Chief Investment Officer

Role and Responsibilities

• Translate the existing investment strategy, investment thesis, and portfolio construction guidelines into clear, actionable asset-allocation decisions. 
• Determine capital deployment priorities, balancing risk, return, and impact objectives across sectors and geographies. 
• Set deployment pacing and manage sequencing of investment opportunities to ensure optimal utilisation of capital. 
• Monitor portfolio performance, including returns, risk exposures, concentration levels, and compliance with portfolio guidelines. 
• Make rebalancing decisions when required, adjusting allocations in response to market conditions, performance trends, or strategic refinements. 
• Provide regular portfolio analytics and insights to leadership and governance bodies (e.g., Investment Committee, Board). 
  
  

• Build and maintain a strong, high-quality pipeline of investable opportunities aligned with the client’s mandate. 
• Develop deep market and sector intelligence, tracking trends, regulatory developments, and emerging opportunities across Southern Africa. 
• Cultivate strategic relationships with co-funders, developers, banks, advisors, and regulators to expand sourcing channels. 
• Prioritise opportunities based on strategic fit, scalability, readiness, and expected risk-adjusted returns. 

1. Evaluation, Diligence & Deal Execution 

• Conduct front-end evaluation of opportunities, including financial modelling, valuation, scenario analysis, and preliminary commercial assessment. 
• Lead and coordinate full due diligence across technical, legal, ESG, regulatory, and commercial workstreams. 
• Prepare and present investment cases, recommendations, and Investment Committee materials. 
• Drive negotiation of commercial terms, transaction structuring, and execution through to deal close. 
• Ensure investments are executed in alignment with asset-allocation decisions, risk management frameworks, and strategic objectives.
  
  

• Strengthen investment governance, including screening criteria, approval workflows, documentation standards, and reporting structures. 
• Implement robust investment processes and systems that ensure consistency, quality, and compliance across the investment lifecycle. 
• Build internal investment capability by developing the team’s analytical, modelling, and execution competencies. 
• Establish high-performance standards, workflows, and knowledge-sharing practices across the investment function. 
• Foster a culture of disciplined investment decision-making and continuous improvement. 

Requirements

• 7+ years in infrastructure investing, PPPs, project finance, development finance, or private equity with an infrastructure focus. 
• Demonstrated experience closing multiple long-duration infrastructure and PPP transactions, including origination, evaluation, due diligence, structuring, and execution. 
• Strong origination capability with a proven ability to build, manage, and convert a pipeline. 
• Experience managing junior team members and building investment execution capacity. 
• Strong familiarity with the regional infrastructure landscape and its commercial, regulatory, and political drivers. 
• Proven experience navigating government stakeholders, including National Treasury, regulators, municipalities, and SOEs. 
• Knowledge of PPP deal structures, concession frameworks, payment mechanisms, and multi-year bid processes. 
• Strong network across the infrastructure and PPP ecosystem, including developers, banks, DFIs, advisors, regulators, and co-funders. 

• Advanced academic qualification in finance, economics, business, or a related quantitative field. 
• Strong capability in financial modelling, valuation, returns analysis, and scenario development. 
• Familiarity with key due diligence components across legal, technical, ESG, regulatory, and commercial areas. 
• Knowledge of PPP structures, concession frameworks, and infrastructure deal documentation.  
• Knowledge of transaction structuring, term sheets, and core deal documentation. 
• Understanding of risk frameworks, portfolio construction logic, and investment governance. 
• Awareness of regulatory and compliance considerations relevant to investment transactions. 
• High proficiency in Excel, PowerPoint, and financial analysis tools. 

• Strategic thinker with the ability to connect market insights, investor signals, and organisational priorities into clear engagement approaches. 
• Strong leadership presence, able to influence decision-making and guide internal teams through complex or evolving workstreams. 
• Confident communicator who can articulate nuanced concepts clearly to senior stakeholders, both internally and externally. 
• Highly structured and analytical, with the ability to bring clarity, discipline, and prioritisation to ambiguous environments. 
• Mature judgement and commercial intuition when assessing opportunities, shaping narratives, and navigating sensitive interactions. 
• Effective relationship builder with credibility in senior investor and partner settings. 
• Proactive and solutions-oriented, driving momentum, quality, and alignment across all workstreams.