Vacancies at CrossBoundary

Who You Are

• Self-starter who is passionate about clean energy and its potential to transform underserved markets in Africa
• Comfortable with ambiguity; you are effective in a fast-moving and complex environment that does not have a fixed rule book.
• A practical thinker known for choosing the simple, robust solution where more complicated approaches would deliver the same results
• Patient and skilled at training up contractors to consistently deliver excellent work
• Sound commercial judgement; independently assesses the most economical interventions
• Considers the long-term view when evaluating the costs and benefits of a potential solution
• A creative problem-solver not afraid to get their hands dirty to untangle a complex issue
• High tolerance for ambiguity and an ability to operate effectively in a changing context
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to communicate clearly and effectively with diverse audiences
• Curiosity: Eagerness to take on new types of work, even without prior experience/direct supervision

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of relevant working experience
• Experience with operating or managing a portfolio of medium to large scale energy generation projects (thermal or solar PV) – consulting, developer, IPP, operator
• Understanding of the power system asset management environment including contracting structures, performance metrics, and guarantee structures, technical innovations, commercial and financial implications
• Understanding of key aspects that govern the configuration requirements of hybrid plants for different technologies [capex, opex, fuel efficiency curves, spinning reserve, PV oversupply, modularity, solar penetration, etc.]

Primary Responsibilities

• Responsible for leading and managing the overall technical and commercial performance of CBE’s operating portfolio of projects
• Manage and optimize the performance monitoring, reporting, and contract management systems at a portfolio level
• Ensure compliance of all statutory and contractual requirements for all projects in the operating portfolio
• Interface regularly and effectively with the operations and finance teams to continue improving on the systems and processes required to manage the operating portfolio
• Drive innovation with respect to hardware and software configuration (SCADA) to optimize plant performance and efficient management, invoicing, and reporting
• Provide commissioning support to the project delivery teams to facilitate effective handover from delivery to operation
• Continue to evaluate and assess the O&M contracting strategy to optimize cost and performance (i.e., Regional O&M portfolios, outsource vs insource)

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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

Required Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have the following skills and qualifications:

• 4+ years business experience at a top-tier management consulting or investment firm
• Bachelor’s and master’s degrees with either or both degrees related to business or energy
• Work experience across multiple African countries
• Work experience in the energy sector, renewable energy is a plus
• Fluency in a relevant local or regional language, e.g., French

Required skills and qualifications:

• 4+ years business experience at a top-tier firm
• Bachelor's and master’s degrees
• Work experience in emerging markets
• Experience or deep interest in investing
• Mastery of Excel and PowerPoint

Primary Responsibilities

• Support, evaluate, and improve CBE’s overall lead generation strategy throughout all relevant geographies
• Develop and iterate bespoke pricing for various project structures such as Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), leases, and loans across multiple geographies
• Develop and present custom proposals to clients and answer questions about the commercial, financial, legal, and technical aspects of a solar PPA contract
• Identify gaps in CBE’s value proposition to clients and generate new ideas for how to better serve them
• Support and problem solve with other BD team members to progress their projects to closure
• Advise and lead negotiations for a variety of renewable energy financing contracts with support from legal and other internal teams
• Assume responsibility for conducting diligence on complex large-scale projects to ensure they meet specified investment criteria
• Manage and update internal tools and systems to maximize efficiency of the BD process

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Who You Are

• A self-starter who is passionate about creating lasting change in frontier markets
• Seeks to take on new types of work, even without prior experience/direct supervision
• Shows willingness to work, travel, and live in a sometimes-challenging environment
• Has comfort with ambiguity and an ability to operate effectively in a changing context
• Can build strong relationships with clients and colleagues in stressful environments
• Applies a “hacker mindset” towards challenges and unsolved problems

Primary Responsibilities

• Management of data sets relevant to individual projects
• Analysis of historical data to identify past and current patterns as well as causal relationships
• Creation of predictive models, “What-if” scenarios, and time-series predictions
• Design of recommendation algorithms to select optimal choices from universe of options
• Co-teaming with advisory and other teams and driving them to connect the data to valuable insights
• Management of relationships with stakeholders to create trust in the project deliverables

Qualifications

The ideal candidate will have the following skills and qualifications:

• 3 years of work experience (or applicable post-graduate education), with 1 year of experience working in high-caliber data science or consulting organizations
• Experience working in developing countries will be regarded favorably
• Expertise in at least one data-focused programming language (e.g.: Python, R, MATLAB)
• Expertise in advanced statistical applications: non-parametric regression and classification, Bayesian methods, etc.
• Expertise in visualization libraries (e.g.: Plotly, ggplot2, Tableau)
• Experience in version control (e.g.: Git/GitHub) is a plus
• Experience manipulating and transforming large data sets (e.g.: SQL, Spark, HDFS) is a plus
• Experience in numerical optimization (e.g.: gradient-based techniques and MILP) is a plus
• Experience with GIS tools (e.g.: ArcGIS, QGIS) is a plus
• Ability to work independently and to learn new skills with minimal supervision
• Excellent presentation skills; ability to communicate clearly and effectively with diverse audiences

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Primary Responsibilities

• Lead a team of investment professionals, maintaining responsibility for hiring, capacity building, performance management, and general team leadership duties
• Lead business development across multiple channels, including private commercial opportunities and government- / donor-sponsored opportunities
• Provide continuous client coverage of private capital investors, development finance institutions (DFIs), corporates ranging from SMEs to MNCs, and other relevant organizations to proactively identify advisory opportunities
• Manage relationships with key CrossBoundary clients, such as USAID; provide strategic into program design and oversee mandate execution and reporting
• Provide deal and project leadership and execution oversight to a wide range of transaction-related advisory engagements:
  • Investment target identification and screening
  • Use conventional and unconventional channels to identify and rigorously assess investment opportunities
  • For targets that are not yet investment-ready, be able to concisely map out paths to investability and resources required to achieve investability 
  • Be able to credibly articulate investment opportunities’ social and environmental impact narratives
• Investor identification and relationship building
  • Understand investor mandates, criteria, preferences, and existing portfolios
  • Understand investor appetite to work with DFIs or other development-oriented actors
  • Manage investor relationships
• Detailed commercial due diligence/vendor due diligence
  • Directly conduct or facilitate investor (‘buy-side) commercial due diligence
  • Compile and curate a comprehensive virtual data room
• Robust, multi-faceted corporate and project finance models, including valuations, of private companies using rigorous, defensible methodologies
• Draft investment memoranda and teasers, author and update sophisticated financial models
• Recommendations on optimal transaction structures based upon near-, medium- and long-term company strategic objectives and capitalization parameters, available instruments, and investor preferences
  • Draft detailed illustrative term sheets for debt and equity deals

• Market assessment and ongoing market analysis
  • Conduct macroeconomic and geopolitical market assessments
  • Provide sector analysis of priority areas for investment

Qualifications

Ideal candidate will have the following skills and qualifications (* indicates required):

• Demonstrated leadership skills, preferably in fast moving and complex environments*
• Excellent analytical ability and discipline; ability to think clearly, structure problems logically and then design and implement solutions that focus on the core issues*
• Excellent quantitative skills: ability to apply analytical rigor to complex and uncertain tasks*
• Knowledge of corporate finance and familiarity with company evaluation and valuation techniques*
• Ability to build strong relationships with clients and colleagues in stressful environments*
• Excellent presentation skills: ability to communicate clearly and effectively with diverse audiences*
• Comfort with ambiguity; ability to operate effectively in a changing context*
• Willingness to work and live in sometimes challenging environment*
• Knowledge of East African investment landscape (or previous work experience in East Africa) *
• Experience working with a range of stakeholders (including private equity firms, Development Finance Institutions, and development agencies) to support investments in high impact sectors
• 8+ years of experience working in high caliber finance or consulting organizations
• Past experience working in investment space in East Africa preferred
• Bachelor’s degree required. A Master’s degree in Business Administration or Finance or other relevant advanced degree preferred (extensive relevant experience may be accepted as equivalent)