Researcher, Responsible Investing 18 month FTC - London

About BII

British International Investment (BII) is the UK’s leading development finance institution, wholly owned by the UK Government. Our primary mission is to address global development challenges through strategic investments that promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

BII focuses on catalysing economic development, creating jobs, and building resilient economies in some of the world's most complex and underserved markets. We invest in businesses and projects that prioritise inclusive development, environmental sustainability, and innovation.

Our approach is characterised by rigorous investment standards, high governance principles, and a commitment to delivering measurable development impact. Our team consists of highly skilled and passionate professionals dedicated to making a tangible difference globally.

We foster a collaborative and intellectually stimulating work environment that values curiosity, innovation, and professional growth. Our culture balances high performance with a strong emphasis on wellbeing, ensuring our employees can achieve their full potential while contributing to our mission.

BII at a glance:

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

More than £9.9 billion in net assets

1,600+ 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

• The Responsible Investing (RI) team sits within the Impact Group and plays a crucial role in reinforcing BII’s reputation as a responsible investor. The team ensures BII meets its regulatory commitments and drives higher standards in financial crime risk management, corporate governance, and environmental and social practices across the private sector.
• The RI Team is structured into three sector teams aligning with our investment pillars: Financial Services (FSG), Infrastructure & Climate (I&C), and Industries, Technology & Services (ITS). It is made up of Business Integrity (BI), Corporate Governance and Environmental & Social (ES) specialists, focusing on the management of a range of risk-related topics. The team collaborates closely with investment colleagues to ensure BII’s Policy for Responsible Investment (PRI) is effectively applied throughout all transactions and portfolio companies. The RI team is responsible for shaping and operationalising the PRI, ensuring it remains fit for purpose in BII’s investment activities. With professionals based in the UK, India, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, the team manages investment assessments, portfolio oversight, capacity building, issues management, and market-shaping initiatives that drive improved responsible investing standards and add value across BII’s portfolio.
• Research forms a key underpinning to much of the Responsible Investing team’s work to assess and mitigate integrity and E&S related risks in our investments. The Research function provides expertise in delivering this support to other parts of the team, helping to identify, analyse and prioritise key risk issues.

Purpose

• You will support BII’s Responsible Investing team by identifying and assessing integrity, environmental and social risks in the investment pipeline and portfolio, primarily through desktop-based open-source research, also working with new forms of technology, such as AI platforms. 

Responsibilities

• Work closely with each Responsible Investing lead on proposed transactions to conduct business integrity due diligence and research tailored to the transaction’s risks and context. Your primary responsibility will be to undertake comprehensive desktop research (media and online databases) on individual investment proposals as part of integrity due diligence, analyse the findings in the context of the investment, and write concise and rigorously fact-checked “red-flag” reports for the benefit of the BI lead, investment teams, and senior stakeholders.
• Undertake wider screening of environmental and social risk red flags from public record screening, including analysis around market and investee context in this regard.
• Agree the scope of research to be conducted for each transaction and provide regular updates on research findings to relevant stakeholders.
• Maintain an accurate and comprehensive record of the research conducted.
• Assist in meeting the RI team’s portfolio monitoring commitments by conducting regular research in support of ‘Know Your Customer’ refreshes, helping prepare monitoring materials, collecting reports and data, and organising monitoring schedules.
• Develop the RI team’s country and thematic knowledge and take a leading role to improve BII’s internal research tools, sources, and processes.
• Support the adoption and integration of AI into research and portfolio management processes, adopting a rigorous and ethical approach to its usage.
• Contribute to briefing notes and documents published as part of the team’s external communications programme and assist in the delivery of training and awareness sessions on integrity issues both within and external to BII.

The candidate

• 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.

Essential skills

• Experience in conducting enhanced due diligence research, rigorous intelligence gathering, and analysis around corruption and/or financial crime issues.
• Excellent written communication skills in English and proficient language skills in French.
• Demonstrated experience in BII’s geographies, particularly Africa
• Familiarity with a wide range of external data sources, including online databases, to be accessed and interpreted as a part of the due diligence process.
• Ability to proactively recalibrate research scopes where necessary.
• Ability to clearly and accurately articulate complex findings.
• Excellent time and project management skills to enable prioritisation across multiple research deadlines for various internal and sometimes external stakeholders.
• International experience and interest in developing countries.
• University degree.

Desirable skills 

• Experience working in a research capacity relevant to corporate investigations, business intelligence, environmental and social risk, or political risk analysis.
• Postgraduate qualification.

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.