Investment Associate/Executive, Capital Solutions

Purpose and Role of the Asset Allocation and Capital Solutions Team

The Asset Allocation and Capital Solutions team sits within the Office for the Chief Investment Officer (OCIO). OCIO works with investment teams to set and execute the investment strategy across all sectors, products, regions and capital portfolios. OCIO covers five areas overseen by the Chief Investment Officer:

·         Asset Allocation and Capital Solutions (“AACS”)

·         Investment Policy and Decision Making

·         Portfolio Management

·         Fund Solutions

·         Special Situations

The AACS team works across two priority areas for BII:

·         Asset Allocation: Providing strategic direction on shaping BII’s future portfolio to deliver our impact and financial objectives across geographies, sectors and products. The team will provide an anchor point to prioritise and guide decision-making on these opportunities, in collaboration with key partners across the firm.

·         Capital Solutions: Providing the tools to deliver BII’s development goals, either through existing pools of capital (Growth, Catalyst, BII Plus and Kinetic) or with new pools of capital and partnerships, for which key parameters around impact, risk, return and governance must be designed and managed.

Purpose of this role

This role will support the expanding remit of the Capital Solutions team. The focus of the role is in supporting the implementation of Kinetic facilities but as part of a collegiate team with a broader mandate, the candidates will also contribute to other work being delivered by the Capital Solutions team.

Kinetic facilities enable BII to make blended and concessional investments. The Climate Innovation Facility (CIF), the first BII Kinetic facility, was launched in late 2021. CIF is designed to enable BII to test and seed innovative, scalable, yet unproven technologies, businesses or investment strategies that have the potential for transformative climate impact across BII’s markets. More information is available here

Responsibilities

Kinetic facilities (80% focus)

Kinetic facility management

·         Lead on financial management, working with relevant investment and operations teams at BII. This includes collecting accurate and timely data for shareholder pipeline reporting, cash flow forecasting and drawdowns of funds.  

·         Lead on monthly and quarterly shareholder reporting including collating financial and impact information as required. Support the development of Kinetic annual report(s).

·         Support internal communications and learning for investment teams, investment committee members and executive/non-executive management on Kinetic facilities.

New capital

·         Support the design, development and negotiation of new pools of capital for BII to complement BII’s existing toolkit. At the start of 2024 BII is exploring two new Kinetic facilities with FCDO – one focused on Mobilisation and one focused on deals in Low Income Countries. For each new pool of capital, key workstreams will include full cycle design, development and execution, including:

§  Work with Innovative Finance team members across the business to finalise funding agreements with FCDO.

§  Support the development of internal processes and documentation required for BII to administrate each facility.

§  Support development of communications materials to raise awareness of the facilities internally and externally.

Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL)

·         Coordinate Capital Solutions team inputs on the Climate Innovation Facility (CIF) MEL project, working with BII’s Evaluations team and external consultants. This includes reviewing the monitoring plan for all CIF investments, supporting the development of the CIF research agenda and supporting facility-level evaluations.

·         Support the development of MEL frameworks for new facilities, working with relevant investment and development impact teams.

·         Support the development of investment and facility-level learnings and case studies for both internal and external dissemination.

Other areas of work led by the Capital Solutions team (20% focus)

·         Support the Capital Solutions team in designing and implementing cross-company projects that help BII to identify capital gaps, expand its toolkit and reach impact objectives. 

·         Facilitate sharing of best practices in blended finance within BII and to/from the wider innovative finance community.

·         Supporting the implementation of BII’s partnerships with third parties including with Allied Climate Partners, the Shell Foundation and the Global Energy Alliance for People and Planet (GEAPP) and maximise the mutual value of such collaborations.

The Candidate

Background and experience

Looking for a mix of:

·         Experience in international development and/or sustainable, responsible or impact investing.

·         Experience managing grant-funded and/or blended finance programmes or facilities.

·         Experience working with donors such as FCDO and international foundations.

·         Experience living and/or working in Africa/Asia.

Competencies

·         Excellent project management skills, including independently driving workstreams.

·         Strong communication and presentation skills, both written and verbal.

·         Strong numerical, analytical and problem-solving skills.

·         Solution-oriented with the ability to think both creatively and strategically.

·         Ability to source and analyse data from multiple sources, and to synthesise this into key learnings.

·         Fluency in English required.

Style and motivation

·         Excited and energised by the potential for transformative impact through the role.

·         Creative, innovative and entrepreneurial spirit. Comfort with pioneering a path where none currently exists. Equally, able to prioritise and focus energy on key outcomes.

·         Ability to work collaboratively across teams, and to engage with multiple stakeholders to bring people along on the journey.

·         Possess an ownership mentality including a desire to take responsibility and being empowered to drive progress across key projects.

·         Comfortable with the complexity and ambiguity of the markets and products BII operates within.

·         Strongly motivated by BII’s development mission and should be able to demonstrate some commitment to development or social goals.

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

Salary: Competitive