Manager/ Executive, Infrastructure and Climate Development Impact

Team overview

• BII’s Development Impact Investment teams are market-leading and provide technical leadership to assess, manage and evaluate the impact of our investments. BII’s objective is to push the boundaries in impact management within a world-class impact framework. We take an active approach to impact management, utilising an impact management framework based on the Impact Management Project’s consensus and the Operating Principles for Impact Management.
• The role sits in the Development Impact Investment team, which itself sits within the infrastructure and Climate (I&C) group. The group focus on project finance, energy access and efficiency, and infrastructure via direct private debt and equity financing solutions, as well as managing BII’s portfolio of intermediated investments.
• We embed impact professionals within our investment teams working side by side to actively manage the impact of every investment we make. This role will be working in collaboration with the wider impact group, especially the Climate team. This approach is designed to create deals teams with the professional capability and expertise to reflect our mandate to improve people’s lives and make a financial return.

Role Purpose

• Ensures effective and high-quality impact management of the I&C portfolio consistent with BII’s Impact Framework within the I&C sector.
• Lead and support the development of impact-led investment strategies within the I&C Group, supporting origination of investments where BII can make the greatest difference to people’s lives and the planet.
• Lead the delivery of impact management activities (supported by) within the I&C Group.
• The role will report to the Director, Development Impact Investment Lead for I&C (DI I&C) and have specific responsibilities as the embedded team member for one or more of the I&C sector teams (Infrastructure Equity, Project Finance, Infrastructure and Climate Funds, Energy Access and Efficiency).

Role Responsibilities

Specific responsibilities will be driven by priorities and the dynamic needs of the team at the time, but are expected to include the following:

Relationship and representation

• Primary contact point for the relevant Sector team, attending and representing development impact in relevant meetings
• Ensuring appropriate communication of priorities, changes to processes and frameworks etc to investment teams
• Manage sector-specific relationships including with experts, peers and suppliers
• Represent BII externally at events in specialist areas
• Assess development impact as part of the investment due diligence process. Working seamlessly with investment team colleagues to inform the investment decision and define the impact objectives.

Managing the workplan for the sector and delivering impact management activities

• Assessing development impact as part of the investment due diligence process. Working seamlessly with investment team colleagues to inform the investment decision and define the impact objectives and appropriately escalating issues.
• Developing a high-quality development impact dashboard for each investment based on the Impact Management Project’s consensus which will involve desk research, facilitating discussions, due diligence and managing external suppliers where necessary.
• Defining the monitoring plan for the investments and post investment, collecting the impact metrics to track actual impact of investments, ensuring analysis is timely and high quality.
• Leading the portfolio management by assessing how investments are performing against their initial development objectives, determining when course corrections are required and completing exit reviews, feeding back learning to the investment team and the broader organisation.
• Managing investments to enhance development impact including sustainability by working closely with climate, environment, social, and business integrity (ESG) teams.
• Developing and delivering strategies for the sector ensuring consistency with BII wide strategies and frameworks.
• Developing sector framework and tools (e.g., benchmarks) ensuring consistency with BII wide strategies and frameworks.

Support and contribute to the wider Impact Management team in the Impact Group, as well as the wider I&C team

• Contribute to the continual development of BII’s impact management framework ensuring tools, systems, policies, and capabilities remain world class.
• Developing the overall capability and team effectiveness of the Development Impact team and sharing learnings within the team, the broader Impact Group and the organisation.
• Participate in hiring and coaching new joiners   to ensure all activities within the sector are consistent with sector approach.
• Manage junior team members particularly the graduate analysts joining the I&C DI team.

The candidate

Background

• Strong knowledge, relationships and networks in impact investing by either being from/having worked in the South Asia and Southeast Asia region.
• Strong academic credentials. Preferably a Master’s in economics, Development Economics or equivalent analytical post graduate degree.
• Strong work experience in a relevant field, preferably as an impact manager within impact investment or, at a minimum, with a good grounding in development impact management with a private sector mindset.
• Work experience of impact management in the infrastructure sector and strong understanding of the challenges resulting from Climate Change.

Skills

• Practical understanding of impact management, private sector development and how to achieve development outcomes through investment with a focus on the priorities of the infrastructure sector.
• Experience of making high quality judgment calls to make impact investment decisions and manage impact outcomes. Conscious of costs and benefits and capability to explain opportunities and challenges to investee companies.
• Understanding of underlying commercial strategies and ability to consider development impact in an entrepreneurial and pragmatic manner.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills. Confident dealing with complexity and can combine objective quantitative analysis with expert qualitative judgment. Confident in managing data and collating and presenting evidence.
• Good knowledge and network of third parties in infrastructure sector and impact management who can be leveraged to help deliver enhanced impact with our investee companies.
• Strong project management, analysis, and reporting skills, with the ability to deliver data and insights informed strategic approaches. Able to prioritise tasks and manage multiple work streams simultaneously in a complex and fast-moving environment.
• Strong communication skills: the ability to describe complex development impact scenarios with accuracy and concision and the ability to explain development impact to non-professionals and across a range of cultural backgrounds.
• Self-starter with a bias for action who is resilient, with a problem-solving approach.
• Proven capability of leadership, effective teamwork and strong stakeholder/relationship management.
• The role will require regular travel, mostly within Africa and South Asia to work with investee companies.

Aptitude

• Demonstrates a high level of commitment to BII’s mission and objectives, showing ambition to progress the work of BII
• Acts as an inclusive role model for teamwork and collaboration with colleagues across BII
• Takes accountability for their actions and decisions and shows collaboration and initiative to deliver the best outcome.
• The role holder should be strongly motivated by BII’s development mission and ideally demonstrate some commitment to development or social goals through previous work or personal 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

BII 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 include a Cover Letter with your application.