Expert Analyst - Green Finance

Remuneration:	market-related
Benefits:	Medical Aid contribution
Location:	Cape Town
Education level:	Masters
Job level:	Senior
Travel requirement:	Occasional
Type:	1year
Reference:	#GC_GreenFin Expert
Company:	GreenCape

The Expert Analyst: Green Finance role will provide technical and financial skills to GreenCape's Green Finance team. The candidate must have a passion for the South African green economy and a desire to lead and influence strategic interventions toward accelerating investments and finance in the green economy.

The Green Finance programme at GreenCape primarily looks to unlock and scale green finance by bridging the gap between supply and demand; through long-term partnerships and knowledge enhancement. The programme works across all sectors at GreenCape and its objectives include facilitating the advancement of knowledge and networks in the green finance sector; directing industry support to low-carbon projects and companies and further developing an ‘investment ready’ pipeline; developing innovative financing mechanisms and contextualising it to the South African landscape to scale green finance; and bridging the gap between demand for finance in the green economy and the supply of green finance.

The Green Finance team engages with a wide range of projects in the green economy sectors in South Africa, including the sectors actively supported by GreenCape – namely renewable energy, water & wastewater, agriculture and circular economy.

The candidate will have an opportunity to influence the direction of South Africa’s future green/sustainable finance landscape and support innovative initiatives that accelerate finance and investments in green and sustainable projects and businesses. This role will have an emphasis on supporting green/sustainable infrastructure projects in the public sector. Furthermore, there is an emphasis on projects that provide adaptation/resilience to climate change.

The role will include the following:

• Suitable green/sustainable investment pipeline identification.
• Pipeline development and preparation (managing feasibility to bankability studies).
• Funder and financier matching (including raising grant funding for project preparation).
• Designing and implementing innovative financing mechanisms to accelerate transaction volume towards green/sustainable investments and projects.

Required:

• Have strong communication skills (written and verbal), with confidence in both formal and informal public speaking engagements.
• Ability to lead, direct and influence external stakeholders an advantage.
• Be able to confidently initiate and foster productive, professional relationships with many stakeholders, including business, funders and government.
• Possess problem-solving skills and an ability to identify, understand and define interventions to drive and grow markets.
• Proactivity, taking initiative and confidence in own initiatives.
• Independent thinking and ability to assimilate a variety of ideas/inputs/data from colleagues and external stakeholders or data sources.
• Strong analytical skills.
• High level of professionalism.

Knowledge and experience:

• Seven+ years of relevant experience.
• Financial modelling, business case development, financial feasibility, commercial due diligence, financial structuring (relevance to infrastructure an advantage).
• Existing network within the finance, infrastructure and/or green economy sectors.
• Strong project management skills (including budgeting, planning, and management of external service providers, external stakeholders & internal team members).
• Proven track record of raising, and structuring funding or financing is an advantage.
• Implementation experience in developing infrastructure projects (public sector experience an advantage).
• Knowledge of impact metrics and risk frameworks (SDGs, SDG indicators, ESG, Equator Principles, IFC’s Performance Standards).
• Participate in or lead meetings and designing/leading workshops, and interact with government, green economy and finance sector stakeholders.

This is a full-time contract position. This contract will be renewed to a longer duration subject to GreenCape’s standard contracting conditions. Contract renewal will depend on performance and the HR requirements of the organisation at the time. There will be a six-month probation period for this position.

Posted on 18 Dec 09:31, Closing date 31 Jan