Committee
• Oversee the delivery of gender impact for FSG Plus programme, working closely with FSG Plus team and Gender Technical Lead to identify, design and implement gender TA projects and deliver on gender impact objectives for the programme
• Co-chairing the FSG Gender Working Group, Gender Working Group, an internal community driving forward gender-smart investing within the FI space
• Oversee the Women in Leadership value creation workstream, managing partnership relationships with The Boardroom Africa and WinPE, leading on the implementation of the Women On Boards project, and engaging with the Portfolio Management team on board nominee inclusive processes

Due diligence and analysis:

• Conduct assessments of pipeline investments for gender and diversity finance gaps and opportunities using the 2X criteriaand BOLD framework
• Engaging with investees to understand and influence their approach to gender and diversity
• Coordinating assessment across the relevant investment and impact teams
• Contributing findings into investment proposals and presenting the G&D case in investment committees
• Ensuring proper data and documentation is saved and stored and the required pre-investment steps are taken
• Keeping up-to-date with deal flow and deal management databases for transactions covered by FSG

Portfolio management and value creation:

• Working across the Impact Group teams (ESG, Development Impact, Business Integrity, Climate, and BII Plus) to deliver on value creation projects
• Working with FSG Plus team to support identification and implementation of G&D focused technical assistance projects
• Supporting design and implementation of G&D-related technical assistance projects with investees
• Supporting monitoring and management of G&D impact data of investees

Market-shaping:

• Attending and participating in key industry and knowledge-sharing events
• Engaging with key stakeholders and G&D strategic partnerships including 2X Global, FCDO, peer group DFIs, gender advisors

The candidate

Background, skills and aptitude

The ideal candidate will have all or a good selection of the following:

• Demonstrated interest in gender-smart investing and gender equality and women’s economic empowerment through a private sector lens
• Strong business, investment and sustainability acumen with the ability to quickly grasp varying investment and business models
• Previous experience working in international development or emerging markets or demonstrable knowledge working within local contexts and having cultural sensitivity
• Excellent research and analytical skills and comfort with basic financial modelling and data analysis using Excel
• Strong communicator with ability to structure and report findings in a coherent and practical way
• Ability to deliver high quality work, with close attention to detail, within tight timelines

Technical competencies

The ideal candidate will have all or a good selection of the following:

• Experience in delivering G&D impact in developing countries and emerging markets
• Experience in impact investing and working with development finance institutions
• Familiarity with different investment products, including Funds, Debt, Equity and alternative asset classes; as well as BII’s priority sectors
• Experience in providing direct transaction support, including pre-investment inputs (e.g. screening deals for gender impact, undertaking gender due-diligence, etc) and post-investment capacity building (e.g. value creation work with investees)
• Advanced degree or comparable experience in the domain of development impact/gender studies/social science or business (e.g. MBA, CFA, ACA or similar)
• Advanced MS office: Excel, PowerPoint, Word, SharePoint
• Understanding of the 2X Criteria / 2X Challenge / 2X Global
• Proficiency in French is a plus

Candidates should be strongly motivated by BII’s development mission and ideally demonstrate some commitment to development or social goals through previous executive or non-executive activity.

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