Business Development Associate - Mining at CrossBoundary

 Job Description

• CrossBoundary Energy (CBE) is recruiting a full-time Business Development Associate for the Mining team. You will actively support CBE’s investments in renewable energy-hybrid assets for mining projects throughout Africa. The team will rely on your market research, price quotes, customer proposals, and analytical support to signing project with mining customers.  You’ll apply and further develop your multidisciplinary expertise in marketing, project finance, and financial modelling to designing sales documents. While evaluating leads and supporting contract negotiations, the Business Development Associate will manage correspondence with a variety of stakeholders across Africa and across the world, and lead on performing due diligence on potential clients. You will report to the Business Development Director and work with them to track and assess the team’s business development pipeline to drive strategic decision-making.

Who You Are

• Self-starter who is passionate about clean energy and its potential to transform underserved markets across Africa 
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; crisp, clear, concise, and persuasive communicator 
• Strong quantitative skills; mastery of building, manipulating, reviewing, and correcting financial and pricing models  
• Empathetic and thoughtful listener who strives to learn from clients’ perspectives 
• Articulate, assertive negotiator who enjoys challenging preconceived notions and welcomes debate and disagreement as learning opportunities 
• Experienced at identifying champions and building coalitions within corporate bureaucracies to get things done; recognizes the unique challenges of business-to-business sales 
• Sound business judgment; able to independently evaluate and prioritize commercial initiatives 
• Fast learner who can effectively distill complex issues down to simple, clear, targeted messaging 
• Ability to identify and connect with a broad range of audiences 
• Comfort with ambiguity; thrives in a changing, challenging context 

Primary Responsibilities

• Gain expert understanding of the mining sector, key players, business models, and value drivers
• Conduct desktop due diligence of potential projects and clients
• Own and operate the financial model for hybrid pricing in line with client needs and within commercial and technical constraints
• Develop and present custom proposals to clients and answer questions about the commercial, financial, legal, and technical aspects of a hybrid PPA contract
• Manage electronic communication with client stakeholders across the local and regional levels and across various functions within the client organizations including technical, procurement, financial and leadership
• Translate customer feedback on CBE’s product into proposals for new products or features
• Support project Investment Committee approvals through the financial analysis of the clients and preparation of summary materials and due diligence
• Track and assess data about our sales pipeline and active projects using our CRM tool (MS Dynamics), database (S&P Capital) and prepare regular recurring reports.
• Manage and update internal tools and systems to maximize efficiency of the BD process 

Qualifications
Ideal candidate will have the following skills and qualifications:

• 2+ years working in management consulting, financial advisory, or investment at a top tier firm and a strong professional network across multiple African countries, especially East or West Africa  
• Experience building and designing custom financial models from scratch
• Work experience in mining and/or renewable energy, in East or West Africa
• Excellent communicator and presenter

Required skills and qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree
• Work experience in emerging markets
• Experience in reviewing and correcting financial models 
• 2+ years’ work experience in an international business role
• Expert-level proficiency in the Microsoft Suite, notably Excel and PowerPoint